Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Canada This is what's in store courtisy of Mayor Miller

I sent an email regarding his gun ban and this is the reply I got.

Thank you for writing. I will share your perspective with the Mayor.

Mayor Miller believes the staff report released yesterday is the logical next step in making Toronto an even safer city. Handguns are unlike anything else as they are designed and intended for one purpose: to kill people. As you may be aware, the Mayor has already publicly called for a ban on the private ownership of handguns across Canada. That call has received the support of Mayors from all over the country as well as Premier Dalton McGuinty. The Atlantic Mayors' Congress and Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay are among the most recent to add their support.

With that already underway, it is incumbent on the city to take whatever steps and measures are within its power to show that we are serious about attacking gun violence on all fronts. That means that gun clubs will have to vacate city property and gun manufacturers and distributors will no longer be able to establish themselves in Toronto. We cannot talk about a national handgun ban or approach our neighbours in the United States and ask them to help eliminate gun violence without showing we are willing to take whatever actions we can locally.

The City of Toronto has the right to regulate the property and civil rights aspects of firearms as they relate to the health, safety and well being of its residents. Handguns pose an increasing threat in our community that we must not ignore. The Mayor wants to ensure that the City is taking all available actions to address gun violence.

Specific areas of recommended action to be considered next week by the Executive Committee include:
* Land use restrictions affecting manufacture, assembly, warehousing, distribution and discharge of guns.
* Eliminating recreational use of firearms on City property, specifically, shooting ranges at the Don Montgomery Community Recreation Centre (former Mid-Scarborough Community Centre) and Union Station.
* Comprehensive monitoring of incidents and impacts of firearm violence and injury in Toronto. Providing social supports to break the cycle of violence.
* Intergovernmental advocacy.

The report is posted on the City's website at: http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2008/ex/agendas/2008-06-03-ex21-ar.pdf

With respect to the ban, that would be up to the Federal Government to act but Mayor Miller believes the urgency of a handgun ban and the impact it could have in Toronto are simple. We know that about a third of the guns used to commit crimes in this city were at one point legally registered. Recently, a legally registered handgun was used to murder someone on a Toronto street. But this is not just a Toronto issue. Canadian police services reported 8,105 victims of violent gun crime, ranging from assault to robbery and homicide in 2006 - a rate of almost 1 person per hour victimized by violent gun crime.

While there are no simple answers to the scourge of gun violence in all Canadian cities, the banning of private ownership of handguns would cut off supply of at least some of the weapons that are used for criminal purposes.

The handgun ban is part of the Mayor's strategy to make our safe city safer. Among the other parts of the strategy:
* There are 450 more police officers on our streets and in our neighbourhoods.
* We are addressing the root causes of violence through our Community Safety Plan.

The strategy is working. Young people in priority communities are benefitting from the creation of thousands of jobs, training and recreational opportunities. For more information on our plan for Making Our Safe City Safer Community Safer, please visit our website: www.toronto.ca/community_safety .

In Toronto, crime is down in every major category, except gun murders. For this reason, the Mayor's gun violence strategy includes:
* A handgun ban
* Tougher crime legislation for illegal gun use
* Increased anti-gun smuggling security at the Canada-U.S. border
* Stronger U.S. gun controls
* Continuation of community based prevention and youth opportunity development
* Continuation of the Toronto Anti violence Interventions Strategy (TAVIS) initiative of the Toronto Police Service

It's true that the majority of handguns used are illegally imported into the country and the Mayor has called on the Federal government to increase efforts to stem the flow at the border. The Mayor is also working with Mayors across the United States to have the federal government in that country take action on the easy availability of handguns.

I think you will agree that you cannot put a price on human life. If a handgun ban and the other measures we are taking save even one life, it will be more than worth it.

Again, thank you for sharing your point of view.
Joanne Miller

Someone needs to tell the "mayor" to stay on his own side of the boarder and out of U.S.
Allan

Someone needs to tell the mayor to get the hell out of Canada and go spew that BS elsewhere...

I think Miller was born in the UK. How's that ban over there working so far Your Royal Blondness?

Mayor David Miller of Toronto is a good example of what is wrong with politicians in our country.

According to the mayor, Toronto is plagued by a wave of gun crime that demands government action. This is a case of distorting the facts to fit a social and political agenda. In 2007, there were 84 homicides in a city with a population of over 3 million people. By most standards that is a very low homicide rate. Forty of the 84 homicides in 2007 were committed with a firearm; 25 were committed with a knife. More than fifty people died in automobile crashes that same year. Strangely, Mayor Miller has not so far advocated the registration and/or banning of knives in the City of Toronto, and a debate about how to get bad and aggressive drivers off the city's streets is completely off the radar. According to the mayor's reply above, one third of the gun homicides involved a registered weapon stolen from a legal owner--so we are talking about 13-14 homicides committed with a stolen weapon.

I agree that human lives are important, but the small numbers involved here suggest that banning the use of sporting arms in city facilities would result in no measurable change in the gun homicide rate. I rather doubt that criminals are stalking target shooters using mostly single-shot .22 rimfires and air guns in order to steal their weapons and use them to hold up their drug-dealing rivals. The mayor's ban is nothing more than political posturing aimed at law-abiding citizens--the folks who actually register their guns.

This latest move by the mayor is part of his long-term goal of confiscating all privately owned weapons. No one should be so naive as to believe that he will be satisfied with banning guns from city facilities or with his much-hoped-for but long-delayed federal ban on handgun ownership.

Miller is more interested in restricting the liberties and confiscating the legally purchased property of Canadian gun owners than in exploring alternative ways to reduce gun crime. If he wants people to get rid of their firearms, perhaps he might suggest a tax incentive allowing gun owners to write off the value of gun turned in to the police for destruction. Or he might suggest something really radical such as getting criminals off the streets. It seems crystal clear to me that putting the relatively small number of gun-toting hoodlums in prison would do a lot to reduce gun crime. Let's say ten years with no possibility of parole added to their sentence for anyone convicted of using a firearm in committing a crime. Although most of those guys are pretty small-brained, the prospect of no deals and ten extra years behind bars might make them think twice before picking up a gun--or maybe they would simply pick up a knife instead and prove my point that Miller's plan will reduce crime by approximately zero per cent.

Hello: Well does this tell you that it is time to separate and quit being dominated by the east.We need a leader. Anybody out there got what it takes?The same groups of people do the crime like drug dealers & street gangs but nothing is ever done about them. Too bad the thinly populated areas of the country contribute most of the money but have no say. Ban TV or at least strictly censor it world wide would be another step in the right direction

Does everyone agree that the unjustified home invasion by Toronto police and the seizure of 125 legally owned firearms is a trial balloon sent up by Miller?
I'm shocked to hear that only 50 people died in traffic accidents in Toronto. I've driven there. GD