A 24-year-old drug dealer with an existing Firearms Prohibition Order against him was arrested again on February 19, 2021, this time with $14,000 of cocaine and a stolen and loaded .45 calibre handgun.
It will come as no surprise to regular readers that this 24-year-old’s Firearm Prohibition Order did nothing to stop this young man from re-offending – a notion Public Safety Minister Bill Blair still cannot wrap his head around.
Nor did the laws against trafficking illegal drugs prevent this young man from jumping right back into the life of crime he was, perhaps, ever-so-briefly removed from the last time he was arrested.
Unfortunately, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Public Safety Minister Bill Blair and Justice Minister David Lametti are all far more interested in photo ops and press conferences than they are in solving longstanding, legitimate public safety issues created by individuals with no respect for the laws governing civil society.
While this Liberal government is busy banning and confiscating legally-owned firearms from federally-licenced RCMP vetted firearm owners, they’re lowering or dropping prison terms for drug dealers and gang members who commit violence with illegal guns.
Public Safety Minister Bill Blair has no interest in ensuring offenders with Firearm Prohibition Orders against them obey those court orders.
If we banned handguns tomorrow, would we see a drop in violent crime in Canada’s inner cities?
No, of course not.
Why?
The drug dealers, gang members and other anti-social criminals don’t legally own these guns, therefore the government cannot order them to surrender those illegal guns. Nor can they confiscate them because the government has no idea where those firearms are located.
Registration Equals Confiscation is not some cute slogan by the ‘well-funded Canadian gun lobby’ (if only such a critter existed!) – it’s a simple and fundamental truth that government cannot confiscate what it cannot locate.
Why else would Minister Blair insist licenced Canadian firearm owners must register these formerly Non-Restricted firearms?
The government has no clue where all the Non-Restricted firearms banned by this Order in Council are located – hence the registration requirement.
We know through research by me and Dennis Young that, annually, an average of 1,100 people with a Firearms Possession Order against them (people banned from possessing weapons of any kind by court order) are re-arrested in violation of those orders.
God only knows how many of Canada’s 474,413 individuals prohibited from possessing firearms are actually violating those orders.
We only know of the 1,100 each year by tracking news reports and StatsCan data.
Some may call it cliché but it’s nevertheless true: Laws only inhibit the behaviour of those who are willing to obey them.
Repeat offenders who don’t give a crap about public safety or the laws that govern civil society will always do what they want and leave rest of us to pick up the pieces.
So as long as our federal government insists on ignoring criminals with illegal weapons, the violence in our inner cities will continue unabated.
This is not a Liberal vs Conservative issue. This is a public safety issue that self-serving politicians of all political stripes insist on twisting to their own political advantage.
Unless and until we elect a government willing to take on the hard challenges we face as a society the violence plaguing our streets and our communities will not end. How could it? Everyone ignores the problem because the solution does not fit inside a pretty little 4-year election cycle – the farthest ahead any politician can see.
Only when we, as a nation, finally start the painful and frankly dangerous job of taking guns away from violent criminals instead of federally-licensed, RCMP-vetted firearm owners will we see a drop in the never-ending brutality driven by drug dealers and street gangs.
Dale Ashick says
You always hit the mark! I really enjoy your commentaries! Does anyone in Ottawa, liberal, read & bother to understand your articles? They do live in a “Bubble” of their own. No common sense. How, supposedly, intelligent people, can believe, and follow such Bull!
Keep up your Good Work
Christopher di Armani says
Thank you so much for your kind words of support, Dale! Much appreciated. While I can’t confirm anyone in Ottawa reads them, I do know many receive my commentaries on a regular basis.
You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.
Lynn Cournoyer says
Every day we read more and more about criminals breaking prohibition laws for firearms. Our government continues to make laws that only effect the law abiding gun owners in this country. It leads me to wonder who the real criminals are in this country. The government wants to take my legally owned firearms, so do the criminals. The government wants all of us legal firearms owners to bow down and surrender our firearms in fear of jail time, so do the real criminals who pay no attention to the firearms laws. It is up to the people of this country to say enough is enough. The real criminals in this country just so happen to be the ones running it. The liberals have to go. We need real government, one that works for the people that elected them. Not the posturing, deceitful, lying politicians that say it is for the good of the country. I will not surrender to the government, or any body else just because I own a firearm. I hope all firearms owners feel the same way.
This leads to another topic. I hope that any firearms business that employs a gunsmith and is being asked to join the government program to deactivate the banned weapons take a good long look at what your decision will be. Any business that is thinking of taking part is part of the problem, not the solution.
Christopher di Armani says
Lynn, you’ll be horrified to learn a ton of firearm businesses are jumping at the opportunity for another ‘revenue stream.’
Phil HEWKIN says
-Justin Trudeau is no longer allowed to go cry with them at the yearly vigil at the montreal massacre.
Because he did not attack/vilify legit gun owners and confiscate their legally bought private property.
The concentrated STUPID oozing from within those last two sentences is remarkable.
ONLY the most thought-challenged (RETARDED) in the world would push civilian disarmament in North America or anywhere as an avenue to utopian bliss. A cursory glance around the globe to see how awful things truly are in disarmed countries with despot dictatorial governments reveal the abject short sightedness of this exercise. To have a laptop and internet AND willfully ignore OBVIOUS IRREFUTABLE FACTS is to achieve the highest level of low function. It is patently dishonest to convince oneself otherwise, Using powerful modern tech only to re-enforce your own ignorance, That is the sum of all anti gun posturing to date.
peter bolten says
” this Liberal government is busy banning and confiscating legally-owned firearms from federally-licensed RCMP vetted firearm owners,”… I know of a few people earlier on, willing to talk, how p.o’d they are that they can not use their decades old wood and steel hunting/shooting/ hiking rifles, in some cases these are their #1 or #2 take along guns. There is anger.
Historical artful and a guide to other people how these firearms function and good glimpse of basic mechanics and take-apart skills.
Safe, solid infallible long-lasting designs with rock solid iron style sights. Faster on a deer kill than a scoped firearm.
To be “bought back ” by the gov with a insulting comment of thanks for being good citizens, at 30 cents on the dollar and no compensation for reloading equipment and accessories and spare parts.
And when some folk mistakenly say those plastic designs are scary looking, etc, I just point out that the owners of these want light weight water resistant bump around guns, these are perfectly okay as hunting rifles.
People are pissed,And this airgun ban that affects cadets, Olympic training and other venues… people are stunned to hear this one too.
We have to go after the Liberals not only on this front but other fronts simultaneously… that 54 billion dollar EI deficit is a good starting point. Seems to me that Harper left us with a surplus, and prior to that the Cretein/Martin govt. also raided the EI nest egg.
5-billion dollars for this fiasco could well be spent on our Coast Guard fleet that is still operating very old ships that can’t do better than 13 knots.
I detest these liberal policy makers and their NDP cohorts that ignore our real needs.
John Doe says
Thanks Chris for shedding light on this disgusting state of affairs.
Tragically, the destruction of our way of life and ability to protect ourselves is part and parcel of the cabal currently entrenched in power. All judiciary for instance, is hand picked by those same ones. Hoping for logic and fairness is a false hope at best.
Consider that recent reports of lack of CT and MRI scanners in our health system is responsible for countless deaths and infirmary due to lack of timely diagnosis and treatment.
The four to five billion already spent on the useless and dangerous gun control which attacks only the honest and law abiding climbs daily, and could have instead provided an MRI and/or CT scanner in every hospital and clinic in Canada along with professional staffing with money left over.
It is a ‘power grab’ plain and simple and productive law abiding people are the victims of their vicious pogrom.