Call for Toronto handgun ban reignites passionate gun control debate
TORONTO — A call on the federal government to consider turning Canada’s largest city into a handgun-free zone will do little to prevent the kind of senseless violence that saw a young woman and girl shot dead in Toronto’s Greektown last weekend, gun rights advocates said on Wednesday.
The city council debate that followed the rampage by a man who may have had a history of severe mental health issues was both offensive and misguided, they said.
“They spent a day slandering gun owners and accusing gun owners of supplying violent offenders with their weapons,” said Nicolas Johnson, a gun rights advocate and founder of The Gun Blog. “The people who are shooting up our streets are not the people who will be obeying any gun bans. The only people who will obey a ban are the people we don’t need to worry about.”
Federal Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, whose ministry has been working on additional gun control measures for some time, said he would be open to considering Toronto’s proposals. Former Toronto city councillor Adam Vaughan, now a Liberal MP, said tackling the availability of firearms is critical to reducing the scourge of gun violence such as seen on the weekend that also left 13 people injured.