Gun-toting MP needs shot of reality on gun deaths

PUBLICATION: The Record (Waterloo Region)
DATE: 2004.12.27
SECTION: Local
PAGE: B1
SOURCE: RECORD STAFF
BYLINE: FRANK ETHERINGTON

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Gun-toting MP needs shot of reality on gun deaths

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During this loving season of peace and goodwill, I’m pleased to say I’m not on Paul Steckle’s Christmas card list.

If I had received one of the 4,500 hillbilly cards sent across Canada by the good-ole-boy Huron-Bruce MP, I would have sent it back complete with some very unseasonal comments.

The red-around-the-collar cards — and I’m not talking Santa costume — feature a picture of Steckle family members wearing camouflage gear as they squat on all-terrain vehicles in a cornfield.

In the corny portrait, Steckle, 62, poses with his wife and their adult sons, along with their wives and children.

The cards, which cost taxpayers about $5,000, suggest “y’all have a blast of a Christmas.”

In the picture, the men are brandishing shotguns and a high-powered rifle, while one of the grandsons is clutching a crossbow and arrows.

When I asked Steckle about exposing kids to such deadly weapons he seemed puzzled by the question.

“Young people need to get out and get involved in sports,” Steckle said. “And hunting is a great sport for young people . . . same as birdwatching. Once they get to 12, the legal age when they can, there’s nothing wrong with teaching kids to handle firearms safely.” Steckle also sees nothing wrong with a Christmas message that mixes guns with greetings.

“Look, I’m an outdoors guy, OK? This card shows the rural side of our family life.”

Steckle, whose rural riding is located north and west of Kitchener, is one of three misguided Liberal MPs who opposed their own party’s gun-registration legislation.

And, while I might have trouble with the fact, I’m certain the MP, former reeve of Stanley Township and past warden of Huron County, accurately reflects pro-firearm beliefs of most of his constituents. They elected him three times since 1993 in what was once a traditionally Tory riding.

Steckle, chairman of the Commons standing committee on agriculture, said the card makes a statement about his family, rural values and opposition in his riding to gun legislation.

“This is who we are. We’re a family that camps and hunts . . . Our grandchildren would rather come to that camp than go anywhere else for their holidays.”

Asked about his opposition to gun laws, Steckle said no legislation will ever make criminals register firearms.

And he said more people are killed with unregistered handguns and knives than rifles or shotguns.

“More Canadians die from accidental falls . . . falling down stairs or on ice or some other way . . . than from being shot with long guns,” he said.

Heading into the new year, I’m hoping a few MPs embarrassed by Steckle’s cards will have something to say to their fellow member about his tasteless actions.

They could point out to family-values champion Steckle how Canadian statistics indicate we have an increasing number of 15- to 24-year-olds being killed every year with firearms.

The MP needs to recognize that his thoughtless, juvenile cards and the resulting publicity deliver a little more pain to numerous Canadian families where women have been killed with firearms used by their male partners.

Statistics show 40 per cent of Canadian women murdered by husbands were shot and 80 per cent of the firearms used were legally owned rifles and shotguns.

Similar data also show that hundreds of Canadian women and children are regularly subjected to a continuous, vicious cycle of intimidation by control-freak, gun-toting partners.

Steckle told me he sent one of his cards to Prime Minister Paul Martin.

Perhaps Martin is the most appropriate person to remind Steckle about the continuing pain suffered by family members and friends of the 1,200 Canadians who, in homicides, suicides and accidents, are slaughtered every year with firearms.

Frank Etherington can be reached at 894-2250 ext. 2608, or at [email protected]

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STATISTICS CANADA: UPDATED DOMESTIC HOMICIDE TABLES, 1995-2003

http://www.garrybreitkreuz.com/publications/DomesticHomicides-1995-2003-2004-10-07.xls

STATISTICS CANADA: FIREARM HOMICIDES, BY TYPE OF FIREARM AND REGISTRATION STATUS, 1997-2003

http://www.garrybreitkreuz.com/publications/FirearmHomicidesbyRegistrationStatus,1997-2003.xls

NOTE: In 2003, 71% of the 548 victims were murdered using something other than a firearm

STATISTICS CANADA: ROBBERIES BY WEAPON PRESENT & LEVEL OF INJURY, 2003

http://www.garrybreitkreuz.com/publications/RobberiesbyWeaponandInjury-2003.xls

STATISTICS CANADA REPORT: GUN REGISTRY AIMED AT THE WRONG TARGET

http://www.garrybreitkreuz.com/publications/Article442.htm

STATISTICS CANADA: “The specific impact of the firearms program or the firearms registry cannot be isolated from that of other factors.”

http://www.garrybreitkreuz.com/publications/Article511.htm