Banning gun clubs in a city is an act of stupidity

When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Washington's ban on handguns, the mayor of Toronto warned its citizens that this would add to gun violence in Toronto. That is truly one of the stupidest statements I have ever heard. Unfortunately, under Mayor David Miller's prodding, city council recently voted 31-9 to ban the building of new firing ranges in Toronto. Perhaps these dummies thought that once that ban was made public, all gun-toting thugs would leave the city forever.

Years ago, (1949 to be specific) when I lived in Nelson, B.C., as a youth, there was a gun club there and on Thursday evenings, children over the age of fourteen were taught how to handle 22-cal. rifles and shoot them. The firing range was in the basement of a building. It was there and then that I learned about rifle safety and how to fire guns. Three years later, I taught navy personnel in the Canadian navy how to shoot rifles and I was one of the persons who represented the navy at an international rifle shoot in Victoria, B.C. Several years later, I taught my scout troop rifle shooting and later, I did the same thing at a children’s camp.

Rifle and pistol shooting is a real challenge when you enter international meets and it is great fun. I strongly doubt that gangsters and young thugs who shoot guns in our city are the kind of people who are members of registered and properly operated gun clubs.

Despite that, the idiot mayor of Toronto told the CBC: "The easy supply of handguns in the U.S. leads directly to people being killed in Toronto. It's that direct." What in heaven’s name has that got to do with registered gun clubs in Toronto? He was talking nonsense and 31 of the city fathers accepted his nonsense as if their vote would stop criminal from shooting guns in Toronto.

There's already no shortage of illegal guns in Toronto --- never has been --- and this is unlikely to change no matter what Mayor Miller and fellow fools ordain against guns.

In reality, overturning Washington's ban on handguns may even make that city safer, and other cities in the U.S. safer. We don't like to consider that possibility, because it goes against the grain of our precious Canadian prejudices.

The law banning handguns in Washington homes came into effect in 1977 -- a year in which there were 192 murders. By 1989, and for the next six years, Washington had the reputation of being "Murder Capital of the U.S." with over 400 murders per year, peaking in 1991 with 482 murders. This, in a city with a population of under 600,000 where handguns were banned.

Put another way, when the handgun ban was introduced in Washington, the D.C. murder rate was about 28 per 100,000 inhabitants. Fifteen years later, it was 80 per 100,000. By 2005, after a change of local government, the and citizens were permitted to have guns, the murder rate was back to what it was before the handgun ban -- 29 per 100,000 of population.

So what did the gun ban in Washington achieve? Very little. Will it accomplish anything in Toronto? Very little, obviously.

In the U.S. and elsewhere (Britain), it's been pretty well proven that when citizens have guns in their homes, they are far less likely to be burglarized or robbed when they are at home. Similarly, when states like Florida passed laws permitting responsible citizens to carry concealed weapons, random shootings dropped precipitously.

Gene Healy, of the Cato Institute, a non-profit policy research foundation, found the murder rate in Washington is 55% higher than before the gun laws went into effect.

For instance, in the state of Virginia, which is flush with privately owned guns, the murder rate in Arlington, across the river from Washington, was 2.1 per 100,000 residents at a time when it was 46.4 per 100,000 in gun-prohibited Washington.

As for Canada, handguns have had to be registered since 1930, yet they are still today's murder-weapon of choice. The reason is obvious. Criminals who use handguns to commit crimes could care less whether or not the guns they use are registered because they know that they are not registered to them.

To decided that responsible citizens can’t build an indoor firing range within the city limits is no less foolish than saying that because there are so many car accidents within the City of Toronto, no one can drive their car on the streets of Toronto.