Via Volokh;
Vancouver school board trustee Sharon Gregson [publicly argues that] Canadians need to broaden their thinking about handgun ownership. “There is a thinking that guns can only be bad and related to crime, and that’s not my experience as a legal gun owner, participating in a gun sport,” Ms. Gregson said, explaining why she decided to get a handgun permit in Utah….
But some of Ms. Gregson’s colleagues have urged the trustee, a married mother of four, to stop shooting her mouth off. Trustee Clarence Hanson said her comments send the wrong message to kids. [Ed note – “stop shooting her mouth off”… how clever!]
“I was quite shocked,” Mr. Hanson said after he heard Ms. Gregson on a morning radio program yesterday, in which she argued in favour of easier access for permits to carry a concealed gun, especially for women who feel threatened. “As a school trustee, my concern is basically, we have a number of children … who sometimes feel harassed and bullied. I don’t want them to get the impression that this is the way to protect yourself,” Mr. Hanson said. “If they get a feeling that a school trustee who represents them thinks it’s okay to protect yourself in this way, … we’re going down a dangerous road, I think.” …
Ms. Gregson said she did not mean to suggest that kids in the school system be urged to carry guns. However, she did suggest that the outcome of the Montreal massacre might have been different if any one of Marc Lepine’s 14 female victims had been carrying a weapon…..
Not Lepine. Gharbi. His name was Gamil Rodrigue Gharbi.
The head of the Canada’s main gun-control lobby[, Wendy Cukier,] denounced Ms. Gregson’s comments as well …. “It’s an absurd comment. It’s completely contrary to Canadian traditions. It has no basis in fact, and for someone who is associated with schools to be making those comments is particularly alarming, especially a woman.” …
Well, Ms. Cukier… here’s a comment from a woman. I hope you find it alarming.
Not only did I shoot the gopher that graces the top of this page, I did so with what is now a prohibited firearm – the same .22 rifle I’ve used to dispatch gophers since I was 12 years old. And God willing, I’ll dispatch a few more with it in years to come.
And never mind the teachers – thinking back to the class of 16 that I graduated with, at least half of the girls I knew in school with would have proven a worthy match for Gharbi or any other nutcase intent on turning them into next year’s excuse for your precious televised candle-light marches – given half a chance and access to the appropriate firepower.
That any individual would presume define “acceptable” thought for an entire gender is completely contrary to our western democratic traditions, not to mention, an insult to all Canadian women. Suffice it to say, Wendy Cukier – you don’t speak for me.
h/t
