Barrie Police Chief: PM's handgun pledge "smoke and mirrors"

Barrie Police Chief: PM's handgun pledge "smoke and mirrors"
Date: Feb 1, 2006 8:13 AM
Barrie: Frechette dubious of PM's handgun pledge Smoke and mirrors, says
chief
By Glenn Wilkins, Published: Tue, Dec 13th, 2005
http://www.simcoe.com/sc/special/election/news/v-scv3/story/3216653p-371
8935c.html

Barrie's chief of police is scratching his head over Paul Martin's call
to "choke off" handguns, in an effort to cut down on crime.
Wayne Frechette says election campaigns are notorious for "ludicrous"
promises, and adds the prime minister's latest is among the strangest.
"If you're serious about the issue" of gun crime, says Frechette, "deal
with it, don't dance around it."

Martin told Canadians Thursday a re-elected Liberal government would
spend $30 billion a year over the next five, to fund a Gunstoppers
program to reward tipsters, an amnesty program, and a buy-back plan for
more than half-a-million guns that would become illegal. But the PM
stopped short of arming border guards to stop the flow of illegal arms
smuggled into Canada from the United States.

Frechette, while no gun proponent himself ("I am issued one and am quite
proficient in the use of one"), nevertheless recognizes that there are
three kinds of Canadians who may legitimately carry firearms: police and
security guards, members of bona fide gun clubs who engage in target
shooting, and gun collectors, who he says have the most to fear from
this campaign pledge.

"If you read the fine print", says the chief, "this proposed legislation
would make collectors, as a species, extinct. They would either have to
become target shooters or give up their guns.

"You may argue that these weapons can be stolen, but so can cars. But
that doesn't mean we ban cars in this country."

Gun deaths in Toronto alone have numbered around 50 during 2005. The
lone murder in Barrie this year has been firearm-related. But Frechette
argues that other steps can be taken to address this issue.

"Why do handgun offenders get bail?" Frechette asks, citing the case of
a man, arrested at a busy North York shopping centre recently with a
fully-loaded automatic handgun, who was granted bail, managed to get
another weapon, and only days later, was charged with the murder of a
car dealer.

Frechette also quarrels with the timing of the announcement, "why wait
till now? (Martin) was doing something very constructive on the issue
over the last two years - nothing.

"This campaign promise is just so much smoke and mirrors."