EDITORIAL: PM blowing smoke on gun crime

During the federal election campaign, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to give $1 billion to provinces and territories that want to “ban” handguns.

But that won’t lower gun violence given that, to cite just one example, almost 80% of the guns used to commit crimes in Toronto are illegal handguns originating in the United States.

Since criminals aren’t deterred by the Criminal Code, it’s a given they won’t be deterred by provincial legislation or municipal bylaws.

The Trudeau government knows this.

“Jurisdictions differ in their approaches to controlling handguns and assault weapons … the data does not conclusively demonstrate that these handgun or assault weapons bans have led to reductions in gun violence …  patterns of gun violence are influenced by many factors and the impact cannot be attributed to one factor.”

Bill Blair, former Toronto police chief, now Trudeau’s emergency preparedness minister, told the Globe and Mail in 2019 banning handguns wouldn’t work because most illegal guns are smuggled into Canada from the U.S.

“I believe that would be potentially a very expensive proposition but just as importantly, it would not … be perhaps the most effective measure in restricting the access that criminals would have to such weapons because we’d still have a problem with them being smuggled across the border.”