To the editor,
Gun owners are up in arms over Prime Minister Trudeau’s ill-conceived and poorly thought out firearms legislation. In these truly trying and dangerous times of the COVID-19 pandemic, our Prime Minister decided to slip this new gun control legislation in, I feel when no one was looking.
This new law, as usual, targets legal certified and tested gun owners only (easy to catch). The government made a big deal out of stopping the sale of so-called assault weapons (no definition) and they said ownership of legally purchased firearms that they will confiscate them and reimburse some of the owners at a cost to the taxpayer of, in their estimate, of 60 million dollars. It will be more they are never right on their estimates. Their classification of some of these firearms is just mind-boggling.
This means to me that the firearms legally purchased by individuals will be confiscated and will be bought back with our own money. What a bargain! This will do nothing to prevent the kind of horrendous crime committed by that crazy person in Nova Scotia. He was not allowed to legally own a gun. He bought them in the USA, smuggled them here built a fake a police car and carried out his mayhem. These types of crimes can not be stopped, although there are people who knew he had a fake car etc. and they said nothing.
Then there was recently a big drug and firearm bust on the Lower Mainland, the RCMP made a big deal out of showing the drugs, cash and illegal guns with prohibited magazines, which have never been allowed our country. The people arrested were released ASAP. How do we reconcile this with having our personal property taken away because they know where to find legal firearms. We all complied with the rules and this is where it gets us.
I know a lot of firearms owners who would give up their guns if it would save people from being injured or killed. This new law will do nothing to help curb any crimes. Gang members do not purchase legal guns! They do not care about the consequence of having an illegal weapon on them when they just killed someone. It is part of how they operate. Yes, some guns are stolen and end up on the street; I would like to see how many are from Canada and where the rest came from. I know these numbers exist but I have not seen them.
More people are killed with knives, die by texting and probably bee stings than are killed with legal firearms in Canada. We are responsible, treat us that way, we do not like being the scapegoat!
We all know life is not fair, but with murder and violent crime seemingly on a downward trend why do all of the legal firearms owners need to be punished? Spend the $60 million on border patrol, more police and gang squads and leave us legal law-abiding gun owners alone.
It gets tiring having to go through all this every few years. I am tired of being used by the Liberals so they can get more browny points back east. Justin rethink this legislation!!
Yours Truly
George Ostoforoff
100 Mile House