Re: "CrossIron shooting scary deal," p. 24, Oct. 1 Gazette.
Once upon a time reporters and journalists could be trusted to report some semblance of facts in the articles they published.
It would seem that our local media is now a part of the Liberal Party of Canada, based on the spin Mr. Lindsay elected to put in his recent commentary.
I agree with his opening few paragraphs but then the commentary takes a serious political spin and one that is not in any way based on truth or facts.
It is disturbing that criminals show up at malls or in public places with firearms. I say criminals as there are laws that prohibit this very thing. Just as there are laws making it illegal to shoot at a person. I would hope all functional people understand this simple fact.
The police that he holds in such high esteem would prefer not to divulge whether it was gang related but I would bet the farm it is. The gang-bangers choose public places to take care of business in order to make it harder to get caught.
That is the "why" you seem lost on, Mr. Lindsay. You are not comfortable with firearms, scared of inanimate objects is how I would read it, but that is your business, not the readership's.
The facts you should have taken the time to research prior to going to print are as follows.
You mention the police and military as being "well trained." Fact is, in basic the RCMP receives a whopping 785 hours in which to learn laws, driving, arrest techniques, court etiquette and lastly, firearms training.
I am a sport shooter and have hundreds of friends in both law enforcement and the military.
A small percentage are actually very proficient with firearms, unfortunately the vast majority are not. The issued badge and sidearm are just required parts of the uniform to many.
Budgets preclude each individual officer from shooting several thousand rounds of ammo through different firearms on a weekly or even monthly basis. The RCMP annual firearms re-certification consists of four to five hours and around 100 shots being fired. The targets are human torso size, so 17 inches by 30 inches and any hit on the target counts at ranges from three to 15 metres.
The kill zone on these targets is 70 square inches yet many trained veteran police can't hit that size of target regularly let alone under the stress of a gunfight. Fact check the 1986 FBI shootout in Florida if you don't believe me.
There is not a single person on earth who can be predicted to act in a certain way when under fire regardless of their training. Situations vary as do reactions. Some people by nature deal better with complex stressful situations than others. There are a plethora of examples to back this up, but that would mean some research on your part.
There are literally thousands of sport shooters in Alberta and a large number spend at least one or two weekends at the range every month. The serious competitive shooter every day or two. Understand I am not knocking the police or military as they simply do not have the time nor budgets for this sort of dedicated firearms practice. Firearms competence is a skill that is lost quickly if not kept up with.
You can't compare Canada to the USA when it comes to almost anything, especially firearms. People in the USA have rights. Canadians do not, but do have to go through daily background checks and have a litany of very badly written laws to live within in order to have the privilege of owning a firearm.
I suspect you did not bother to see what all is involved to legally purchase, own and store a firearm in Canada. Reach out to me and I would happily educate you.
You also might want to look at the violent crime rates in states and countries that have draconian gun laws versus the ones that actually trust their citizens. It will astound you.
Regardless of what political party you back they should be taking a hard stand on the criminals rather than the law abiding who are always the lowest hanging fruit and the easiest to control as they are law abiding in the first place.
I would suspect that all of the criminal element will vote for the Liberals as it assures them of additional rights, protections and general safety from good guys with guns. Sad, isn't it, that Canada has become a country of victims.
Rick Timmins,
Didsbury
