Dear Editor:
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau moved quickly to attach his long-planned gun grab to the tragedy devastating the people of Nova Scotia, seemingly targeting law-abiding citizens who legally possess and use firearms.
It is unethical to exploit the Nova Scotia tragedy as justification for an unrelated gun grab. The banned firearms are not the types of firearms used by the gunman in Nova Scotia, who used a variety of weapons, including the service revolver from RCMP Constable Heidi Stevenson.
The gunman did not have a firearms possession licence nor any legal firearm. His impersonation of a police officer, setting fires to homes and misuse of a firearm were all illegal. Could this new ban on certain firearms have saved a single life in Nova Scotia?
Laws impact compliant, law-abiding citizens, but criminals will continue to acquire firearms illegally. New laws do not make law-abiding citizens out of criminals. The old saying still applies: “When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns”.
Every person has a right to defend himself or herself, their families, and their homes from violent offenders and to defend our freedoms from tyrannical despots. Tyrants always move to disarm their citizens when they want to exercise autocratic power over them.
The fantasy that firearms play no role in self-defence shows the hypocrisy of the elite. All prime ministers have an armed security detail who carry for them.
Making any weapon illegal will not change the hearts of the wicked who will use various weapons to murder. Respect for human life needs to be restored in our country.
The Christian Heritage Party of Canada supports the rights of professionally trained, law-abiding citizens to possess and use firearms for hunting, sport and self defence. Criminals must be held accountable, both in the name of justice and for deterrence.
Public safety and the protection of innocent human life can only be achieved by establishing a respect for life and property and by consistently enforcing existing laws. The new gun laws will not make Canadians safer.
Irma DeVries,
Christian Heritage Party candidate,
Harriston