As many Canadians may not know, in 2008 the Toronto City Council passed a bylaw banning shooting ranges on city property as well as businesses that manufacture firearms from operating within the city limits.

Shooting ranges operated by governments are okay under the bylaw.

Shooting ranges operated by private individuals or non-profit groups are not.

This is, of course, despite the fact that every single shooting range in Canada must be inspected and approved by the Chief Firearms Officer of the province where the range is located, and that person is ALWAYS a police officer.

In Ontario’s case, it would be a member of the Ontario Provincial Police, the very police force that Toronto City Councilor Adam Vaughan claims to have told him that shooting ranges are dangerous places and “the sort of fly-by-night clubs that might be able to establish themselves.”

There is no such thing as a “fly-by-night” shooting range.  There are simply too many regulations and inspections required before a shooting range can even open its doors.

In an interview on the John Oakley radio show Tony Bernardo responded to that claim by stating the obvious:

You talk about the opinion of the police and every shooting range in Ontario is inspected and approved by the Ontario Provincial police.  I guess their opinion isn’t any good.

The anti-gun bylaw was brought about in the wake of the tragic shooting of John O’Keefe in downtown Toronto.  He was an innocent bystander shot by a man who legally owned the firearm used and was a member of the Grange Firearms Association in Whitchurch-Stouffville.

Adam Vaughan is clearly not a fan of guns, gun owners or gun clubs.

His often-spoken belief is that law-abiding firearm owners are the reason Toronto has so many shootings.  The facts don’t matter, of course.

They never do to anti-gun zealots.

In citing that half of all guns used in Toronto shootings are lost or stolen from law-abiding firearm owners he clearly manufactures his evidence.

A report published on the City of Toronto website says only 1/3 of all firearms used in crime are stolen from law-abiding firearm owners.  It makes no reference at all to “lost firearms”, even though Adam Vaughan repeated the phrase at least 5 times during his radio interview.

The issue has surfaced because the Canadian Shooting Sports Association has brought an appeal before the Ontario Municipal Board to challenge the legitimacy of the bylaw.

They have clear and compelling evidence that the law is nonsensical and believe their case, when heard, will overturn the bylaw and set a province-wide precedent that will prohibit future municipalities from attempting to implement this sort of bylaw in future.

Naturally, Councilor Vaughan is against the repealing of the bylaw and was very pleased with himself for being able to stop that from happening this past week.

“It’s simply about stopping the growth of gun clubs, especially ones, the sort of fly-by-night clubs that might be able to establish themselves in areas close to where we’ve had shootings.  We don’t want that any more.  It’s about protecting our citizens and I’m very proud of the position based on evidence that our city government took yesterday,” said Adam Vaughan.

“There are seven ultra-conservatives who want to turn this into the wild west of the United States.”

At that point Tony Bernardo can clearly be heard saying, “Oh God!”, presumably because of the ridiculousness of the last statement.

Those who hate guns and gun owners always accuse us of wanting to turn our city/province/state/country into “the wild west”, despite all the evidence being to the contrary.

In every single American state where state legislatures have passed concealed carry laws enabling citizens to carry firearms for their protection, violent crime has dropped.  Every single state, without exception.

Where is violent crime and gun crime highest?  Those cities and states where law-abiding citizens are restricted from carrying firearms for self-defense: Washington (DC) Chicago ( Illinois) and California.

Funny how anti-gun zealots like Adam Vaughan never want to talk about those facts, isn’t it?

Vaughan stated several times that the City of Toronto hadn’t shut down a single range.  He finally backtracked and admitted the city had shut down several ranges after he was confronted by both Tony Bernardo and callers to the radio show.

That’s the thing about anti-gun politicians… they will say ANYTHING under the old adage that a lie repeated often enough will become the truth.  That’s why it is so important to confront folks like Adam Vaughan.  Their intentional mistruths cannot be allowed to stand unchallenged.

 

Don’t get me wrong… every time an innocent person is shot or killed by criminals with evil intent it is a bad and tragic event.  Without exception.

The so-called law-abiding firearm owner that took his registered handgun into downtown Toronto and shot John O’Keefe stopped being law-abiding the second he took his loaded handgun out of his home and headed downtown.  That this misguided individual sought to redress some perceived wrong by violence must be punished to the full extent of the law, just like the thugs who shot Jane Creba a few years ago.

The millions of Canadian law-abiding firearms who did NOT shoot anyone should be left out of the equation.

We are not the problem.

Collectively, we did not shoot anyone today.

We aren’t going to shoot anyone tomorrow, either.

The Canadian Shooting Sports Association has successfully prevented two other Ontario municipalities from implementing a bylaw similar to the one currently in place in Toronto.

Stillwater and Clarington both attempted to create bylaws to ban shooting ranges like the one currently in force in Toronto.  The CSSA’s lawyer Ed Burlew filed briefs threatening to take them to the Ontario Municipal Board for exceeding their authority.  Both Stillwater and Clarington municipalities backed down immediately.

While much of the Canadian Gun Nutz (CGN) thread about the radio interview trashed Adam Vaughan for being an anti-gun socialist, “sweetheart” cut through the rhetoric and made a clear statement on how best to deal with Vaughan.

Enough with the Keyboard Kommando bashing! Let’s do this right!
After any gun owner hears what A Vaughan has to say their blood boils, the gun owners knows Vaughan is so wrong! But where does the gunowner now make a difference?
Right Here Right Now!
Make a Donation to fight all that Adam Vaugahn stands for, Fight his Ignorant Insults! Fight his Arrogant BullS(*&T !
HOW?
CSSA is sucessfully challenging the Bylaw that bans gun sales and gun ranges in Toronto through an Appeal at the Ontario Municipal Board. This appeal has the right law from the Supreme Court of Canada, it has the right facts of safe shooting, club presidents, industry experts who will testify to trounce the Banning By Law that Adam Vaughan put on the books! That makes Adam vaughan EAT HIS WORDS!
He says gun clubs are fly by night! Ridiculous, MAKE Adam Vauhan EAT HIS WORDS!
Support the Ontario Municipal Board Appeal.
The By Law Adam Vaughan enacted is a model for other Ontario Municipalities to use. When CSSA wins this type of banning of gun clubs and banning of shooting bylaws will not reach into the rest of Ontario.
Springwater Twp tried and CSSA stopped them.
Carrington tried and CSSA stopped them, because CSSA is fighting for ALL gun clubs at the OMB. The OMB appeal will set precendent across Ontario and protect all gun owners!
DONATE TO CSSA NOW!!!

CGN’s “Sweetheart” has a a good point.

The way to deal with folks like Toronto City Councilor Adam Vaughan is to take the issue to the Ontario Municipalities Board and have it dealt with once and for all.

While Adam Vaughan and his cronies say otherwise, the Deputy Mayor of Toronto, Doug Holyday, believes the CSSA has a valid case.

“I was hoping that the confidential information that had been given to us in 2008 would have been made public by now, and now of course they don’t want it made public now,” he said.

“But I can say the decision made today was wrong and bad and goes against expert advice.”

That expert advice would presumably be from their lawyers at the Ontario Municipal Board and the Ontario Provincial Police.

If you are interested in supporting the Canadian Shooting Sports Association’s efforts at striking down the Toronto bylaw then please contact them directly for more information on how to get involved.

If your gun club is in Ontario, then get your gun club’s Board of Directors up to speed on what’s happening and have them help support the CSSA’s efforts as well, regardless of what part of the province you’re in.

Winning this at the Ontario Municipal Board level settles it once and for all, and that’s what is required.  A clear decision on whether these types of bylaws exceed municipal authority or not.

Councilor Vaughan, of course, has a final parting shot for the OMB.

“If the OMB wants to make guns easier to shoot in the city, easier to buy in the city, they can go screw themselves.”

Now… you’d think that being so almighty and so all-knowing would have a humbling effect on a man… Not the almighty and all-knowing Adam Vaughan.

He’s as arrogant as ever.

You can listen to the entire interview on AM 640 Talk Radio.