...with lapsed registrations, or improperly stored. Isn't registration a great idea?
I found this story over at RightWingNews, which opines thus:
Toronto police seize 400 guns in safety push
Last Updated: Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Toronto police have seized almost 400 firearms with lapsed registrations in a six-month push aimed at reducing the number of guns on the city's streets.
In March, officers began soliciting people who owned firearms once registered across the city as part of what they call the Safe City Project. Many of those who had to surrender their firearms had either let their registrations lapse, or had stashed their guns improperly under beds or in closets.
Most had simply inherited the firearms, police said.
The Firearms Act stipulates guns must be stored in a secure place or be locked so that they are inoperable.
No charges were laid in the push, police said Tuesday.
Targeting people who had registered their guns is a preventative measure, said Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair.
"Legal handgun owners are not dangerous individuals," Blair told reporters at a Tuesday news conference. "But we know from experience that their firearms can become extremely dangerous when they get into the hands of criminals. And so we have undertaken a number of initiatives to reduce the availability of those handguns."
Police estimate there are still 4,000 guns in Ontario that are being improperly stored.
However, a critic says, the push to target registered gun owners is not getting at the root of the problem.
"The system doesn't work. It's broken. It doesn't target the right people," Greg Farrant, a spokesman for the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters, told CBC News. People who are barred from owning weapons are the ones who should be registered and tracked, he said.
There are about 2.3 million registered guns in Ontario.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2009/09/22/guns-toronto-seized-police523.html
I found this story over at RightWingNews, which opines thus:
If this isn’t the perfect evidence of why any freedom loving western citizen should be against gun registries, then you can’t make the case at all. Over the last few weeks the police in Toronto, Canada have been stormtrooping through the homes of average, everyday Torontonians that have had the misfortune to have appeared on the area’s gun registry and confiscating their legally owned guns.
What has been the pretext for this massive gun confiscation program? Unfortunately, the restrictive gun laws in Canada allow authorities to stomp through any citizen’s home and demand to see where that citizen stores his legally owned firearm. At that point, if this brownshirted police thug decides that the citizen is not storing the firearm to the law’s liking, then that citizen may have his firearm immediately stolen by the state.
Toronto’s jackbooted cops have confiscated nearly 400 firearms from basically law abiding citizens claiming that they are making the city safer. How? Why, because now criminals won’t be able to steal these guns from the public, naturally. So, because a few criminals might steal a gun here and there, these government tyrants feel that they should take everyone’s rights from them.
Catch this pretzel logic from one of Toronto’s top tyrants.
"Legal handgun owners are not dangerous individuals," Blair told reporters at a Tuesday news conference. "But we know from experience that their firearms can become extremely dangerous when they get into the hands of criminals. And so we have undertaken a number of initiatives to reduce the availability of those handguns."
Legal owners are not dangerous� so let’s put them at the mercy of criminals. Isin’t that a great idea?
Gosh. Seems to me a car gets stolen every once in a while, even in Toronto. Shouldn’t we have the cops forcefully steal every car from Toronto’s citizenry to prevent this crime?
But here is the real lesson. If the government has your name on a list of gun owners you WILL lose your rights eventually. The state WILL invade your home and take away your right to self-protection at some point. That is the sole reason to have a state gun registry, so that the state can kick down your door and take your firearms from you.
Toronto’s toadie cops have proven this singular truth.
