Pubdate: Sun, 08 Jan 2006
Source: Province, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2006 The Province
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouver/theprovince/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476
Author: Mark Tonner
Note: Sgt. Mark Tonner is a Vancouver police officer whose column appears
every two weeks in Unwind. His opinions aren't necessarily those of the
city's police department or board.

A FINGER THAT'S IN JAIL CAN'T PULL A TRIGGER

Get The Shooters Off The Streets And The Weapons Will Follow

My New Year's resolution was to stop writing such career-hazardous law
enforcement columns.

That lasted all the way through the first sentence of this one -- when
I began thinking about handguns, and what else politicians might
consider banning for 2006.

Clearly, crystal meth and crack cocaine should go. The two C's claim
lives by the thousands. With all the hurt and loss out there, we'd be
mad not to add assault and theft to the list.

But wait -- these things have already been banned, and they're still
epidemic!

Yes, it is hard to resist smart-mouthing when outlawing
of pistols is paraded as a fix for urban violence.

Murder is already against the law, as is blasting away on city
streets. The handguns themselves? I can't remember the last time I
dealt with someone shot by a legal one. What is fresh in memory is
courtroom disappointment.

A B.C. Provincial Court justice was recently presented with a Mr. T.,
who was caught with an illegal handgun. He'd jumped into False Creek
during a fight at the Plaza of Nations' Plush nightclub. VPD people
fished him out and discovered a pistol in his waistband. The gun was
traced to Washington state, making it a result of cross-border
smuggling -- almost certainly part of the dope-for-guns trade.

Mr. T. chirped that he'd found the handgun on the pavement outside the
club, and picked it up out of worry it might be used to hurt someone.
A responsible citizen, no less. The judge bought it and set him loose.

The judicial mindset seems to be that heavy-handedness from our courts
is no solution. The problem centres on this misperception. The laws in
Canada are strong, but getting our judiciary to live up to them seems
near impossible. Until we're able to vote for our judges -- until we
have the will of the people expressed in our courts -- thinking up new
ways to ban things is pointless.

After all, as everyone knows, guns don't kill people; hands do. That
was the sarcastic flavour of remark at any number of Christmas
sessions, police and otherwise. Trigger fingers should be impounded at
adolescence, we decided, and re-issued under licence, to those
promising to use them nicely.

So there goes any hope of swearing off cynicism for 2006. Cliches are
something I'll promise to avoid, but the "people kill people" truism
is worth a moment.

Analyse the human urge to kill deeply enough and you're left without
an answer. No community-based or problem-oriented policing model will
ever make it go away. Society is called upon to arrange things so that
those with homicidal feelings are afraid to indulge them. In Canada,
we're expected to believe that our legal system provides that deterrent.

Anti-Americanism tends to impair Canadian hearing, but I've listened
to some interesting arguments in favour of deterrence through a
better-armed populace. I know state troopers who maintain that America
needs more guns still. An armed society is, by and large, a polite
society -- or so the theory goes. Knowing that anyone you attack may
have the means to respond lethally makes violence less appealing.

That's crazy talk, by Canadian standards -- unless you consider how
sharply crimes of violence decline in states where concealed weapons
permits are granted more freely.

Carrying of loaded handguns is something no one is proposing for
Canada. Legitimate owners in these parts just want to be left alone.
What I'm listening to now is griping from people who decided to comply
with the latest gun registry rules. Their worry was that the
government would move to confiscate firearms once they figured out
where they were.

That may be paranoia proven right. My fear is that banning handguns
will create criminals where there were none before. It's standard
wisdom that when you have enemies in your midst, you don't turn on
your friends. Jailing of bad guys is the answer, not finding new ways
to ban things already illegal.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin