TheGunBlog.ca — Calgary Police Chief Mark Neufeld doesn’t support Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s goal of criminalizing honest handgun owners, according to an interview published this week in the Calgary Herald.
Neufeld is at least the 10th active or retired police leader across Canada to publicly question Trudeau’s plans to help municipalities expel lawful residents by prohibiting their handguns.
Neufeld told the Herald in a Dec. 30 article that fighting “gun crime” is a priority for him in 2020.
Unlike the prime minister, Canadian police generally prefer going after the known “bad guys” instead of the known “good guys.”
Opioids, inner-city crime and shootings among top priorities for police in 2020: Chief Neufeld https://t.co/fQWNl0e6Na #yyc #yyccrime pic.twitter.com/csNg6bC59f
— Calgary Herald (@calgaryherald) December 30, 2019
Calgary Herald Quote
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has signalled his government’s intention to allow municipalities to ban handguns.
But Neufeld questioned how effective that type of legislation would be in Calgary. He said laws are already in place to deal with those behind most, if not all, of the shootings in the city.
“The idea now to delegate that authority down to the municipal councils could potentially result in a patchwork of bylaws across the province. So, for instance, maybe handguns wouldn’t be lawful in Calgary, but they would be in Airdrie and Cochrane, and so at some point, it just gets confusing for the citizens,” the police chief said.
“I guess the issue that will have to be reconciled is that with the shootings we’re having in Calgary, they’re not being perpetrated by lawful, law-abiding handgun owners . . . They’re saying, ‘Why should we be punished when it isn’t us that’s out there creating the problem?’ And they’re right about that.”
Source: Calgary Herald
Calgary, Heritage
Calgary has the highest percentage of adults with a firearm licence among Canada’s biggest cities.
Hunting and sport shooting are at the heart of the country’s culture, heritage and tradition.
- About 2.2 million men and women have a firearm licence.
- Millions more people of all ages hunt and shoot safely and responsibly under the control of permit holders.
- About 300,000 licence holders own at least one police-registered handgun.
Trudeau promised one of the biggest confiscations against honest citizens of any democracy in history, starting with 250,000 hunting and sporting rifles.
He didn’t announce any new measures to seize guns from violent offenders, gangs, or suspected terrorists.
Police Leaders Against Trudeau Gun Confiscations
(Growing List)
- Brenda Lucki, RCMP Commissioner
- Adam Palmer, Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police President; Vancouver Police Chief
- Mark Saunders, Toronto Police Chief
- Vancouver Police Department
- Danny Smyth, Winnipeg Police Chief
- Evan Bray, Regina Police Chief
- Halifax Regional Police
- Chris Lewis, Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner (Retired)
- Mark McCormack, Toronto Police Association President
- Mark Neufeld, Calgary Police Chief
Also
1. Max Waddell, Winnipeg Police, Organized Crime Unit
2. Mike Earl, Toronto Police, Holdup Squad (Retired)
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