Toronto Star Letter: Bans don’t curb criminal gun use
Date: Oct 31, 2006 9:53 AM
PUBLICATION: The Toronto Star
DATE: 2006.10.31
EDITION: ONT
SECTION: Letter
PAGE: A23
BYLINE:
WORD COUNT: 381

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Bans don’t curb criminal gun use

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Is Canada’s gun lobby an offshoot of the NRA? Opinion, Oct. 30.

I read Beverly Akerman’s article with equal parts laughter and outrage.
I laughed at the desperation shown in her tired and distorted logic. I
was outraged by her deliberate attempts to misguide the readers. In
particular, I was amused by her suggestion that “the Canadian gun lobby”
is supported financially from outside Canada. Her inference would seem
to imply that somehow the National Rifle Association (NRA) is the puppet
master.

Let me tell her from a proud member of the Canadian Shooting Sports
Association (CSSA), all of our fundraising is out of the pockets of
Canadian sportsmen and women. Prior to 1993, Canada didn’t have a “gun
lobby.” We had a wide variety of groups looking out for the various
interests within the sport, from hunting to target shooting disciplines.
After the systematic attempts by the Coalition for Gun Control to divide
and marginalize gun owners, and the prohibitions and confiscations that
were the result, our members were forced to be politically active. We
became a “gun lobby” because we had no choice but to fight for our
preservation.

I find it amusing that the same people who find it strange that we might
invite a spokesman from the NRA to speak about grassroots activism find
no such problem with the assistance the Coalition for Gun Control
received from Sarah Brady’s Handgun Control Incorporated. Akerman infers
that the fundraising for CSSA is questionable without proof yet makes no
mention of the grants to the Coalition for Gun Control handed out by the
former Liberal government, allegedly for lobbying other government
departments for more funding.

I am hopeful for the future of our sport. People are seeming to realize
that gun bans and restrictions on legitimate users have no effect on
criminal misuse of firearms. New Zealand, Australia and the U.K. have
all tried gun bans and found they didn’t curb criminal misuse, but
instead increased the problem. While robbing their legal gun owners of
their property – and the taxpayers through compensation – they did
nothing to stem the root causes of gun violence.

David Copping, Newmarket

The Second Amendment IS Homeland Security !