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Tuesday, May 27, 2008
David Miller is a buffoon
From the Toronto Star:
Mayor David Miller wants to close recreational shooting ranges in Toronto, along with giving the city power to block gun manufacturers and wholesalers from opening new plants or warehouses.
"Nobody can deny that hobby directly results in people being shot and killed on the streets of our city," Miller said of sport shooting yesterday.
...
"After John O'Keefe's tragic killing, I don't think there's any defence for sports shooters any more," Miller said, referring to the man shot in January by a stray bullet. The gun was legally owned by the man charged in the killing.
"It's a hobby that creates danger to others. Guns are stolen routinely from so-called legal owners. It's time that we got those guns out of Toronto," he said.
...
City staff released a report calling for a bylaw that would allow the city to restrict or prohibit the making and wholesaling of firearms in Toronto.
Only police and the military should be allowed to operate firing ranges, the report says, calling for an end to the gun club leases.
The Star quotes Canadian Olympic pistol shooter Avianna Chao, who trains in Toronto. She claims, plausibly enough, that Miller's proposed ban would drastically affect her ability to prepare for the upcoming Beijing Olympics, without improving public safety.
According to Chao, "this is the politicians just trying to say they did something, even though it will have no impact on actual gun violence."
Couldn't have said it better myself. David Miller is and probably always will be a buffoon.
Posted by Terrence Watson on May 27, 2008 in Canadian Politics | Permalink
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Comments
Where's the problem? So they have to go out into the streets to use their guns. Everyone else does there, except the cops who should!
PLEASE tell me that this isn't a surprise. Miller's the worst mayor I have ever seen, even worse than McCallion. He's out of touch with reality, blames other people and places for Toronto's problems, and has absolutely no ideas how to resolve them.
His most insipid move = the revival of racial segregation. First the schools do it, then the city does it. It's called a slippery slope. Only in Ontario would Apartheid be supported as a social good. What's next = slavery as a cure for unemployment?
Yet, the people of Toronto are 100% responsible for everything that he does. You losers re-elected him. It's all your fault.
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2008-05-28 12:12:05 AM
Zeb:
Hazel is the mayor of Mississauga and she's been in tune with her constituency for decades.
Vulture Carolynn Parrish has been circling Square One for years waiting for her chance.
Miller and his socialist comrades have managed to self start a Mel Lastman Appreciation Society.
Everyone knows that the illegal gun/cigarette trade is run through the reservations not through licensed gun afficienados.
Posted by: bocanut | 2008-05-28 1:02:35 AM
Mayor Moron is a no-brain, no-show mayor--well, a no-mayor, actually.
He's never around when you need him:
When Jane Creba was shot and killed at one of Toronto's main downtown intersections by drug thugs in a drug deal gone sour, MM was in Mexico, soaking up the rays, and telephoned home to say he was on the case. 'Didn't come back to Toronto for days. Then, he suggested an employment program to help get these poor boys off the streets. ARE YOU KIDDING? What employment program's going to entice drug thugs off the streets when they can make $30,000 a deal, a few times a week?
When the TTC was threatening a strike a few months ago that would cripple the city, where was our intrepid idiot? Somewhere in Europe at an international meeting. When he got home, he and his Councillors caved to the Union thugs, gave all our money away for a tenth-rate transportation system, and the TTC went on strike anyway, a few days later.
This guy's a keeper, for sure (sarc/off).
Miller's a photo-op pol. 'Posed in front of a huge snow removal machine back a few months ago, in the coldest winter Toronto's experienced in recorded history. Most side streets were near-impassable (I know: I live on one and drive down more than a few every day on my way to work) because of a buildup of snow, as there'd been no removal of note anywhere.
He stood in front of this honking big monster of a a snow removal machine in front of the cameras and vowed to get Toronto back on its feet because he was going to spend million$ to make our city navigable again. In the next few weeks, and I traverse the city every day, I saw ONE snow removal truck on a side street. I saw TWO huge machines clearing Queen Street West, one behind the other, when it was other main arteries that were clogged and needed clearing.
This guy's a bozo, a poseur, a hale fellow well-met, in short, a phoney. He doesn't know his a** from a tea kettle and he's AWOL all the time. He's an ivory-tower, High Park socialist (hey, I'm comfortable, let me give YOUR hard-earned money away, though, to all the ne'er do wells in the city and allow me to allow YOUR neighbourhood to be awash in panhandlers, while my Bloor West Village remains pleasantly free of the panhandler gauntlet...)
Now he's spouting whacky wisdom about guns...on our streets...in Canada...he's not making this up. He's an a**hat, pure and simple--I don't care about his blonde good looks--and Torontonians need to vote him out of office ASAP. As long as MM is at the helm of Toronto politics, this ship's going down fast...glug, glug, glug.
Posted by: batb | 2008-05-28 5:14:48 AM
He was well qualified for the job . He has good hair and thinks like Jack Layton . That`s world class Toronto in a nutshell .
Posted by: daveh [ 1 ] | 2008-05-28 5:44:22 AM
David Miller is a dink. He and Lieberal Toronto are a good fit.
Posted by: JMD | 2008-05-28 6:11:26 AM
".. hobby directly results in people being shot"
Now that's one heck of a progressive stance. How noble!. What's next. Lets see, TV, Radio, Magazines, the Internet? Oh!, how about those knives?, baseball bats? Hmmm?
Posted by: Sounder | 2008-05-28 7:00:28 AM
You have to wonder just what Mike Harris did to leave such a huge collective scar on the psyche of Toronto voters that they would rather vote for dangerous demagogues like Miller and McGuinty than vote for anything that has even a whiff of the conservative.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2008-05-28 7:03:19 AM
First of all, this hobby would "directly" lead to people being shot only if people were getting shot on shooting ranges or in gun stores (both surprisingly rare). The problem is black gang culture; almost all the shooters and shootees are black. For all his reluctance to call a spade a spade, you'll notice that he only trumpets the cases of white people caught in the cross fire, and only white victims provoke the mass outrage and hysteria we saw with Jane Creba. So the people of Toronto, or at least its media, are complicit as well.
Miller wants to end the violence in Toronto? He hasn't got the balls. Possibly not even the power. The solution, though, is simplicity itself. Find the gangsters. Kill the gangsters. Allow nothing to stand in your way.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2008-05-28 7:10:48 AM
Miller is the perfect Mayor to preside over Toronto's decline. He should get out his fiddle, like Emperor Nero, while the city burns. Ontarians have no one to blame but themselves for all of this. Meanwhile, I take pleasure in seeing this "Mistake by the Lake" (with apologies to Cleveland, which didn't deserve the title) die a horrible, miserable death. Serves them right.
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2008-05-28 8:31:24 AM
Miller has at his disposal , the means to curtail gun/gang crime in Toronto , but he chooses not to do so. Hr fired Fantino and installed a police chief who is beholden to Miller.
Miller could instruct the police to target the black and asian gangs , but that would not be politically correct for a socialist such as Miller.
There are already laws on the books which could be used to search the homes of suspected gang members for weapons and turn up the heat on the gangs , but in Toronto this would be viewed as racial profiling / targeting , so Miller looks the other way and tries to blame gun clubs !
... inspired genius !
Posted by: Brian | 2008-05-28 8:46:47 AM
Olympic athletes. With guns. In our cities.
We're not making this up.
Posted by: Ross | 2008-05-28 9:23:00 AM
LOL Ross!
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2008-05-28 9:42:07 AM
Hey, Ross, you forgot to add the punchline: "Choose your Canada."
If we're to halt this country's inexorable slide to the bottom, we've got to figure out just what manner of delusion has taken root amongst its largest voting bloc. And cauterize it without mercy. For the last ten years their electoral choices at all three levels of government have repudiated all sense. Either there's something in the water, or they're scared of something. I just wish I knew what.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2008-05-28 10:13:55 AM
Either there's something in the water, or they're scared of something. I just wish I knew what.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 28-May-08 10:13:55 AM
From what people around me seem to think it is that they don't want to become the US... So the fear is that the politicians are selling them out to the highest bidder for short term gain.
But then again, maybe that's just a Vancouver thing.
Posted by: Snowrunner | 2008-05-28 10:31:13 AM
Because I don't live in Canada there is only one reason why I care about this story. The faulty reasoning may catch on with other provincial and federal politicians.
I have never talked to anyone who does not want the streets tombe safer from every kind of violence, especially gun violence. Miller does not care more than anyone else other than the criminals. The problem with his ideas is they won't work.
Maybe it's just me, but why do politicians suppose they have all the answers, and the moral authority to shove it down our throats.
The older I get the more cynical I become.
Posted by: TM | 2008-05-28 10:36:55 AM
Oops, doing too many things at once. I meant to say Ontario, not Canada. I am from Alberta, which is still part of Canada.
Posted by: TM | 2008-05-28 10:38:09 AM
TM: you're partly right. Alberta is part of Canada, but Albertans are not Canadians - never have been. Only Ontarians can be Canadians, especially those in the Toronto and Ottawa areas. No others need apply.
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2008-05-28 10:48:57 AM
Snowrunner wrote: "From what people around me seem to think it is that they don't want to become the US... So the fear is that the politicians are selling them out to the highest bidder for short term gain."
If that's true, then their fears are even more completely unfounded than I suspected. This assertion will shock Torontoites unspeakably, but Toronto is already the most American city in Canada by far. Any other Canadian would be hard put to tell the difference between Toronto and a major American city. It looks American, its character is American, and now, its crime style is American. They even want a say in who becomes the next U.S. president. Who was it who said, "You become the thing you hate"?
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2008-05-28 11:03:58 AM
Zebulon, I am crushed. But hey, the bright side is that with fewer and fewer law abiding people owning guns, there will probably be more gun violence in Ontario.
If we were to stop the flow of American made guns from coming into Canada, does anyone really believe that Russian or Chinese made guns would not soon replace them?
Posted by: TM | 2008-05-28 11:05:21 AM
Gosh, even when I lived in Toronto I didn't possess 'Canadian vaules' (aka Liberal values). No one cared that PMPM et al offended me by telling me that. Now I'm in AB.. I feel much more at home with my Alberta - but not Ottawa/Toronto approved - values.
Sigh.. its just so much more comfy on this side of the country :d
Posted by: Annie | 2008-05-28 11:30:29 AM
Toronto could solve its gun violence problem in no time flat if more victims were white. So long as the white majority remains unaffected by it, they will continue to see it as someone else's problem. Worse, they'll continue to blame others for causing it, not issues closer to home, like Ontario's endemic racial prejudices.
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2008-05-28 12:58:11 PM
That's another American feature of Toronto--well-defined ghettos. Vancouver, for example, does not have ghettos as such. It has a well-known skid row, but it's home to people of all races, predominantly whites. But Jane Finch might as well call itself Harlem North. And the people living there seldom cooperate with police, even when a friend or relative is murdered.
Perhaps that is the reason for Torontonians' blind desperation. In their hearts they KNOW they're already Americans in everything but name, and are grasping at something--anything--that will lift them out of that most loathsome and vulgar of conditions, if only by a millimetre or two.
Ontario is headed the same way as the Maritime provinces when the fisheries collapsed. Their provincial debt is spiralling out of control, their governments are increasingly socialistic and capricious, and there are jobs disappearing that will never come back.
On the one hand, I dread the inevitable influx of Easterners looking for work that will no doubt flood the western provinces in the near future, bringing their "Canadian values" with them. On the other hand, the last such wave of immigrants, in 1992, is how I met my wife. :-)
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2008-05-28 1:23:46 PM
Zebulon, what do you mean when you say "So long as the white majority remains unaffected by it, they will continue to see it as someone else's problem."?
Posted by: TM | 2008-05-28 2:21:02 PM
TM: whites make up the majority of Toronto's population. Gun violence affects almost exclusively the non-white population. Whites are therefore insulated from it, and hence feel little inclination to do anything about it. So long as they continue to think this way, guns will rule the streets of Toronto and many people will be killed or injured. It is thus up to white Toronto to wake the hell up and do something about gun violence. Contrary to their delusion, it IS their problem and their responsibility to do something about it.
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2008-05-28 2:40:21 PM
"So long as the white majority remains unaffected by it...?
What white majority?
"In Markham, more than half (56.5%) of residents in 2006 were born outside Canada, the highest proportion in Ontario and the second highest in Canada after Richmond, BC (57.4%).
[Richmond's not a Chinese ghetto?]
The other Ontario municipalities with high shares of foreign-born were Mississauga (51.6%), Richmond Hill (51.5%), Toronto (50%) and Brampton (47.8%)."
Posted by: DJ | 2008-05-28 2:49:32 PM
"TM: whites make up the majority of Toronto's population."
Liar.
Posted by: DJ | 2008-05-28 2:50:26 PM
Zebulon, if there is a problem in my family, it is my responsibility. If there is a problem in the non-white community, it is easier for them to deal with it than for whites to ride in and save the day. I can't think of what whites would do to help anyway.
And isn't the Miller white? He is trying to do something.
Posted by: TM | 2008-05-28 3:52:28 PM
Toronto could solve its gun violence problem in no time flat if more victims were white.
Posted by: Zebulon Punk | 28-May-08 12:58:11 PM
They why don't you come up to Toronto from Alabama one day and shoot some of the white Torontonians that you hate so much yourself. But that that won't help the crime rate as the majority of dangerous crime in Toronto is committed by blacks, which funny enough is just like Alabama.
Posted by: The Stig | 2008-05-28 4:06:08 PM
Stig: murder is a crime. I'm not a criminal. Let Toronto's criminal element handle that, if they dare.
TM: Miller may be white, but he's also a spineless coward. He won't do anything. So long as he's in power, nothing will be done. Non-whites DO know that there's a problem, but without white politicians on side taking effective action, non-whites will die in the streets.
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2008-05-28 4:43:43 PM
OK D.J.,
First: Perhaps I should have said “non-black majority.” Of course you realize that Markham is not the entire city of Toronto and that “white” describes anyone of Caucasian extraction from Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East, including most Egyptians, Libyans, Iraqis, Iranians, Afghanis, Turks, Arabians, Lebanese, Israelis, and Palestinians. One need not be a Protestant Swede or Irish Catholic to be white.
Second: Richmond is not a ghetto because people of Asian extraction are also abundant in Vancouver, Burnaby, Surrey, Delta, and the Fraser Valley. South Asians and whites are also abundantly represented in Richmond itself. *I* used to live there and work there. Harlem it’s not. Hell, even Chinatown it’s not.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2008-05-28 5:19:44 PM
TM wrote: "And isn't the Miller white? He is trying to do something."
He certainly is: trying to score some cheap political points to cover up the fact that nothing he is willing to do will solve the problem. If you want peace in Toronto, the solution is simple: The gangs must be destroyed.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2008-05-28 5:21:43 PM
Zebulon Pike wrote: "Non-whites DO know that there's a problem, but without white politicians on side taking effective action, non-whites will die in the streets."
The fact that these communities refuse to cooperate with police is another significant factor. It's hard to complain of racial favouritism in homicide investigations when you stonewall the very people who try to help. At least, it's hard if you're trying to avoid looking like a complete retard. Or actually want the problem solved.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2008-05-28 5:29:31 PM
Based on reports of shootings, I have noted that the majority of the gun crime is among the brown, black and yellow skinned people who have come to this country. Why not simply stop bringing so many in? Just a thought.
I am actually glad that the gun is weapon of choice to do their killing with. Consider that in many of the 'home' countries they use machetes to hack each other to death. Much messier and more horrid. If the Buffoon manages to get rid of the guns, he will then have to go around with that Wendy Kukier bitch claiming that machetes kill and must be banned.
While these Lefty twits are at it why don't they just ban climate change too. That will work as well and the gun ban.
Posted by: John West | 2008-05-28 5:29:39 PM
Shane: would YOU want to cooperate with Toronto cops? They're absolutely useless. You're right - they're part of the problem, not the solution.
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2008-05-28 5:41:41 PM
but without white politicians on side taking effective action, non-whites will die in the streets.
Posted by: Zebulon Punk | 28-May-08 4:43:43 PM
Ever considered that if the negroes stopped shooting each other the problem would disappear. You just like to blame whitey for every problem the negroes have.
Posted by: The Stig | 2008-05-28 5:43:25 PM
Stig:
We'll leave it up to racists such as yourself to draw those conclusions.
Posted by: set you free | 2008-05-28 5:47:12 PM
It is prophetic , but several years ago there was a police exchange / conference with officers from Los Angeles visiting Toronto. I remember reading one of the LA officers comment at the time ( there was little gun violence then and everyone was crowing how safe Toronto was ) , that it would only be a matter of a few years and the black ... he didn't use the word black ... but it was there ... gun violence would not be unlike many US cities.
.... he was right.
Posted by: Brian | 2008-05-28 5:55:53 PM
Stig:
We'll leave it up to racists such as yourself to draw those conclusions.
Posted by: set you free | 28-May-08 5:47:12 PM
So you blame whites as well?
Posted by: The Stig | 2008-05-28 5:57:40 PM
stig:
No, I'm making an observation that you're a racist.
Posted by: set you free | 2008-05-28 6:00:28 PM
stig:
No, I'm making an observation that you're a racist.
Posted by: set you free | 28-May-08 6:00:28 PM
And what would that observation be based on?
Posted by: The Stig | 2008-05-28 6:11:21 PM
stig:
Who uses the N-word any more?
Posted by: set you free | 2008-05-28 6:15:00 PM
stig:
Who uses the N-word any more?
Posted by: set you free | 28-May-08 6:15:00 PM
Andy Rooney does, but I'll bet he's a racist too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYTXnQ1_-SI
And then there's the band from Sweden Called Sonic Negroes and like Andy Rooney they must be racist as well.
Funny though how a while back when Stelmach was raising the oil royalties anybody who disagreed with him was labeled by you as anti-farmer, anti-Ukrainian. Seems like when somebody disagrees with you you try and stick a label on them.
Posted by: The Stig | 2008-05-28 6:26:32 PM
stig:
What problem do you and your ilk have with Stelmach being a third-generation Alberta farmer of Ukrainian descent?
And, what does that have to do with a royalty regime Alberta voters overwhelmingly supported, giving Stelmach one of the largest pluralities in the province's history?
Not only are you a racist, but now you have developed an alzheimer's-like condition regarding recent Alberta history.
May I suggest professional help?
Posted by: set you free | 2008-05-28 6:50:07 PM
Well, Zebulon, my take on the Toronto cops thing is: Not giving them info is killing us, and giving them info might not kill us, so we might as well give them info. Besides, it's not the cops that are half so useless as the courts.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2008-05-28 6:57:25 PM
You know, he wouldn't be so brave if Charlton Heston was still alive. We need a spokesman with some credibility.
I used to live in the same town as the president of the "responsible firearms owners of Alberta". So help me, he managed to get that entire title on his hat. He'd get on every radio talk show he could, and rant in his Newfie accent. It didn't help the cause a whole lot.
How else could a buffoon with such an idiotic plan get so much support? "Our side" is obviously doing something wrong.
Posted by: dp | 2008-05-28 6:58:32 PM
Stig is basically correct - I do blame white Toronto people for Toronto's problems. After all, they've been in charge for time immemorial. Why not blame them? Heck, they're so bad that non-whites are now segegrating themselves from whites. Having been around white Toronto people, I can't say that I blame them.
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2008-05-28 7:00:44 PM
What problem do you and your ilk have with Stelmach being a third-generation Alberta farmer of Ukrainian descent?
Posted by: set you free | 28-May-08 6:50:07 PM
As I don't live in Alberta I couldn't care less who you vote into office. I am interested as to what "ilk" you are referring to. You and Hedy Fry have a lot in common.
Posted by: The Stig | 2008-05-28 7:01:42 PM
Set you free wrote: "Who uses the N-word any more?"
Have you heard what they call each other?
"Negro" is a perfectly legitimate term and is certainly handier than the six-legged donkey "African-American" that politically correct academic puffery has foisted onto us. In the first place, the correct form would be "Afro-American," and in the second place, we're talking about Canadians. Negro is the Spanish word for black--that's it. I see no reason why the English should be acceptable but not the Spanish version, as neither is an insult.
Better yet, why don't we discard the concept of race altogether, except from an anthropological standpoint or when it becomes necessary to describe a person when no photo is available? While it should be a source of pride, it shouldn't be a source of grievance. If the best thing that race can do is fuel identity politics, whether by Nazis or by gangstas, let's just can the crap and call a dude a dude.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2008-05-28 7:08:50 PM
stig:
OK then. My defence of Stelmach was based upon putdowns based on his occupation and ethnic background.
In my books, that tactic did not deal with the issues and attempted to portray Stelmach as inferior based on his occupation and background.
Thankfully, Stelmach was voted in based on the solid ideas of his platform.
Those who attacked Stelmach on his ethnic background are exactly like those of your ilk ... racist in the sense that they attempted to establish their superiority by portaying his ethnic group as inferior.
Posted by: set you free | 2008-05-28 7:10:59 PM
DP wrote: "How else could a buffoon with such an idiotic plan get so much support? "Our side" is obviously doing something wrong."
Only inasmuch as "our" hobby is typically practiced far away from cities. Many Torontonians would be shocked to realize that in Europe firearms are regarded by most as the tools they are. Hunting is accepted almost everywhere, and it is very common to see a hunter plying his sport along a general-use trail shared by hikers and cyclists. Underground shooting ranges are common, and suppressors, known to us as silencers, are not only legal, but encouraged (less noise to startle the neighbours in the crowded European countryside). In the main European gun laws are similar to Canada's, with the notable exception of England.
In North America, the situation is completely different. Here population density is low enough for there to still be a sharp demarcation between urban and rural. Since hunting is done in rural areas, most city folks are never exposed to it, nor do they have any idea where their manufactured goods or even their food come from or what goes into making them. Having thus contracted their killing out, most of what they know about guns comes via Hollywood and the newspapers. Attempts by gun clubs to put out a positive message are often frustrated by the media. Blood sells more papers than facts.
Thankfully, though, even many Torontonians now admit that a gun ban will not curb gun crime in their city. The collateral damage from the anti-gun experiments in various jurisdictions during the 80s and 90s have proved that it doesn't work and often actually exacerbates the problem. So please tell me, Toronto, why it is that you want a gun ban anyway? Are you *determined* to self-destruct? And if so, must you take Canada with you?
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2008-05-28 7:18:11 PM
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