Gun Policy: Controlling Violence or Political Posturing?

Gun Policy: Controlling Violence or Political Posturing?

By Bruce Gold

One unfortunate result of the recent gun violence is the re-emergence of the politically attractive idea of blaming inanimate objects - guns- for the wilful acts of criminals. This is an attractive strategy because it's emotionally appealing to an upset public and spares politicians the difficult task of going after organized crime or deranged criminals. The policy has the further advantage of outraging law-abiding gun owners, who know perfectly well that inanimate objects don't cause violence. This makes a blatantly political manoeuver seem bold and somehow "heroic". Most importantly, attention can be drawn away from expensive, difficult to address problems, such as organized crime, criminal subcultures and adequate opportunities for our ongoing flood of immigrants with a politically correct "morality crusade" against guns.

The $380,000 contract the Liberal government gave Kim Doran (an employee of the Liberal Party) to represent the Coalition for Gun Control is a measure of how appealing this strategy was to the Liberals.
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Referenced in Resource Library - Viewpoint