MOORE: Gun owners, you're on your own
John Moore
Published:
May 4, 2020
Gun owners, fair warning; I no longer have your back.
If Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s latest legislation against assault weapons really is the first salvo in a campaign to take away every last gun, then you’re on your own.
When Toronto Mayor John Tory and his Calgary counterpart, Nahead Nenshi, ban shooting ranges, it’s your fight.
It wasn’t always this way.
If I am to be labeled a “liberal,” then I was one of the rare ones willing to stand by you. I live in possibly the greatest concentration of left leaners in the country.
I am a bike riding, Chardonnay swilling, Toronto downtowner.
I have also spent the last 20 years of my career writing and radio broadcasting and I have always defended the rights of gun owners. No more.
I’m done with your hectoring and condescension. I’m through with your paranoia.
I don’t need to be lectured on a constitutional amendment from another country. The fact that I don’t own a gun is immaterial. That I live in an urban setting doesn’t mean I don’t understand a farmer’s need for a firearm for pest control.
I also don’t need the patronizing reminders about how it’s not “a weapon.”
This new indifference stems from a tweet I posted on May 1 that read: “I support gun rights for hunters and target shooters. I don’t know why anyone needs automatic weapons.”
A pretty rare endorsement from a guy who lives in the most liberal North American city outside of San Francisco.
But this brought on such a torrent of abusive tweets my Twitter feed started to look like one of the screens from the Matrix.
Many dwelled on my use of the word “automatic” with tart dispositions about the intricacies of different guns. Ok, I get it. I should have said “assault.”
I don’t have a PhD in guns but you likely don’t have a degree in economics and yet I’m sure you have views on the federal budget.
NO small number of people said “automatic” guns are already banned in Canada. In which case, why the outrage? If Trudeau and Blair are banning something that is already banned, let’s all go back to bed.
I’ll set aside those who called me a “libtard.”
I may not be an expert in guns but I have fired one. I have a policy of trying pretty well everything and if I was going to talk about guns on my radio show (which is in a city where the mayor wants to ban ALL guns), then I thought I should go to a gun range.
My friend, Becky Coles, and her father, John, took me to an indoor range. They taught me to load the magazine of a CZ 75 Compact.
John instructed me on aiming, trigger pressure and recoil. I fired maybe 100 shots. Like most first-timers, I had some good luck. I get that the skill and the thrill are in replicating the good shots.
It was not an experience I care to repeat. I’m just not a gun person. Becky and John have no interest in my hobbies of cycling and golfing.
But that’s the difference.
I understand that target shooting is a hobby not a personality disorder. I support hunting (so long as you eat what you kill). I’m not one of those urban snobs who calls gun owners “nutters” or wants to ban ranges or compel people to store their weapons at the range (like many, John and Becky go to different ones).
I do want sensible gun laws. As a matter of fact, even an overwhelming majority of gun owners have few issues with gun storage and transportation laws. They know they reduce the incidence of suicide, accidents and guns falling into criminal hands.
Perhaps, the cohort of angry gun owners is small. I can’t tell. But I don’t need their stress-inducing insults and tirades.
Gun owners, you had an ally but you’re on your own now.
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Originally Posted by Badenoch
