By the Canadian Shooting Sports Association via Ammoland.com
U.S. anti-gun writer Leah Libresco took a radical approach. She researched the effectiveness of gun control laws in the United States. What she discovered caused a 180-degree shift in her stance on gun control.
She analyzed 33,000 deaths caused by firearms over a three-month period. When her research concluded, it was Libresco’s favourite anti-gun policies which lay dead on the floor.
“The gun control policies I had lobbied for crumbled when I examined the evidence.”
Libresco also researched gun laws in Britain and Australia. Both countries instituted draconian legislation in the aftermath of mass shootings – Dunblane in Britain and Port Arthur in Australia.
“Neither nation experienced drops in mass shootings or other gun-related crime that could be attributed to their buybacks and bans. Mass shootings were too rare in Australia for their absence after the buyback program to be clear evidence of progress. And in both Australia and Britain, the gun restrictions had an ambiguous effect on other gun-related crimes or deaths.”
She goes on to explain the silencer myth is just that, a myth, and describes the sound of an AR-15 with a silencer as “about as loud as a jackhammer.”
As for the anti-gun statement that gun control prevents suicides, Libresco quickly discovered that is also a myth.
“Two-thirds of gun deaths in the United States every year are suicides. Almost no proposed restriction would make it meaningfully harder for people with guns on hand to use them. I couldn’t even answer my most desperate question: if I had a friend who had guns in his home and a history of suicide attempts, was there anything I could do that would help?”
These admissions are not pleasing for the anti-gun crowd. They should, however, be a wakeup call to Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government.
The Liberals’ staunch anti-gun rhetoric doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. It defies the evidence. Yes, the very same evidence Justin Trudeau claimed would guide his government’s policy in all matters, including firearms.
Unfortunately, evidence is the last thing our Liberal government wants to consider when it comes to firearms.
They prefer their pet soundbites and the never-ending blame they heap on former Prime Minister Stephen Harper. They prefer telling lies – like the majority of their election platform on guns.
We will take pragmatic action to make it harder for criminals to get, and use, handguns and assault weapons.
The Firearms Act is regulatory law. It does not apply to criminals. Laws only affect those willing to abide by them, a fact lost on our current Liberal government.
We will repeal changes made by Bill C-42 that allow restricted and prohibited weapons to be freely transported without a permit
Bill C-42 did no such thing. This is a fabrication, long on Liberal rhetoric and short on truth.
At no time could restricted or prohibited firearms be transported anywhere without an Authorization to Transport (ATT). Bill C-42 transformed a paper process into a digital process – fully searchable on the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC), thereby enhancing public safety – and attached that digital ATT to an individual’s firearms licence.
Every regulation pertaining to the safe storage and transportation of firearms also still applied.
The truth, should the Liberals dare to examine it, is that reverting to the old paper system for ATTs will actually REDUCE public safety as police across the country will no longer be able to search CPIC for that information.
Require enhanced background checks for anyone seeking to purchase a handgun or other restricted firearm;
Conservative Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney did all this four years ago. It’s why the process of obtaining a firearms licence takes longer now. The RCMP also runs a continuous eligibility check on every single licenced firearm owner EVERY DAY. We are the most vetted segment of Canadian society.
But why let the truth get in the way of a great soundbite?
Immediately implement the imported gun marking regulations that have been repeatedly delayed by Stephen Harper;
Ah yes, blame the Great Satan, Stephen Harper. There’s only one small problem with blaming Harper for the delays on the UN Marking Regulations. Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin created that legislation, then immediately delayed it. Justin Trudeau’s government delayed this very same legislation. But Harper’s to blame, right?
Why let facts get in the way of blaming your predecessor? That’s not the Liberal way.
Every one of these blatant lies pander to the Liberal base. It buys them votes, something they desperately need as Trudeau’s approval rating continues to plummet. It does not, of course, come anywhere near the threshold set by Justin Trudeau himself when it comes to creating policy.
“And as we face these challenges, the only ideology that must guide us is evidence. Hard, scientific facts and data. It may seem revolutionary in today’s Ottawa, but instead of inventing the facts to justify the policies, we will create policy based on facts. Solutions can come from the left or the right, all that matters is that they work. That they help us live – and thrive – true to our values.” – Justin Trudeau
Both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale ought to take a lesson from anti-gun writer Leah Libresco – examine the facts. Base your government’s policy on those facts.
Maybe then you’ll get broad support from gun owners, something you will never achieve by continually casting us as bogeymen responsible for all horrific violent crimes.
About Canadian Shooting Sports Association:
The CSSA is the voice of the sport shooter and firearms enthusiast in Canada. Our national membership supports and promotes Canada’s firearms heritage, traditional target shooting competition, modern action shooting sports, hunting, and archery. We support and sponsor competitions and youth programs that promote these Canadian heritage activities. Website www.cdnshootingsports.org
Kudos. I took the same journey and reached the same conclusion. Thanks also to TTAG and the community for bringing me the rest of the way.
Same here.
Castro Jr. sounds like he’s every bit the authoritarian scumbag his dad was.
Today’s so-called liberals, whether spelled with a lower-case l or an upper-case L, all hate the same thing — the truth.
“She analyzed 33,000 deaths caused by firearms over a three-month period”
Is that a lot of deaths per month or 3 months of analysis? Kinda confusing.
33,000 deaths are the yearly death total in the US from firearms. The three month period is how long she studied the deaths, their causes, and what could be done about them.
Right. I know that too. But those that don’t might infer 33,000 deaths in 3 months. Just thought it could be a little clearer that’s all. Good article and good writeup just the same.
“We will take pragmatic action to make it harder for criminals to get, and use, handguns and assault weapons.”
And that works nowhere.
Austria 2016: one man banned from owning firearms + one illegal assault rifle = 3 dead (including shooter) + 11 injured
Munich 2016: one man + illegal handgun = 10 dead (including shooter) + 36 injured
There was another shooting in Germany this year, where the shooter used an M16 (illegal.)
A few years back there was a murder in Austria where the killers used a handgun and a hand grenade. The case was connected to organized crime, fuel smuggling and tax evasion. Both the handgun and the grenade were illegal.
Speaking of 2016.
Japan 2016: one man + a bag of knives = 19 dead + 26 injured.
Note how the knife attacker got more kills than both shooters in Europe in the same year combined.
WHO OF US (TTAG AI BLOGGERS) ARE GETTING PAID (LIKE LEAH) TO STAND UP FOR WHAT WE BELIEVE IN?
It should cost Leah, not enrich her, to attack the Constitution.
She’s ‘come around to it’ then ? Seen the error in her previous thinking and ways ?
Who pays for the breakage up til now then?
Yeah. Still us.
Sounds like she’s merely trying to run to the top part of the see-saw to keep a job through contrarianism.
Whenever I read or hear anything a liberal spouts I immediately think the opposite or that they’re doing what they decry.
Just goes to prove that not every lib is terminally insane. There is hope for a small percentage of them. More than likely she was never really a lib anyway, just uninformed and poorly educated. That is very different from the true dyed in the wool crazy, wacko, lib that wouldn’t know a fact if it bit them in the @ss let alone see the truth as truth.
When the “suicide” numbers are taken out of the equation the grabbers arguments become a big fat nothing.
Now we’ll see if she gets the second-order clue: that it’s not about safety or saving lives at all.
And the final clue has to be divined; That you now recognize you have been consistently lied to for decades about this issue, what do you think about *other* issues? The biggest lie from liberals, with conservatives now climbing aboard that bus, is that something out there that you want can be “free”. Nothing is free, including freedom. We in America are STILL talking about making health care “more affordable”, when not a single proposal from ANYONE has addressed that goal, all proposals argue about who is going to pay for it and who gets it “free”, while every penny given to insurance companies goes straight into their profits.
As a firearm owner in a Commonwealth country, you learn very quickly according to politicians and the media we are personally responsible for all crime, including terrorism, any where in the world and therefore have to justify our ownership in this context. Also were are portrayed as heartless monsters who refuse to hand in our firearms for the “common good” and repent and atone for our “crimes”.
Anything that befalls us is social(ist) justice and is justified in the eyes of the media.
Since the Mandalay Bay shooting some Australia Post employees have decided to censor and intercept correspondence from the NSW Firearms Registry as payback for our alleged “involvement”. In addition to myself other friends have noticed delays in processing and approved paperwork suddenly gets lost in transit. The FR has an online facility to check the status of applications, and mine were approved on Sep-29. Even allowing for the stated 7-10 working days this delay is well beyond what is allowed. The postal workers could be described as self-appointed “People’s Commissars for Communication”. Although their actions are highly illegal they won’t be punished because their actions are social justice.
Australian gun laws are illegal, invalid and un-Constitutional apropos the Bill of Rights 1689;
as such: you are under zero legal or moral obligations to ‘obey’ them….
and…if you do…you are nothing more than a gullible fool!
Good luck trying to make a court see it that way. The Bill of Rights 1688 (or 1689) has almost entirely been supplanted and replaced by later acts and common law.
I was having a bit of a rant because I posted the application for a Permit to Acquire (PTA) in mid September and Registry acknowledge receipt on Sep-22. The PTA was approved on Sep-29 and the printed approval would have been posted on or just after that date. The Las Vegas shooting happened Oct-1 (local time) and I noticed the PTA seemed to be taking a lot longer than usual (2-3 actual weeks from sending to receiving). Talking with friends at the range a few also noticed applications appeared to be taking longer than usual in total time. A bit suspicious that suddenly correspondence from the Registry seems to get “lost in the mail”.
Bill of Rights 1689 has been used by journos to support freedom of speech in the courts;
they like the free speech provisions but they don’t wanna advertise its right-to-bear-arms;
a big enough, well-funded enough case in the High Court could, quite easily, get most of our current gun laws tossed….
there is even an argument that AUstralia does not even qualify as a sovereign nation but is, still, a collection of British colonies…..
as such: BoR 1689 applies in FULL FORCE….
seems to me you know little or nothing of this issue….like most so-called LAFOs, yr either abysmally ignorant or just too timid to ‘take on’ TPTB….
you need to check out Ron Owen’s stuff on this…… Owen Guns Gympie…..
if you don’t believe me….just ring him…i’m sure he’ll explain it all to you!
And the PTAs are limited to 3 months from the approval date and cost $60 each. So almost half of my purchasing period has expired and I don’t have the official approval yet.
its all ILLEGAL, illegitimate baloney!
the state has NO RIGHT to yr lawfully acquired property and NO RIGHT to dictate what you can or can’t own!
that’s communism and is more than enough justification to stage an armed uprising….
once you register some-thing…you have passed title of owner-ship to the registering authority…..
if there were, even, 5000 gun owners in AUssie who were prepared to ‘take on’ TPTB in the courts over ‘illegal gun owner-ship’, the entire legal system would collapse and they would be forced to change the law!