Everything wrong with Olivia Chow's Toronto handgun ban idea

The critics came out in force after mayoral candidate Olivia Chow endorsed a Toronto handgun ban last week.

I wasn’t a fan of Chow’s announcement, but I also had a problem with what emerged as one of the most common criticisms of the Chow gun policy. To hear some tell it, even talking about laws further restricting guns is a fool’s errand because bad guys are the ones who use guns for crimes and bad guys don’t obey laws anyway.

That was the sentiment expressed by Chow’s main opponent in the mayoral race. In a statement, John Tory accused Chow of not understanding that “criminals and gang members don’t obey the law.”

That’s way too simplistic for my taste. It assumes there’s some subclass of inherently evil people — I’d guess they have moustaches — who will always ignore the law, so any laws targeting these people are useless.

I don’t buy it.

Besides, there are far more legitimate — and logically sound — reasons to take aim at the prospect of banning handguns. Let’s start with the fact that it’s simply not something the mayor can do. That means it’s more platitude than meaningful policy.

The last time a Toronto mayor tried to find a way to limit the presence of guns within city limits, Mayor David Miller’s city council embarked on a bizarre quest to shutter shooting ranges and chase away the Toronto Sportsmen’s show at Exhibition Place. That didn’t seem like a great use of the mayor’s time back in 2008, anyone running for the job should be ready to take another crack at it.

Given that experience and the limits of the office, what Chow is really pledging to do is ask the federal government to pass laws further restricting handgun possession.

And I find it hard to get all that enthused over what will amount to a polite request.

I’m not saying that addressing youth violence shouldn’t be a priority for whoever sits in the mayor’s chair after the election in October. It’s just that there are better ways to address those issues — ways that actually fall within council’s scope of power.

That would include things like major investments in affordable housing. Things like youth programs and measurements to ensure those youth programs are doing what they’re supposed to do. Things like real programs to reduce poverty. Things like police accountability.

Things like transit.

To her credit, Chow did touch on some of these measures in her announcement, but that was mostly lost amidst her showy call for gun control. It stood as another platitude in a political climate that is already dominated by way too many of them.

I’d rather see real policy.