Let’s Not Emulate the Bad Example of Our Neighbor to the North

[W]hile gun owners in this country may look at this comical story about their neighbors to the north and chuckle at their ridiculous predicament, they must stay vigilant, as the ideology behind Canadian gun control is marching south to bring those same restrictions to the United States.

Gun control groups in the U.S. would like nothing more than for law-abiding Americans to submit to criminals in the same way Canadians have. This placating of crime has already seeped into public policy in states like New York, where Gov. Kathy Hochul recently banned the National Guard from carrying rifles while deployed in the New York City subway system to deter crime. Within a week, a criminal was shot with his own gun by a bystander after aggressively confronting passengers. So much for the National Guard being an effective deterrent.

On top of that, shootings are still happening in New York’s “sensitive places,” a legal term that describes locations where the lawful carrying of guns is prohibited. A February report detailed how two assailants in Times Square were not dissuaded by the city’s gun-free zone — and yet despite breaking the law, the suspects in the attack faced no added charges for being armed in a “sensitive place.”

While such gun control policies are universal in Canada, they’re already creeping into U.S. cities and states, and the consequences are purely negative for the innocent, law-abiding public. Voters and public officials alike must fight the urge to legislate away our constitutional right to self-defense, or soon enough, readers may find themselves placing their car keys on the front porch each night.

— Erich Pratt in Gun control fuels crime: Just ask Canada