ROTHENBURGER: At long last, tide is turning toward sensible gun laws in Canada

So, public opinion and political action are finally in sync with one another. According to Angus Reid, four out of five of us support a complete prohibition of the types of weapons used in the 1989 Montreal Massacre and just two weeks ago in the killing of 22 people in Nova Scotia.

“Significantly,” the pollster said, “two-thirds (65 per cent) strongly support such a move, giving federal policy makers a clear mandate to go forward.”

The ”strongly” is in italics.

Trudeau and his cabinet ministers were careful to acknowledge the many nuances of opinions around gun control. They praised law-abiding gun owners, which they emphasized are the most common kind.

It’s the bad guys who are in the minority but cause all the problems, they said. It’s not about interfering with sport hunting, target shooting or varmint control on farms, they said, over and over, as if anticipating the backlash from the 55 per cent of current gun owners who oppose more stringent controls.

“We are today ending the availability of weapons that were not designed for hunting or target shooting,” said Blair.

“They’re not for hunting prairie chickens or scaring off a bear,” said Freeland, recalling her childhood growing up on a farm when every household had a rifle but not “an assault-style rife.”

She then spoke for several minutes about domestic homicide and how women and girls are the most vulnerable victims. “Enough is enough.”

They recited Canada’s most egregious mass murders, including Ecole Polytechnique, the Dawson College shooting of 2006, the Quebec mosque shooting of 2017 and, of course, the rampage in Portapique two weekends ago.

And there was frequent employment of the favourite Liberal line, “We have more to do.”

The Liberals were working (some might say dithering) on the assault-rifle ban long before the horrible Portapique rampage but there’s no question this was an opportune time to take action, using regulation rather than the long and slow legislative process to get it going.

As they explained, legislation will still be required down the road for some aspects of the ban but as of now, rifles like the AR-15 can’t be bought, sold, used or owned. A two-year amnesty period will give current owners a chance to get rid of them via a compensation program.

Blair also announced the intention of a “Red Flag” law that will allow police to remove guns from “dangerous situations.”

The gun lobby will, predictably, decry these latest moves as unfair and ineffective. Andrew Scheer is already claiming they amount to punishing law-abiding gun owners with “more rules.”

They’ll say criminals don’t care about rules and will get all the guns they want. The logical counter argument is that if assault rifles are banned there won’t be as many in the market and the crooks won’t be able to get hold of them.

They’ll say it won’t stop the American smugglers from bringing them across the border and they’re right but it will reduce the availability.

They’ll say the ban on more than 1,500 makes and models of assault-style rifles doesn’t do a thing about handguns, which are a far bigger problem, and they’re right again. Trudeau’s plan to give municipalities the authority to control handguns is just bizarre, and I for one wouldn’t want municipal politicians at the helm on that one.

The Globe and Mail quickly published an editorial calling Trudeau’s ban “a weak half-measure.” That, too, is pretty accurate but a weak half-measure is better than none at all. As Trudeau and his ministers said, there is still much to do. The government has yet to put into effect more stringent background checks and records keeping. Its position on handguns is just dumb.

But it’s at least heading in the direction the vast majority of Canadians want. The ban is not sudden and decisive — it’s been demanded for decades.

(It’s interesting, by the way, that the new Angus Reid poll shows Canadians’ trust in the RCMP hasn’t diminished despite concerns about transparency and the handling of the Nova Scotia murders.)

The gun control debate will rage forever. Pro-gun and anti-gun lobbies will never be pleased. But Friday’s announcement leaves us better off than we were on Thursday.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and newspaper editor. He writes five commentaries a week for CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group.

by Mel Rothenburger

ROTHENBURGER: At long last, tide is turning toward sensible gun laws in Canada

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