Madam Speaker, it gives me pleasure to present a petition today from men and women in southern Ontario.
The petitioners would like to draw the attention of the House to the fact that public safety is the number one priority of the criminal justice system. The existing controls on law-abiding, responsible firearm owners are more than enough to ensure public safety and that the current and proposed laws criminalizing certain firearm activities when the danger to the public safety and criminal intent is either virtually non-existent or totally absent.
The target for all gun control laws in the Criminal Code of Canada must be the criminals who are either a danger to the safety of the public or those who have criminal intent, not law-abiding, responsible firearm owners. No amount of gun control has ever succeeded in preventing criminals from acquiring guns by illegal means. What our criminal justice system must ensure is that criminals who steal, import, sell and possess guns and/or use guns in the commission of a crime will be severely punished.
Therefore, the petitioners pray and request Parliament to support laws that will severely punish all violent criminals who use weapons in the commission of a crime; second, support new Criminal Code firearms control provisions which recognize and protect the right of law-abiding citizens to own and use recreational firearms, and last, support legislation which repeals and modifies existing controls-