Paul Martin plans to ban handguns

Many people were very critical of Stephen Harper's promise to have an open vote on gay marriage in the House of Commons. Harper was openly criticized for shooting himself in the foot early in the election campaign.

Paul Martin has announced that he plans to get tough on crime, and part of his plan includes banning the legal ownership of handguns. To quote Mr. Martin:

Prime Minister Paul Martin promised Thursday to ban handguns, which are already severely restricted in Canada.

He also vowed an amnesty and buy-back program to collect existing handguns.

“This strategy will get handguns off our streets, will toughen penalties for those who are convicted of gun crimes and will choke off the supply of illegal weapons,” Martin said on a campaign stop in a Toronto neighbourhood that has been rocked by several shootings as of late.

“Criminals need to understand, and they will come to understand, that using handguns will result, each and every time, in hard time.”


Commentary:
1) Handguns used to commit a crime are almost always acquired in an illegal fashion. Criminals will not go through the regulations and paperwork required to legally acquire a handgun.
2) We live next to a country with more than 10x our population, and a huge black market in weapons (including handguns). Combined with a mostly unprotected border, the true source of illegal handguns is the US black market, and organized crime trafficing in the weapons. Mr. Martin's plans will do nothing to prevent the black market.
3) The only positive effect I can think of is a slight reduction in domestic violence or accidents involving handguns. However, this is not the stated purpose of the ban.

If Mr. Martin strategy will do nothing to get handguns off the streets. Criminals do not think they will get caught. Creating tougher penalities for committing a criminal act with a handgun will do nothing if criminals are not forced to serve those sentences. We already have tough laws in this country, we just need to enforce the sentences.

Finally, Mr. Martin and the Liberal party have lost credibility on the crime issue due to the gun registry program. The only success the $2B gun registry program has had - reducing the number of gun related suicides. I may be a cynic, but if someone wants to kill themself, they'll do it with or without a handgun. We could have spent $2B on mental health programs to get suicidal people help.

I think this is a coordinated effort to solidify the Liberal support in Ontario, at the expense of support in rural Canada and the west.