To the Editor,

By the tone of Beverly Akerman’s article, she seems to be particularly paranoid of the NRA in the gun control debate. She should be. The NRA, with over 3 million members, is the most powerful lobby organization in the world and wields considerable influence in the US. However, to claim that they have snuck into Canada and are having any influence on Canadian policy is pure fallacy.

When any group of like minded individuals is maligned and maliciously attacked, they naturally band together for mutual protection. That is exactly what has happened in Canada. If this is a lobby, so be it. As for an affiliation with the NRA, it does not exist nor have we ever received funding from them. However, we certainly do confer with them and discuss strategy and policy. Why not? The anti-gun groups regularly meet with their international counterparts. If fact, Access to Information documents reveal that the Coalition for Gun Control received over $500,000 in tax money to support their lobby efforts.

Ms Akerman’s claim that half of all gun crimes are committed with legal guns is a tired anti-gun coalition falsehood. Rather, Department of Justice studies found that 84% of the firearms used in homicides were unregistered and 74.9% were illegal smuggled guns.

The truth of the matter is that despite the expenditure of up to $2 billion on a flawed gun control system, it has failed miserably. It is ironic that the architects and supporters of the current system may well have reduced public safety by the mis-allocation of scarce police resources. Who knows how many deaths could have been avoided if this money was used more effectively to control the criminal element.

This type of sensational journalism contributes nothing to an already emotion-filled debate, and only serves to mislead and confuse the issue. The simple truth is: you cannot legislate against insanity.