BCWF: The Mayor Who Couldn’t Shoot Straight
Date: Jun 5, 2008 1:49 PM
NOTE: Forwarded at the request of the BCWF.

B.C WILDLIFE FEDERATION NEWS RELEASE – June 5, 2008
The Mayor Who Couldn’t Shoot Straight

It is small wonder that Toronto Mayor David Miller cannot get violent crime under
control. He keeps taking aim at the wrong target.

Once again Mayor Miller has set his sights on the law-abiding citizens rather than
the drug dealing criminal gangs responsible for the ongoing violence in his city.
His proposal to try to regulate the distribution, manufacture, sale, storage and
ownership of legal firearms will have no impact on gangs and violence but will have
a major impact on those least responsible: Olympic and other competitors, sporting
goods businesses who legally sell both firearms and ammunition, at least one major
manufacturer, the Toronto tourist and hospitality industry and Toronto taxpayers.

Mayor Miller feels that he is justified in taking aim at law-abiding citizens because
he “feels” that legally owned firearms are a major source of the illegal
firearms used by criminals. This is despite the fact police studies and StatsCan
figures consistently show this to be untrue.

Mayor Miller may feel that the shooting sports have no place in “his”
city but the IOC would no doubt disagree. Shooting sports have been a part of Olympic
movement since 1896 and there are 27 separate disciplines today. Olympians may be
born but they must work their way up through the ranks to become international competitors.
The closing of two major ranges will certainly affect competitors on all levels.
Where will our future champions come from? Definitely, it will no longer be from
Toronto.

A number of the large sporting goods distributors in Canada have the specialized
warehouses required by Federal Law for the storage of firearms and ammunition in
the Toronto area. All of these will be affected by Mayor Miller’s proposal.
A few may chose to close completely; most however will be forced to relocate to
more receptive cities.

At least one of Canada’s major firearms manufactures, Para-Ordinance, is located
within the area that Mayor Miller proposes to cleanse of all firearms. Para-Ordinance
has an international reputation for manufacturing some of the world’s finest
handguns. Here again we have a successful business that may well be forced to move.
Unfortunately, they would most likely not relocate in Canada and those jobs will
go elsewhere.

All of this would happen without any reduction in violence in Toronto or elsewhere,
because criminals will continue to do what criminals do. Ignore the law.

It is incongruous that while Mayor Miller is telling the world that Toronto is a
dangerous place to be, MacLeans magazine recently ranked Canada’s most crime
ridden cities and found that Toronto ranked far down the list in 26th place. It
would appear that the Mayor’s obsession with gaining personal publicity by attacking
Canada’s honest and law-abiding firearm owners comes at the cost of damaging
the reputation of the city that he is supposed to represent.

The Second Amendment IS Homeland Security !