Like my colleagues in the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police and the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police, I believe there is value in the gun registry. It provides important information to the police that enables us to do our jobs a little more safely, and it enables us to keep our communities safer.
I spend a lot of time working with my American colleagues on gun control issues, and when I tell them that we have such a registry in this country, they are astounded and quite envious that information is available to law enforcement. But as I have acknowledged previously, the truth is that unfortunately gangsters in my town don't register their handguns. So the problem I'm having with my gangsters killing each other with their handguns is not addressed adequately by a registry. But the registry still has value. Just because it doesn't have value for that problem does not mean it doesn't have value to the police. That's my position on the registry.
This is a vast country, and there are many jurisdictions and circumstances where it's not a problem of public safety for individuals to own firearms. Certainly for the farmer in Saskatchewan or the bear hunter in northern Ontario, I have no concerns about responsible gun ownership, as long as those firearms are lawfully obtained, properly registered, and safely secured. That's not an issue for us. I believe that what will help us keep our community safe are laws that enable us when we apprehend individuals in the criminal possession of a firearm.
In Toronto my problem is overwhelmingly one of handguns, but criminal possession of any firearm or crimes committed with firearms are more dangerous than with other weapons. That's because of the radius of harm that those weapons can bring into a community. In a large urban centre, if somebody pulls out a gun on Yonge Street and blasts away, it is almost inevitable that innocent people will be caught in the crossfire.
We will do the work of apprehending those individuals and taking those guns off the street, but in my ideal scenario, there are real consequences for those actions. Individuals who might be predisposed to getting guns would be deterred from making that choice and endangering everyone else because they will know that they will get caught, and when caught there will be real consequences.
We've done everything we can in Toronto to deal with the first part of that. We've done everything we can to make sure they know they will get caught. We are starting to achieve some success in that regard, but in order for that to be effective, they also have to know that when they are caught there will be certain and serious consequences for their conduct. I don't believe right now that is the perception among our gangsters and people who would endanger others. I think it seriously undermines our efforts to maintain public confidence.
In order for a police service to do their job, we have to maintain two things in our relationship with the public. First is trust that we will do the right things for the right reasons. Second is confidence that we can competently address issues of public safety. Only if we do those things can we maintain a high degree of public confidence. Without them we can't do our jobs.
I believe those in the public trust us and know we're doing our very best, but I do not believe they are fully confident in the entire criminal justice system to deal effectively with these individuals. I think we need to be able to provide them with assurances that there will be real consequences, these guys will be caught, and our communities will be protected from individuals who would take up guns, blast away, and put so many people at risk.