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Bullet proof: why a ban on bullets isn’t enough

For the 20 minutes that police Chief Bill Blair spoke on the subject of guns and gun violence at June 15’s Police Services Board meeting, it was easy to see why some progressives still believe he’s the best top cop this city’s ever had.

In his first public pronouncements on the Eaton Centre shooting since the day of (he’s been out of town on police business), Blair dazzled, talking about the socioeconomic factors at the root of gun violence. And pointing out how important employment opportunities are in determining which way kids in disadvantaged communities turn out.

The chief went on to emphasize that it’s important not to stigmatize entire communities. The great majority of those living in the city’s priority neighbourhoods are productive, law-abiding citizens.

Spellbinding stuff coming from the city’s top law enforcer, especially when Blair’s view so sharply conflicts with the mayor’s dangerous thinking on the subject.

Blair couldn’t have picked a more opportune time to let loose: the board is scheduled to hear deputations the same day from Scadding Court Community Centre staff on the importance of keeping in place police-youth initiatives in Regent Park and Alexandra Park – neighbourhoods that have come under media scrutiny in the aftermath of the June 2 Eaton Centre shooting.

But on the issue that’s been clogging the airwaves since, namely Councillor Adam Vaughan’s call for a ban on bullets, the chief would disappoint.

Blair offered that a ban would do little to curtail violent crime.

Back in 2007, he had a different view, supporting a resolution tabled by Scarborough MPP Brad Duguid, now the minister of economic development, to outright ban the sale of ammo for handguns, except at gun ranges.

At least the media release issued by Duguid at the time said his resolution had the chief’s support. However, Blair’s spokesperson, Mark Pugash, says it wouldn’t be the first time a politician claimed that an anti-gun measure had the chief’s support. (Duguid is out of town and could not be reached for comment.)

That resolution also proposed making it illegal to buy bullets through the mail or online, and called for ballistics tests on every firearm purchased in Ontario to be recorded in a database so weapons could be traced in the event that they were used in the commission of a crime.

If the sale of ammo outside gun ranges could not be banned, Duguid’s motion said, then detailed record-keeping by retailers of all bullet purchases should be mandatory.

His resolution was passed by the Legislature but remains in limbo. A study of the proposals requested of the Chief Firearms Officer (CFO) was only recently delivered to the Ministry of Community Safety and Corrections.

Presently, gun and ammo retailers are required by the feds to log a buyer’s name and licence number. But not all follow that rule, arguing it’s too onerous and raises privacy issues. In the future, they may not be required to record such info at all the federal government, fresh from its killing of the long gun registry, has signalled its intention to do away with the recording of ammo transactions. Ontario may decide not to abide by the new rules, but other provinces like Alberta will, opening the door to the possibility of interprovincial movement of ammo.

We’ve heard it a million times: Guns don’t kill people people kill people. But that argument ignores the fact that there are more than a few holes in our ammo control laws, which have been described by the province’s former deputy CFO as “outdated, contradictory, ambiguous and in some areas completely lacking” – not to mention weakly enforced.

News reports critical of Vaughan’s call for a ban have said that the federal Firearms Act requires buyers of ammunition to have a firearms licence. True, but Ontario’s Ammunition Regulation Act sets out no such restriction. All that’s required under the latter is that the buyer be over 18 and show photo ID, a discrepancy that at the very least creates confusion, if not a legal loophole.

Even more alarming are the lax provisions of Canada’s Explosives Act, which allow anyone to purchase up to 25 kilograms of gunpowder (enough to load 500,000 rounds) and all the casings, caps and primers needed to make bullets without a firearms licence. Police say gangbangers aren’t in the habit of making their own rounds, but a simple Google search will lead you to any number of how-to instructional videos.

Another reality check: it is not an offence in and of itself to possess ammunition in Canada. Indeed, Duguid expressed concern in his resolution about cops having to let gangbangers go who were found in possession of ammunition after they’d dumped their guns.

The Firearms Act is mostly silent on the issue of storage of ammunition, which goes to Vaughan’s and others’ concerns about bullets bleeding into the black market. Also fuelling concern is that virtually all types of ammunition are interchangeable between handguns and long guns.

For all the opposition Vaughan’s bullet ban pitch has stirred up, it can be argued that it doesn’t go far enough. A bullet ban in Toronto would only prevent new businesses from selling ammo, not existing ones. Maybe, after Monday’s shooting at a sidewalk café in Little Italy that left one man dead and another in hospital with minor injuries, it’s time to reconsider a handgun ban.

Community Safety Minister Madeleine Meilleur does support a handgun ban. There are few legitimate reasons for anyone outside law enforcement to own guns or ammunition.

It’s delusional and dangerous to argue that our rules governing guns and ammo are strong enough. Obviously they’re not if legal guns are still finding their way into the black market.

The theory that tightening gun control laws is pointless since criminals don’t abide by them ignores research on the subject that suggests otherwise. The trade in guns and ammo must be looked at in the global context. The networks that feed the black market here are transnational.

On that front, Canada’s reputation of cooperation when it comes to controlling the world trade in small arms and so-called light weapons is slipping.

We can never truly combat gun violence without addressing the root causes, of course. All you have to do is take a look at the mapping of shootings in Toronto to know that.

But the more tools given police to fight gun violence, and the stricter the legislative controls, the less likely it is that guns and ammo will end up in the wrong hands. Right now we have a government in Ottawa that’s headed in the opposite direction, protecting the interests of the lucrative guns and ammo business at the expense of public safety.

enzom@nowtoronto.com | twitter.com/nowtorontonews

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