Dodging questions won’t stop gun violence By: Editorial Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 31/07/2018 (2242 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

We need to talk about guns.

We don’t need to agree; we don’t even need to argue about our inability to agree until we arrive at some uncomfortable sort of midpoint compromise. But we do need to have an adult conversation about a subject that so directly concerns the well-being of citizens who leave their homes each day armed with the reasonable expectation that they’ll return safely without having been gunned down in the street.

In the wake of the recent mass shooting in Toronto and the current controversy in the United States related to the planned (and currently blocked) online publication of blueprints for untraceable, plastic 3D-printed handguns, what is needed is a level-headed discussion about guns and what governments and law enforcement agencies can do to address handgun-related violence in Canadian communities.

It will not be an easy conversation. But we need to have it. Manitoba’s provincial government seems to have demonstrated an unwillingness — or, at least, a confounding reluctance — to engage in such a dialogue, based on the performance of former justice minister Heather Stefanson at Tuesday’s media event outlining the result of the province’s just-completed gun amnesty.

Nearly 700 firearms were surrendered to 13 police agencies across Manitoba in June, prompting Ms. Stefanson — who assumed the portfolio in Wednesday’s cabinet shuffle — to describe the result as “incredible” as she noted that more unwanted guns were turned in this year than in any previous amnesty period.

Given the nature of Tuesday’s event and the various gun-related stories in headlines recently, the minister surely must have known she would face questions about the possibility of, or potential need for, a ban on handguns.

If she didn’t, she was appallingly ill-served by support staff whose job is to give briefings in advance of public events.

When asked directly, at least three times, about the handgun-ban issue, Ms. Stefanson refused to engage. First, a Free Press reporter alluded to comments by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau regarding the federal government’s intention to consider the possibility of a ban, then asked if Manitoba would support such an initiative.

“It’s something that we have discussions about at our federal-provincial-territorial meetings,” the minister offered. “We’ll continue to have those discussions with our counterparts across the country.”

The reporter reframed the question, asking if the province is having internal discussions specific to the handgun-ban issue.

“We’re continuing to look to law enforcement for their advice and to other stakeholders in the community. We’ll continue to look to that advice when it comes to how we create safer communities.”

The reporter tried a third time, this time directly asking the minister if she personally thinks a handgun ban is called for or needed.

“I look to experts for their advice on that,” Ms. Stefanson said. “We will continue to work with law enforcement and other experts.”

Everyone knows gun control is a hot-button issue for politicians, though for elected officials in this country, the topic isn’t nearly as paralyzed or polarizing as for their counterparts in our Second Amendment-obsessed neighbour to the south.

But the topic of guns and gun control is also literally a life-and-death issue, involving both homicides and suicides, and the one thing that is absolutely certain not to save anyone from being killed by a bullet is dodging the questions and circumnavigating the subject.

We need to talk about guns, and now seems a very suitable time to start the conversation in earnest.