At 4:38pm (the time I accessed the story) on Friday, June 1, 2007, this story, carried at the Toronto Star website, reads (in part) as follows:
The federal Conservative government has rejected Ontario’s call for a ban on handguns. … [Stockwell] Day argued that other countries where handguns have been banned have seen the numbers of gun crimes increase. “In jurisdictions that have eliminated or tried to eliminate, to ban handguns – the United Kingdom, Ireland, other jurisdictions – in fact crime with guns has unfortunately gone up,” Day said.
Here comes the torque:
Day’s statements, however, don’t appear to match with the facts.
Interesting. And, dear Canadian Press, what evidence do you marshall to maintain this assertion?
There was a 16 per cent drop in the number of firearms offences in the United Kingdom in 2006 compared with the previous year, according to figures from Britain’s Home Office.
I know this particular blogging tic is increasingly frowned upon, but permit me to indulge: You. Absolute. Morons.
Read the whole thing. Terry Pedwell doesn’t get the stats a “little” wrong. He gets them deceptively wrong.
For further proof of the correctness of Day’s statement, and the absolute mendacity of the Canadian Press, let’s look at this Home Office report. Here’s what it reveals: there was a sixty percent (60%) increase in firearms crime from 1999/00 to 2004/05 (page 72). Also see Figure 3.4 – although it is a bit difficult to tell because the gradations are not provided, firearms crimes involving handguns more than doubled from 1998/99 to 2001/02, before declining somewhat until 2004/05, though finishing at a number approximately 50% higher than in 1998/99.
As of 7:39pm, there’s been at least one edit. The sentence now reads “Day’s statements, however, don’t appear to match with recent facts.”
Related;
“A few years back, Los Angeles gave 1.5 million in grants to a group known as “No Guns.” ATF just arrested its founder for sale of a machine gun, two silencers, and other toys.
Note to LA government: be cautious about trusting a million bucks to a guy who goes by “Big Weasel.”
What’s that saying? “As California goes, so goes…”
I’m not a fan of guns and I don’t want one.
However, I don’t care if the guy next door has 50 guns so long as he’s law abiding. If he isn’t law abiding, I don’t want HIM next door even if he doesn’t own one gun.
Further, I’d rather live in a society where law abiding citizens aren’t subjected to useless restrictions on their liberties imposed on them by busy-bodying, self-righteous meddlers who take it upon themselves to involve themselves in other people’s business. In fact, dealing with that kind of intrusive vermin is what varmint guns were invented to eradicate… lol.
Last but not least, the more leftard tyrants demand that I kowtow myself and subject myself to their will, the more I re-think my decision to remain unarmed. The more you leftards tell me I shouldn’t be allowed to have a gun if I damn well please, the more I want one just to spite your jack-booted asses. One day I may even get one and proudly display it for all to see. Not because I plan on using it but because you socialist nanny-state oppressors shouldn’t be allowed to say otherwise.