LETTER: Handgun ban won’t prevent crime, writer argues

Dear Editor,

Re: [Our Views: Gun ban a test case, Langley Advance Times, Oct. 27]

Writer M.C. appears as a ‘little kid with a new toy’ in the article about Canada’s new gun ban becoming a ‘test case’. Typical total tunnelvision!

For one thing, a ‘test’ is not necessary, and for another, one cannot compare the U.S. with Canada, a country which holds 10 times less population than does the U.S. That is simply comparing ‘apples vs. oranges’.

The U.S. has far more people jammed within that country’s areas than does Canada, which therefore forces people in the U.S. to have many more interactions.

As well, most homicides in the U.S. happen in the states that are all along the Mexican/U.S. border as the extreme heat plays a part, a heat that most inhabitants in Canada would not have to suffer through.

Also, realize that Mexico, which has as many handgun control laws as does Canada, until today, has an even higher homicide rate than does the U.S.

We do notice that writer didn’t compare Mexico to Canada. Hmmm?

A ‘Country costly test’? There’s no need for that. Do the research! I did, and have been doing it on this very subject of firearm homicides and gun control for decades.

Okay, let’s say this ‘test’, this handgun ban, did work? Well, since they cannot get handguns, that would certainly ‘force’ tomorrow’s would-be killers to come after us with rifles and shotguns, and they certainly won’t miss their human targets as much!

In the recent Uvalde, Texas, case the rifleman killed over 20 people before it was over. There was Columbine, the recent Chicago, Illinois, parade killings, etc., etc., and in Canada, there was Mayerthorpe, the recent Saanich bank robbery shootings, Montreal Polytechnique – all done with rifles. And rifles were also used in the Nova Scotia killings. Do we really want more of that?

“If it saves one life” says our tunnelvisioned Minister Mendicino about Bill C-21.

Well, the U.S. Conceal and Carry allowance laws started in the early 1990s, and in 1991 the U.S. homicide rate had reached well over nine per 100,000. It took more than a decade to insert C and C in all the U.S. States. Illinois was the last State to do so. When all states had a form of C and C, the homicide rate in the U.S. dropped to 4.4 per 100,000! (U.S Bureau of Justice and Disaster Center stats.) Their handguns have saved many, many lives over these later years in that country!

There’s no need for any costly “test.” Please, use your brains, do some research, that is, research without being ‘tunnelvisioned‘. And, thanks for listening.

Dennis Robinson, Burnaby

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• READ MORE: Canadians must choose between hobbies and children’s lives: gun-control group

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