CTV News: Chris Lewis Retired OPP Commissioner on Bill C-21
CTV Morning Anchor Anne-Marie Mediwake: Gun stores in Canada say they have never been busier, after the government tabled a bill that would, if passed, freeze handgun sales. How will this run on guns affect the purpose of this proposed law? Let’s ask CTV public safety expert Chris Lewis. Nice to have you back.
Retired OPP Commissioner Chris Lewis : Good morning Anne-Marie.
Anchor : Let’s talk about federal Bill C-21. It includes a national freeze on buying, selling, importing, and transferring handguns; removing firearms licences from people with records of criminal harassment, domestic violence, stalking; and increasing criminal penalties for gun smuggling and trafficking; and a “red flag law” that would require those considered a danger to themselves or others to have to surrender their firearms to law enforcement. So, given the amount of illegal guns in this country, will that proposed law make Canada safer?
Chris Lewis : I don’t really think it’s going to make a big difference. The people who are using guns now aren’t the lawful owners, that have registered guns and have the background checks, have been trained, and safely store them. That’s not who is committing the violent crimes. It’s people who are using smuggled guns from the United States, that’s the vast majority of guns used in crime, handguns. There’re all kinds of laws in effect now that they’re disobeying, so adding more laws for the lawful owners isn’t going to impact the criminals who don’t care about the laws, they commit them all including murder. A lot of that stuff that’s in there is already in place, it’s just kind of tidying up a bit and that’s fine, but banning lawfully owned handguns just is not going to solve the problem.
Anchor : You’re not surprised by this I know. There have been lineups outside of gun stores all week since this Bill was tabled. Does this boost in sales have any effect on the potential law?
Chris Lewis : No, because it’s not the criminals who are lining up to buy them. They can’t. They have to get them through the underground economy, through smuggling, through organized crime. That’s the problem. That’s where we need to focus. The rifles and handguns that were used in Nova Scotia were all illegally owned. He violated every law on the books. The lawful owners aren’t guys like that. They’re people who are just into sport shooting and hunting. I don’t care if there’s any guns. I don’t any guns any more at all, but if we’re going to focus let’s focus on the right things: criminals, smuggling, the people who shouldn’t have guns.
Anchor : Okay, that’s my next question to you. Illegal guns at the border are what you know from your time in the service. That’s what’s involved in the crimes. Those are the ones that we’re concerned about. But how do we fight that?
Chris Lewis : We need to focus more on the RCMP and CBSA, the two agencies that really are responsible for the border crime and smuggling, working with local and provincial law enforcement. But the RCMP don’t have the funding or the people to do that right now. They have very little time or resources. That’s where the focus needs to be. Hard investigations. Really go after those people, working with US authorities. And then focus on kids and try to keep them away from these lifestyles, and that’s a long-term goal, but we still need to keep focusing on that.
Anchor : You advise us here, and our viewers at CTV, but if you were to advise the government and say, they want to be seen as doing some kind of action on guns and crime, gun crime here in Canada. What would you advise them to do?
Chris Lewis : Sure. That’s just it. Focus on smuggling. Try to stop that flow of guns coming into Canada. Get police departments back into doing things effectively, working with kids trying to keep them away from the guns and gang lifestyle, and do some heavy-handed investigations. We need to get tough. The Liberal government’s already lowering the penalty for, or proposing to, on some gun crimes, but then they say want to get tough on legal gun owners. I just don’t get that. We need to focus on the criminals and make it tough, as opposed to going the other way and lightening some sentences. So, there’s a lot of work to be done here, and we’re not focusing on the right direction.
Anchor :Chris, good to talk to you. Have a great weekend.
Chris Lewis : You too Anne-Marie. All the best.
source:
https://www.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=2462180
www.ctvnews.ca
