In response to the letters to the editor in favour of tougher gun control and to those who believe that a gun, safely secured, kills people, or that any male adult who owns a firearm is violent and is likely to commit a violent act with one, I would like you to carefully think of the $2 billion spent on the long gun registry. It has been proven ineffective in crime prevention, as a piece of paper will not prevent an unstable person from committing an unspeakable act with a firearm, as it has not been the act of the firearm itself, but a deranged nut bar behind a firearm.
I am in full agreement that there should be some screening process before a PAL card is issued. I would like to state that there have been many violent crimes committed with other methods, as in the robbery of the Peacock’s Perch in November of 2011, when the man armed with a snow shovel robbed the store of an undisclosed amount of cash. One would think that there should be a snow shovel registry to prevent this from happening again, but I am sure any reader with a small degree of common sense would agree that would not be effective.
In closing, I would wish that the readers understand that it is the act of an unstable person, and not an avid outdoors person who has safely secured his firearms, who has killed our fellow man.
Robert Piluke
Penticton