A total ban on handguns would do Canada a grave disservice and would do very little to prevent handgun violence.
The top headline in the news during my visit to Canada last month was a school shooting that took place in Toronto on May 23rd. The shooting took place at C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute, located in the city’s rough Jane and Finch neighborhood. It resulted in the death of a 15-year-old boy named Jordan Manners.
On May 28th, Toronto Police arrested two 17-year-old boys and charged them with first-degree murder. The accused cannot be identified because of a provision of the Youth Criminal Justice Act that does not permit the accused to be named. Crown prosecutors (the Canadian equivalent of a District Attorney) have indicated they will attempt to try the accused as adults.
Although Canada is not immune from homicides or even school shootings, given Manners’ tender age and the fact it took place on school grounds, the tragedy has understandably struck a raw nerve with Canadians. When tragedies such as this have a deep impact on the public psyche it is inevitable that politicians will try to get involved and put forward sweeping solutions with the hope that such a tragedy will never occur again. Their intentions might be honorable. Their intentions might be strictly political. Whatever their intentions little good seldom comes of it.
In the hours after Jordan Manners’ death two prominent Canadian politicians called for a ban on handguns in Canada. Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty (who is the equivalent of a state governor) sent a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper as well as all the opposition leaders calling on Canada’s Parliament to pass a “real ban” on handguns. McGuinty, who is a Liberal, wrote, “Handguns are designed for one purpose only – to shoot people – and should have no place in Ontario or anywhere in Canada.”
Toronto Mayor David Miller also called for handguns to be banned in Canada. But Miller, a member of the NDP, sought to blame the United States. “We know that there’s two sources of guns used in Toronto: one is guns that are stolen from collectors, and the other is guns that come from the U.S," said Miller, “The U.S. has to take some real steps, otherwise we’re going to keep seeing tragedies.” Miller went on to say, “Canada is not the United States and as far as I’m concerned, collectively, we’re never going to let it become the United States.” Miller personifies the knee-jerk anti-Americanism that plagues not only the lack of intellectual discourse amongst the Canadian Left but denies Canadians viable solutions to complex problems.
Banning handguns in Canada will be about as effective as blaming the United States for all of Canada’s social ills. How would banning handguns have prevented Jordan Manners' death? Given the alleged shooters were under the age of 18 it is very likely the firearms used to kill Jordan Manners were obtained illegally. (In Canada, minors between 12 and 17 can obtain a firearm for target practice, hunting, instruction in the use of firearms or if participating in an organized shooting competition. Somehow I doubt that Manners’ alleged killers were given proper instruction in the use of firearms.
But let us also consider that homicide can be committed through means other than a handgun. Of course, knives come to mind. Several days before Manners was shot to death another Canadian teen was murdered. Chrisna Poeung, a 13-year-old boy, was stabbed to death in a parking lot next to a McDonalds in Vancouver’s East End. Granted Poeung was not killed on school grounds like Manners, but a 13-year-old boy is dead just the same. Indeed, if one examines the murder statistics in Canada between 2001 and 2005 one will observe that homicides in Canada are as likely to be committed with knives as with guns. According to Statistics Canada, during this five-year period, 889 people were murdered with a firearm while 898 were murdered by means of a knife. Yet one does not hear about the Premier of British Columbia calling on Canada’s Parliament to ban knives nor do we hear the Mayor of Vancouver blaming the United States for knife violence in Canada.
If a child were to be murdered on school grounds with a baseball bat in Medicine Hat would we call on the government to ban baseball? If a child were to be murdered with a hammer in Moncton would we call on the government to close all hardware stores? Canada is certainly entitled not to embrace the Second Amendment if it so desires, but a ban on handguns north of the border would only affect law-abiding citizens, not criminals who aren’t really concerned if they obtain guns by legal means or not.
The people responsible for fatally shooting Jordan Manners must be brought to justice and receive the harshest punishment possible. Law-abiding Canadians, however, do not deserved be punished by being prohibited from purchasing handguns. A total ban on handguns would do Canada a grave disservice and would do nothing to prevent handgun violence.
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