Toronto Police Chief Doesn't Support Gun Bans

Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders and at least five other active and retired Canadian police leaders have a message for politicians campaigning to ban guns from hunters, farmers and sport shooters: “No.” Saunders yesterday declined to support Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mayor John Tory’s marketing for massive bans to win votes.

He was responding to reporters at police headquarters asking about Tory’s renewed calls to eliminate federally licensed handgun owners from Toronto, after more than 20 gang shootings across the city this month.

‘No One Solution’

The chief of Canada’s largest municipal force didn’t mention the word “ban” during the 23-minute press conference. “Anything that helps is a benefit, but there is no one solution to this,” Saunders said. “That’s the message I’m trying to get across.” Saunders joins the heads of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Winnipeg police and a national police lobby among officers who don’t support mass confiscation.

Deepening Rift

The growing opposition to bans over the past year highlights a deepening rift in Canadian culture.

Trudeau, Tory and their allies are ramping up efforts to criminalize the country’s safest and most-lawful citizens and take away their firearms, while more and more people oppose such authoritarian moves.

Some police want honest citizens disarmed. Trudeau’s minister for confiscation, Bill Blair, was the Toronto police chief before Saunders.

Bans for Votes

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Blair in June promised the biggest single gun bans in Canadian history if Trudeau’s Liberal Party is re-elected, as opinion polls show Liberal voters are the most hostile to firearm owners. Seizures would start with rifle and shotgun owners, before bans on handgun owners. Tory won a second term as mayor campaigning to eliminate target shooters. He asked them to…CONTINUE READING HERE.