Juno News - February 04, 2019Bill Blair might make gun owners store guns in ＂central＂ facilities
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Summary
After the Danforth shooting in Toronto, gun control has become a hot-button issue in Canada. Bill Blair, the Minister of Border Security, is tasked with looking at whether we should ban assault weapons, but he hasn't ruled out a full ban on handguns.
Transcript
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Six months after the tragic Danforth Ave shooting in Toronto gave Justin Trudeau's Liberals the
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political cover to explore a nationwide gun grab, the man responsible for overseeing this policy
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has not yet ruled out a full ban on handguns. Bill Blair is the Minister of Border Security
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and also the minister that Justin Trudeau is tasked with looking at whether we should ban
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assault weapons. This is what the Liberals think assault weapons are not the actual assault weapons
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which are already banned in Canada and yes a handgun ban. Now Bill Blair has been notoriously
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difficult to actually be held accountable on this issue. There have been some invite-only events where
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gun advocates have been very frustrated. They've not been allowed to go to ask questions of this
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government and most recently Bill Blair had to his credit a town hall event co-hosted with a
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conservative MP Larry Miller in Bruce Gray Owen Sound. People had the opportunity to raise their
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questions to get an update on the government's and Bill Blair's progress on this and what we got is
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very concerning. Now to be clear he is not yet committing to a full ban on handgun but he is
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using language that people should be very wary of when he talks about quote-unquote secure storage.
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That we're looking very seriously at how we might make it more unlikely that those weapons will be
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stolen. How we create greater security around those firearms and so we've examined a number of
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issues. This notion I've heard a number of times of central storage. I've had proposals suggested to
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me in a number of jurisdictions that that might work in that jurisdiction but I also want to share with
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you that I've heard in many other places in Canada. People saying to me that that will not work here
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and so it was important to go to those places to listen to those people to look at the circumstances.
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Now law-abiding firearms owners already have to do a lot to keep up with the regulations on storage.
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There are rules depending on the classification of firearm about how many locks it must be in,
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where the ammunition must be held. It has to be secure and you have to be able to account for it and
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quite frankly police can show up at your house without a warrant and inspect to make sure you're
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following those rules. But one of the ideas that has been put forward is whether gun owners will be
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forced by law to store their firearms off-site to keep your guns in a storage locker at a shooting range
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at a gun club rather than in your own home where everything else that you own is. This is what it looks
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like Bill Blair may be talking about when he uses terms like secure storage. Now as he notes there is
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no legislation yet on the table and it's not likely there will be any legislation on the table before
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the federal election but if the Trudeau liberals are re-elected this is something that we could very
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well see. Why would secure storage be such a bad idea? Well for starters it gives the illusion that
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law-abiding gun owners are the problem. That it's actually the guns owned by me that are getting
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into the hands of criminals which we know has been debunked time and time again. So that's one of the
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issues there is that puts the onus on the people that are following the laws to deal with the problems
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from those who aren't following the laws. But more importantly if we are trying to prevent
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criminals from stealing legally owned guns why would we think it would be a good idea to make sure that
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every legally owned firearm is kept in one warehouse in one storage facility. Kept all there in one room
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behind one door so that if someone does actually want to steal guns well we know where they're all
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going to be kept. It's laughable to think this is a policy that would do anything other than detract
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from public safety if it had any impact whatsoever. Not to mention most gun clubs most likely do not want
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the liability of having to safeguard everyone's firearms who happens to be a member there.
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If a gun is your property and you are following the rules and regulations as they've been laid out
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you should not be penalized by the government. And Bill Blair's approach once again is to go after
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the law-abiding to give the illusion that gun control is something that he's making a priority.
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Well gun control has been a priority in Canada. Gun control exists. It's on the books and for the most part
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Canadian gun control is effective. Adding more useless make-work regulations does nothing but
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penalize the people who are the least harm to Canadians. Law-abiding gun owners. For True North,
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