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Friday, June 06, 2008
Disarm the gun hobbyists!
Imagine heavily armed Olympic athletes roaming Bay Street to hunt down innocent and helpless Torontonians in a sick game these monsters are calling “biathlon.”
Or imagine gangsters menacing our neighbourhoods and “kickin' it old school” with Civil War-era revolvers and muzzle-loading muskets.
This is the nightmare world from which Toronto Mayor David Miller wants to spare us.
The Western Standard has none other than Gerry Nicholls on this story. Read “Disarm the gun hobbyists!” here.
Posted by Matthew Johnston on June 6, 2008 in Crime | Permalink
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Comments
Hey give Mayor Miller a break! He's doing the best he can, which is totally and completely inadequate to the challenge. He knows full well that he can't take on the gangs - they outnumber and outgun his cops - so he might as well do something.
What were you people thinking when you elected him?
Better yet, what were you thinking when you re-elected him?
All I know is that I couldn't be more pleased that the people of Toronto have embarked on the path to self-destruction completely oblivious to the dangers. It's all your fault too.
As Nelson Muntz says: HA HA!
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2008-06-06 11:51:28 PM
Every time I read one of these crazy stories, I immediately buy another toy. I don't even bother to see if they work, I just juggle them once in awhile. I reckon they're a good investment. By the time anyone gets around to confiscating them, they'll be worth 50% more than I paid for them. Of course if they make it into the other market they'll be worth 200% more than I paid.
Posted by: dp | 2008-06-06 11:58:21 PM
He knows full well that he can't take on the gangs - they outnumber and outgun his cops - so he might as well do something.
Posted by: Zebulon Punk | 6-Jun-08 11:51:28 PM
And what demographic makes up most of the gangs? Punk's brotha's and sista's from Jane Finch.
Posted by: The Stig | 2008-06-07 4:08:31 AM
All those duck hunters and gun club enthusiasts in Jane Finch are going to be forced to give up their weapons . I think it`s racist and short sighted .
Posted by: daveh | 2008-06-07 5:02:57 AM
A society where only police and the military have guns is known as a Police State. These are not countries where any of us would want to live.
Posted by: Jack Stead | 2008-06-07 9:44:12 AM
The same goes for a place where the criminals have guns and the cops aren't allowed to use theirs. That place is called Toronto, which should be sealed off from the rest of the world like in the film "Escape from New York."
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2008-06-07 10:37:03 AM
Both Dave Miller and Dalton McGuinty are the quintessential big-city Ontario politicians. Their solution to any problem that is likely to entail unpopular or politically risky solutions is to blame the next man up on the totem pole. City Hall blames Queen's Park; Queen's Park blames Ottawa, which sells all the better now that a foreigner (oops, a Westerner) is Prime Minister.
It's no surprise to me the East is in decline if pathetic failures like these are what the voters there are pleased to call the best. Let Toronto sink into the depths of so-called "American-style" crime; it's what they deserve. Because if history is any indication, things will have to get at least as bad as they have in American inner-city districts before someone actually suggests law enforcement as a solution. Not easily is the progressive jolted from his self-indulgent reverie.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2008-06-07 11:05:29 AM
Just talked to my sister in Toronto.
She says, horrors, there's a shooting range right in Union Station in downtown Toronto.
And, now that everybody knows that people are walking around with handguns in Union Station among hundreds of thousands of commuters, something tragic will happen.
Besides, it's surprising how many guns are stolen and not reported. And, that's why there should be no handguns in Toronto.
I asked her two questions.
1) How many incidents of crazed gunmen mowing down innocent people at Union Station have been recorded?
2) Stolen and unreported guns? Why, they ought to pass a law against stealing. Seems to me the victim of theft is being blamed for having the property in the first place.
It was amazing how quickly to topic shifted.
It's amazing how a quarter-century in the Big Smoke changed this once-reasonable western Canadian gal.
Posted by: set you free | 2008-06-07 11:59:53 AM
Uh, why would there be a shooting range in a train station? Did someone, way back, feel the need to squeeze off a few round before boarding?
Mayor Miller is truly one of the least inspired and creative people ever to hold public office. He is on the other hand the perfect representative of the people of Toronto - they too are unimaginative, as well as lazy, bigoted and stupid. Serves them right.
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2008-06-07 4:34:30 PM
If I'm not mistaken, there's a shooting range in west Edmonton mall. Smack in the middle of one of the largest gatherings of gangs in Canada. That sort of gives me some comfort, knowing there are armed citizens there in case an all out gang war erupts.
Posted by: dp | 2008-06-07 4:51:08 PM
1) How many incidents of crazed gunmen mowing down innocent people at Union Station have been recorded?
Posted by: set you free | 7-Jun-08 11:59:53 AM
There was one 4 years ago. A deranged gunman took a hostage just outside Union Station. He had fired 5 or 6 shots before he took the hostage. A police sniper shot him in the head and killed him. The gunman was a black immigrant from Jamaica if I remember correctly.
Posted by: The Stig | 2008-06-07 7:28:25 PM
Mayor Miller is truly one of the least inspired and creative people ever to hold public office.
Posted by: Zebulon Punk | 7-Jun-08 4:34:30 PM
Wrong again Punk. That award for mayors goes to Kwame Kilpatrick with David Dinkins coming a close second.
Posted by: The Stig | 2008-06-07 7:51:13 PM
Smart, freedom-loving people don't live in Toronto, so what's the big deal? If Torontonians want to live in Canada's most dangerous city, unarmed, who am I to stop them?
This will backfire on the mayor (no pun intended) he will not get the firearms out of the hands of law abiding citizens any more that he will get them away from the criminal street gangs that infest Toronto.
He is an idealistic angry left-wing loon who is baying at the moon. Who am I to stop him?
Torontonians get the mayor they elect!
Posted by: John V | 2008-06-07 7:54:26 PM
Smart, freedom-loving people don't live in Toronto, so what's the big deal? If Torontonians want to live in Canada's most dangerous city, unarmed, who am I to stop them?
Posted by: John V | 7-Jun-08 7:54:26 PM
The province with the lowest crime rate per 100,000 people is Ontario. The highest is Saskatchewan. The highest rates of crime by city are Regina, Saskatoon and Winnipeg, Prince George, Edmonton, New Westminster, Chilliwack, Victoria, Vancouver and Halifax.
Looks like the east is a much safer place to live.
Posted by: The Stig | 2008-06-07 8:12:54 PM
The crime statistics get more interesting when you categorize them. Calgary has had a huge increase in gun violence recently. So has Halifax. All with registered guns stolen from careless hobby shooters I assume.
Posted by: dp | 2008-06-07 8:26:13 PM
Stig said:
Mayor Miller is truly one of the least inspired and creative people ever to hold public office.
Posted by: Zebulon Punk | 7-Jun-08 4:34:30 PM
Wrong again Punk. That award for mayors goes to Kwame Kilpatrick with David Dinkins coming a close second."
Nice company! What a clear indication of where Toronto is headed - the express elevator to hell...goin' down! (Aliens reference)
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2008-06-07 8:50:17 PM
Zeb:
According to my google search, Union Station shooting range has been open since 1921, the same year the station opened.
Mayor Miller has shut it down because it is on public property.
That was after an impassioned plea (according to a CBC report also found by googling) by a mom whose kid died in a gun incident. Something about she couldn't understand how people could take part in a ‘violent' sport.
I guess, if shooting at targets is violent.
Posted by: set you free | 2008-06-07 8:54:56 PM
"Queen's Park blames Ottawa, which sells all the better now that a foreigner (oops, a Westerner) is Prime Minister."
Harper a Westerner? Even a simpleton knows that Stevo was born in Toronto, and grew up in Etobicoke, while it was still white.
"Because if history is any indication, things will have to get at least as bad as they have in American inner-city districts before someone actually suggests law enforcement as a solution."
Inner city law enforcement? How stupid can you get? Been to Detroit or Chicago lately? Last year Chicago's teen death rate was the equivalent of at least two Columbine's.
"He is on the other hand the perfect representative of the people of Toronto - they too are unimaginative, as well as lazy, bigoted and stupid."
Not entirely perfect. Toronto is more than 50% vismin. However, the rest is characterisitic of the new face of Toronto.
The traitors in Ottawa are of course responsible. It's the immigration stupid.
Posted by: DJ | 2008-06-07 9:58:30 PM
If the East is a safer place to live, Stig, why is Toronto the only city calling for a handgun ban? Why is have Tronna and Montreal become Abolition Central? And why have all the major gun massacres in this country happened in Quebec?
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2008-06-07 10:00:23 PM
Maybe someone can answer me this.
If banning drugs is doomed to fail, why isn't banning guns?
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2008-06-07 10:09:46 PM
Shane: because they're trying to appease different constituencies. Fortunately, they will fail.
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2008-06-07 11:11:13 PM
If the East is a safer place to live, Stig, why is Toronto the only city calling for a handgun ban?
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 7-Jun-08 10:00:23 PM
Statistically it is, probably for the same reason Paul Martin called for one. As DJ mentions the problem doesn't lie in Toronto, but in Ottawa with its immigration policy.
And why have all the major gun massacres in this country happened in Quebec?
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 7-Jun-08 10:00:23 PM
Interesting question which I think Mark Steyn tried to answer several years ago, though Rochfort Bridge and Taber Alberta come to mind that it doesn't just happen in Quebec.
Posted by: The Stig | 2008-06-08 5:53:41 AM
Nice company! What a clear indication of where Toronto is headed - the express elevator to hell...goin' down! (Aliens reference)
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 7-Jun-08 8:50:17 PM
You'd love to turn Toronto into Inglewood, Gardena, Compton or Hawthorne wouldn't ya.
Posted by: The Stig | 2008-06-08 6:55:14 AM
No, I'd like to tear down Toronto and return it to nature.
Toronto will become Inglewood, Gardena, Compton or Hawthorne on its own with no help from me, or anyone of its people. It is their destiny. I, meanwhile, will enjoy watching the fall of an awful city.
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2008-06-08 7:33:03 AM
Miller's gun policy won't do what he intends it to do unless it pisses off a bunch of people, in fact it is deliberately designed to piss off a bunch of people.
It's intended to make him look like he's doing something about guns and is meeting resistance from the 'gun nuts'. That gets him off the hook for doing anything as politically incorrect as looking at the gang culture.
It also gets him a scapegoat to point at when crime rises again.
The liberals did the same thing with C-68.
Miller is going to try it again because it worked well for the liberals in the short term. In the long term it of course is disastrous.
Even Miller isn't as stupid as he appears to be on this. Being bad policy is critical to making this work, if this doesn't stir sane people up enough he'll do something even dumber.
It's a cynical plan to further his political career, it has nothing to do with public safety.
Quote" A universal gun registry could only appeal to people who didn't care about costs or results, and who didn't understand what riled up decent folks in Camrose.
Which is precisely why it appealed to those putting together the Liberal Red Book for the pivotal 1993 election. If the object of the policy exercise was to appear to be "tougher" on guns than Kim Campbell, they had to find a policy that would provoke legitimate gun-owners to outrage. Nothing would better convince the Liberals' urban constituency that Jean Chretien and Allan Rock were taking a tough line on guns than the spectacle of angry old men spouting fury on Parliament Hill.
The supreme irony of the gun registry battle is that the policy was selected because it would goad people who knew something about guns to public outrage. That is, it had a purely political purpose in the special context of a hard-fought election. The fact that it was bad policy was crucial to the specific political effect it was supposed to deliver.
(snip)
John Dixon is a hunter, and president of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association. From 1991 to 1992, he was adviser to then-deputy minister of justice John Tait." unquote
http://www.lowe.ca/Rick/FirearmsLegislation/AGangThatCouldn'tShootStraight.html
Posted by: Stan | 2008-06-08 7:34:41 AM
No, I'd like to tear down Toronto and return it to nature.
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 8-Jun-08 7:33:03 AM
That sounds like a plan. Lets tear down Jane Finch immediately and send all the residents out to Alberta or even better to Alabama.
Posted by: The Stig | 2008-06-08 8:29:10 AM
Maybe miller will ban legitimate race tracks too.. hopefully it'll stop street racing...
same logic... Gotta love miller.
Posted by: mike | 2008-06-08 10:09:01 AM
"The province with the lowest crime rate per 100,000 people is Ontario. The highest is Saskatchewan. The highest rates of crime by city are Regina, Saskatoon and Winnipeg, Prince George, Edmonton, New Westminster, Chilliwack, Victoria, Vancouver and Halifax."
Well as anyone with a modicum of knowledge on propaganda knows, stats can be misused. Regina only has a pop of about 200000. There are some neighbourhoods in Toronto bigger than all of Saskatchewan. So let us take the most crime ridden neighbourhoods in Toronto and do the comparison again. And from what I have seen of Regina, the problem is home grown, not imported from Jamaica.
Posted by: Tom | 2008-06-08 10:37:04 AM
Actually, most of the violence in Saskatchewan is among First Nations. They are Canada's equivalent of inner-city U.S. blacks, a perpetual underclass responsible for most of the violent crime. Of course, Toronto, in its infinite wisdom, has imported the real thing. In spite of the strict gun laws passed years ago in Jamaica (and perhaps because of them), gun crime there is rampant.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2008-06-08 11:19:26 AM
Stig, you can keep your Jane Finch crowd right where they are, thank you very much. Here in Alberta we have had to deal with an increase in crime already, goes along with the increased population due to good times. A lot of new comers have been dropped into cities to fill the gaps, and tension exists. One place specifically comes to mind, a community called Brooks imported several thousand workers from Africa, mostly from the Sudan. Drugs, violence, and culture clashes are on the rise there...
Posted by: prairie dog | 2008-06-08 11:25:08 AM
The Sudanese in Brooks are a testiment to Canada's immigration policy. Straight out of the jewel in Bin Laden's crown, and into the only place that holds hope for saving western values. All thanks to the creation of an artificial economy by naive polititians looking for admiration from well paid voters.
Many of those Sudenese don't bother to report for work in Brooks. They get off the plane and head for the federal building. Their "community" in Calgary is an entertaining source for local newscasts. Lots of gang activity, and cries for social programs to end the violence. All this in a city where you can't walk down the street without some one offering you a job. Poverty is the main cause of social unrest? BULLSHIT. It's obviously genetic.
Brooks has had a huge increase in knife violence. It's so bad that the beef packing plant has to chain all its knives to the cutting tables. I read a hilarious piece in my local paper's crime section. It detailed the shooting of a black man in front of the African market on Cassils road in Brooks. The suspects were two black men who escaped in a late model SUV. The African market on Cassils road? Anyone who's spent time in Brooks will tell you it's never been a nice place, but no community deserves this kind of insult.
The Brooks gun club is down the same road as the abattoir all these Sudanese work in. It's probably only a matter of time til they have to shut it down to prevent carelessly stored guns from falling into the hands of these children of Osama. If I know these gun toting cowboys, they probably leave their guns lying around loaded.
Posted by: dp | 2008-06-08 12:01:08 PM
Actually, DP, few people who taking shooting seriously enough to attend a shooting range leave their guns loaded, and firearms are enough of an investment so that you certainly wouldn't leave them "lying around." My guns reside in a floor-standing safe with 6.5-mm steel walls, internal hinges, and a UL digital combination lock. The only way you're getting into that puppy is with a damn big drill, and you'll probably go through three or four bits before you hit pay dirt.
As for the violence that plagues black communities, it's not genetic; it's cultural. And, of course, envy on the part of the newcomers. Where envy lurks, violence is never far behind.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2008-06-08 12:30:35 PM
I was being a bit sarcastic about the unattended guns Shane. My firearms are also very secure. I own a couple of "classics" that I wouldn't want to lose. With today's firearm training, and strict storage rules, I think this whole issue of criminals having easy access to legal gun collections is a total farce.
Envy used to create ambition in immigrants. Look at all the Italians and Irish who overcame prejudice to become model citizens. Oops, I forgot about the mafia.
Posted by: dp | 2008-06-08 12:41:07 PM
Yes, many made the jump from their homeland to Canada, to 'help us out' but haven't kept up their end of the deal.
Posted by: prairie dog | 2008-06-08 1:22:41 PM
Stig, you can keep your Jane Finch crowd right where they are, thank you very much.
Posted by: prairie dog | 8-Jun-08 11:25:08 AM
Actually I would prefer sending them all to Alabama where they can live next door to Zebulon Punk.
Posted by: The Stig | 2008-06-08 2:05:09 PM
It's like a light switch was turned on. Z Puke is from Alabama. It all makes sense. His mother and father were brother and sister.
Posted by: Soundbite | 2008-06-08 2:10:05 PM
I think Zeb is actually an ex-Albertan. That doesn't prove his parents aren't related, just not likely brother and sister.
Just kidding Zeb.
Posted by: dp | 2008-06-08 2:40:42 PM
Perhaps, Mayor Miller is reluctant to note and publish the age, gender, race and place-of-origin for those who misuse guns and other weapons. It might be best if his city followed the example of Spain in its year of sanity, 1492, and expelled all of the Muslims.
Posted by: James Pawlak | 2008-06-08 2:47:21 PM
Perhaps, Mayor Miller is reluctant to note and publish the age, gender, race and place-of-origin for those who misuse guns and other weapons. It might be best if his city followed the example of Spain in its year of sanity, 1492, and expelled all of the Muslims.
Posted by: James Pawlak | 2008-06-08 2:47:53 PM
Actually, Jamaicans are Roman Catholic. The religion doesn't matter and neither does colour. Although statistically almost all of the killers are black, the ratio of black murderers to black non-murderers is still thousands to one.
The solution is simple: Find the gangsters. Kill the gangsters. Allow nothing to stand in your way.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2008-06-08 3:54:48 PM
My mistake. Most Jamaicans are actually Protestant; probably due to the British influence in their history. The French West Indies are mostly Catholic. Still, no difference.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2008-06-08 3:56:21 PM
Colour doesn't matter. Religion probably doesn't matter.
Country of origin does matter. Statistically, Jamaicans seem to contribute more to the crime statistics than most immigrants. They also contribute more to the social assistance roll call. I don't know why, and I don't care. Let's just re-evaluate our quota.
You know what Shane, I think we might have a crossover subject here. Maybe Jamaican's heavy marijuana use could help prove your point about the dangers of pot smoking over on the "question period" post.
Posted by: dp | 2008-06-08 4:10:12 PM
Country of origin only matters inasmuch as it affects cultural background, and even in "violent" countries, the great majority of people aren't murderers and have no wish to become one. Serbs have a reputation for violence, cruelty, and blind, hate-filled prejudice towards Bosnians, but I work with a Serbian woman who's the most level-headed, even-tempered person you could hope to meet.
This is not to say that some countries or cultures don't contribute to the punk pool out of proportion to their numbers; clearly some do. And we should perhaps give immigrants from those countries added scrutiny. But when a fox breaks into my chicken coop and kills my chickens, I prefer to hunt down and kill the fox, rather than kill my pig because he saw it happen.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2008-06-08 5:03:22 PM
Shane- Doesn't the NRA offer an award to citizens who use a firearm to curtail the criminal actions of an armed perp? Quite a depature from the Canadian tradition of demonizing anyone who defends himself. Too bad there's no middle ground.
I'd like to point out that some of us don't consider guns a hobby. I've spent a big chunk of my life in harm's way. In the untamed world humans are a pretty fragile species. I've run into a few wilderness experts who swear a whistle, some dry socks, and a little trail mix are all you need to survive in the boreal forest. I wish them well, but I feel a lot better knowing I won't smell like a wounded ruminant. Yes, predators can smell fear, confidence, and outright belligerence.
Gangsters have a keen sense of smell also. Too bad their senses don't get treated to more confidence, and less fear. If citizens are stripped of yet another means of protecting themselves, they'll withdraw a little further from interacting in public places. They'll be less likely to interact with visible minorities. The problem will just get worse and worse.
Haven't honest citizens been humiliated enough already? Being blamed for this gun violence is adding insult to injury.
Posted by: dp | 2008-06-08 5:09:36 PM
"It's intended to make him look like he's doing something about guns and is meeting resistance from the 'gun nuts'. That gets him off the hook for doing anything as politically incorrect as looking at the gang culture."
Exactly. Stan for PM.
"As for the violence that plagues black communities, it's not genetic; it's cultural."
If it's not genetic, why doesn't it change when the culture changes? Why is it the same in the US, Canada, UK, France, South Africa, Brazil and Jamaica? All different black cultures. All disproportionately violent. How to explain the disproportionate violence in the aboriginal culture?
Fundamentally, it correlates to low mean IQ.
"Serbs have a reputation for violence, cruelty, and blind, hate-filled prejudice towards Bosnians..."
Lies the MSM told me.
They said the same thing about Canucks years ago.
"Until the 1940s, Canada had been a poor country, with much of the meanness poverty tends to produce. Pre-war Canadians often knew little beyond their own distractions and neighbourhoods, which were small, largely homogeneous, and exclusive. There was usually no room in them for Japanese or Chinese Canadians, and scant tolerance for Jews or blacks or those with ‘different’ attitudes or beliefs."
And what's wrong with "small, largely homogeneous, and exclusive" communities.
Of course if you said...
"Israelis have a reputation for violence, cruelty, and blind, hate-filled prejudice towards Palestinians..."
you'd never hear the end of it. However, liberal white hypocrites never fail to demonize European Christians because it elevates them above the unwashed masses. It's all about cheap status. Demonize whitey and you're on the side of the angels.
Posted by: DJ | 2008-06-08 6:44:20 PM
"Gangsters have a keen sense of smell also. Too bad their senses don't get treated to more confidence, and less fear. If citizens are stripped of yet another means of protecting themselves, they'll withdraw a little further from interacting in public places."
Exactly. Jamaica's had a gun ban since 1974.
"What is happening in Jamaica? The crime rate is skyrocketing on the Caribbean island. On December 6, a cop was murdered in Montego Bay. He is the second killed there in a week. According to estimates published by the Jamaican Gleaner, 51 people were killed in the last week. Earlier this week, the death toll reached 1446 people killed in 2007. By the end of the year, the country could have beaten its infamous 2005 record, when more than 1500 people were murdered.
The army has been deployed all around Jamaica to try to curb the violence and stop the gang wars."
There's an idea for the "Mayor". Deploy the army in black neighbourhoods in Toronto.
Posted by: DJ | 2008-06-08 6:54:45 PM
Black leaders in TO also wanted Martin to deploy the army. Not surprisingly, Mr. Dithers didn't do it.
The only way I'd send troops into TO is by sending them to Baghdad for training first. Hopefully they'll be ready to take a purely defensive role in Toronto. Taking the offensive there would be simply too costly. The gangs there are fearless and well-armed. Worse, the white population would demand that they shovel snow as well.
Face facts people: Toronto is a lost cause. I say destroy the city and restart.
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2008-06-08 7:32:32 PM
I agree ZP and would add Canada to the lost cause. We have communists who want gov't to steal for them. And, we have a bunch of scared little neo-cons that want gov't to kill foreigners for them. They're both worthless people who stand back from the action they promote.
Posted by: Soundbite | 2008-06-08 7:41:07 PM
Unlike you, Soundbite, who prefer to do you own killing? What is this "direct experience, not news" you boast of so proudly?
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2008-06-08 8:14:53 PM
No no, Shane:No clues. The challenge is that you get my identity face to face.
No courage, no knowledge. That's why you'll always be ignorant.
Posted by: Soundbite | 2008-06-08 9:15:42 PM
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