Where do Surrey’s mayoral candidates stand on a federal handgun ban?
Posted August 21, 2018 7:34 am.
Last Updated August 21, 2018 7:48 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
SURREY (NEWS 1130) – Councillors in Montreal have called for a nationwide handgun ban, following in the footsteps of politicians in Toronto, after a deadly summer in Ontario’s capital.
In Surrey, where gun violence has seemingly been on the rise recently, mayoral candidates are weighing in on the issue — but with only tentative support for any federal handgun bans.
The answers ranged from all-out support from a former mayor to a more guarded response from current councillor Bruce Hayne who says it would be tough to implement.
Hayne, who will be running as an independent in October, says an outright handgun ban needs further study before a final decision.
“The devil is in the details. I think it would be very problematic to implement something like that, particularly in light of the fact that the gangsters and the bad people in our community certainly don’t just go out and buy their handguns legally, typically,” Hayne says. “I think it would do very little to reduce handguns in the possession of gangsters.”
However, he supports enhanced background checks for those who want to own handguns legally, which he believes would cut down on the number of handguns obtained through theft or illegal imports. As for reintroducing the long gun registry, Hayne says the bureaucracy would be too burdensome.
“Certainly, in rural parts of the country, long guns are very common and are pretty essential,” Hayne says. “So I’m not sure the long-gun registry really did what it was hoping to do, but if our police department came to us and said, ‘this is something we would like to see,’ then absolutely, we would support them in that.”
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Pauline Greaves, a Langara College instructor and also an independent candidate in the 2018 municipal election, says the issue is far more complex. She echoes Hayne’s call for more studies on gun owners.
“I think what we need is more information before we actually move to that step to asking for the ban,” Greaves says. “There is a huge gap in knowledge gap right now, in terms of getting some data on the individuals that use handguns: How did they acquire the guns? Did they go through the process? Or did they get it by other means?”
Former Surrey mayor Doug McCallum, who is running for mayor again this year, says Ottawa should revisit handgun legislation. He supports “toughening up” laws with respect to gun ownership, in general.
“It’s time that we start to take some positive action towards doing some steps to prevent the crime that is happening in our communities,” says McCallum.
He believes Surrey has outgrown the RCMP and wants to see the city have its own municipal police force.
Tom Gill, a four-term councillor with Surrey First and its 2018 candidate, supports the motion on a federal gun ban and says Canadian culture has changed enough to start the debate.
“Society needs some significant changes and this is a new culture,” Gill says. “The availability and the access is the big problem. Restricting handguns — and in fact, eliminating handguns — in society is something that we really need to look at.”
