00:00:00.000Now, the reason why we invited you on the show is because I saw your statement posted on X
00:00:05.540and we can probably pull it up here. Just to kind of summarize, you're basically saying here,
00:00:11.620if I put on my glasses, in the city of Toronto, which is the focal point for a lot of the
00:00:16.480conversation around gun violence, it will have little to zero impact on firearm crime we're
00:00:22.280seeing in the city. It is a small number of gangs or organized crime members involved in firearm
00:00:29.140violence in the city, and it is not legal gun owners. Now, of course, you're referencing there
00:00:34.700the so-called buyback program that is being rolled out by the federal government. As a law-abiding
00:00:40.760firearms owner, I would describe it more as a confiscation rollout. But for argument's sake,
00:00:46.120let's call it the buyback. Why did you feel it was important to speak up against this form of the
00:00:53.320buyback? Yeah, I mean, since I've taken this role, and you mentioned, I'm so fortunate I get to
00:00:59.180represent about 8,600 members. They're police officers, special constables, dispatchers,
00:01:05.140IT people, all across the great men and women that keep Toronto safe each and every day. And
00:01:11.120the firearm issue in the city of Toronto is really the focal point when it comes across all of Canada.
00:01:18.840And so it's important to talk about the things that actually work and the things that don't work.
00:01:22.960And what we find in the city of Toronto is that last year, our great men and women seized about 700 illegal guns in the city.
00:01:32.580About 90% of those were sourced to the United States illegally from the United States.
00:01:38.440The other 10% were probably from the U.S., but very difficult to source everything if you're a gun owner.
00:01:44.940Serial numbers scratched off, things of that sort.
00:01:48.280So what we found, it is not legal gun owners.
00:01:51.280It's certainly not hunters or target shooters. They're involved in crimes in the city of Toronto.
00:01:56.340It's a small number of thugs, criminal, gangs, organized crime that are involved in terrorizing our great city.
00:02:06.300And really, we thought that that's a waste of resources to spend that amount of money on this gun buyback program.
00:02:12.200And we can think of many ways it could be spent that would actually keep the city of Toronto safe.
00:02:17.300You know, as a firearms owner, and I've got law enforcement in my family, I'm just trying to picture what that would look like. Trying to get Toronto police or any other police team trying to confiscate the otherwise legal property of law-abiding gun owners. Just, you know, the man hours or the people hours involved in this. Would you have to go door to door?