To the Editor:
The killing of innocent children and adults always make us angry. Rightly so. Who in his or her right mind could do such a horrible deed?
Most agree that a person mentally deranged would kill their own parent and other innocent children. The state of Connecticut has the country's fifth toughest gun laws, including an assault weapons ban. Whenever a mass murder takes place anywhere in the world, the first thing we hear from the media is that we need to outlaw more firearms.
Our laws in Canada differ than those in the USA. In Canada we have no property rights so the government of the day can by law confiscate anything that we own.
Fortunately 99.9 per cent of the gun owners in Canada are law abiding citizens. We are not criminals, not insane, and don't go around shooting innocent bystanders. We don't need to apologize to anyone because we own a firearm. But the media tends to lump all lawful and peaceful firearm owners into the same pot. Somehow owning a gun makes one a potential criminal in this country. We need to register the criminals and the insane, and not lawful firearm owners. Some people enjoy fishing, others enjoy recreational shooting. Taking the guns away from the law abiding citizens is like trying to stop highway deaths through confiscating all vehicles that produce more than 100 horsepower.
How many of us would tolerate such a law? The real solution is through better mental health, compulsory firearm safety training and education, and not finger pointing and blaming the lawful firearm owners.
Inky Mark, former Member of Parliament, Dauphin, MB.
