TheGunBlog.ca — The Vancouver Police Department opposes Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mayor Kennedy Stewart’s goal of banning federally licensed handgun owners and stores from Canada’s third-largest city.
The VPD is part of a growing country-wide movement of police leaders and organizations against politicians working to criminalize lawful, legitimate and licensed hunters, farmers and sport shooters.
CACP Position
“We’ve got a position through the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police in terms of handguns,” Deputy Chief Howard Chow told a press conference yesterday in answering a question. “I’d ask you to refer to that, and that’s the position we take on it.”
Adam Palmer, the president of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police lobby group and also the Vancouver police chief, said in August he doesn’t support banning handguns from lawful owners and that existing laws are “very strict.”
CACP Police Chiefs Lobby Opposes Gun Bans: The Canadian Press
https://twitter.com/TheGunBlog/status/1176518861786701826
Criminalize and Confiscate
Mayor Stewart told the Globe and Mail he wants the ability to eliminate handgun ownership by Vancouver sport shooters and collectors.
“I would very much like that power,” the Globe quoted Stewart as saying yesterday in an interview.
The Globe also reported Chow’s comment against bans.
Mass Confiscation
Trudeau last week outlined the biggest series of instant confiscations or expulsions in Canadian history aimed at hunters, farmers and sport shooters if he is re-elected next month.
Trudeau Promises Mass Gun Bans, Confiscations in Election 2019
The attack plan includes seizing about 250,000 mainly “Non-restricted” rifles and helping cities expel licensed handgun owners and stores, or forcing handgunners to surrender their pistols and revolvers to government-approved central storage.
Stewart Eager to Criminalize
None of the measures targets violent individuals or gangs.
“Municipalities would have the ability to ban handguns, and that’s certainly something that I would support and act on right away if that power was given,” Stewart said yesterday, according to a Global News report today.
Ethical Dilemma
Trudeau and Stewart’s plans raise complex questions about whether unelected police employees have a duty to enforce unjust and immoral laws by elected governments.
A confiscation order would force officers to seize firearms from their families, friends and each other, since many police have personal guns in addition to their duty gear.
More Canadian Than Hockey
Hunting and sport shooting are at the heart of Canadian culture and heritage.
About 2.2 million men and women have firearm-ownership permits authorized by the federal police, more than play golf or hockey.
Police Leaders Against Trudeau Confiscations
(Growing List)
- Brenda Lucki, RCMP Commissioner
- Adam Palmer, Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police President; Vancouver Police Chief
- Mark Saunders, Toronto Police Chief
- Danny Smyth, Winnipeg Police Chief
- Evan Bray, Regina Police Chief
- Chris Lewis, Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner (Retired)
- Mark McCormack, Toronto Police Association President
- Halifax Regional Police
Also