What do Danny Santapaga, Graham Jovanovic, Justin Green and Andrew Winchester have in common? All four men are criminals who used their firearms licenses to legally purchase guns they sold illegally. They are also the four reasons why the Toronto Police Service (TPS) treats many licensed firearm owners like criminals.
The whiteshirts at the Toronto Police Service believe these criminals are actually model citizens who took advantage of a weak gun control system to funnel guns into the criminal underworld.
There’s only one problem with that ludicrous supposition; Canada does not have a “weak gun control system.” In fact, Canada has one of the strongest firearms control systems in the world.
Yes, four men bought guns and sold them for a hefty profit to criminals. All four men are currently serving hefty prison sentences for their actions, just as they should. Only the most idiotic would believe guns bought legally then sold to criminals would not be traced back to him. In fact that’s precisely how every one of these misguided morons were caught.
These bad guys are the exception, not the rule, when it comes to the behavior of licensed firearm owners.
Crown attorney Erin Pancer, speaking about university student Justin Green, who sold 23 guns to criminals in roughly 6 months, said this.
“Green’s the worst type of offender. He’s a trusted citizen who betrayed that trust by trafficking firearms and jeopardizing the lives of Torontonians.”
Nailed it.
We hold people accountable for their actions in Canada. We do not penalize entire swaths of our populace simply because they own a particular piece of private property.
Except… that’s precisely what we do when it comes to guns. We blame every licensed firearm owner for the crimes of a very few. That’s precisely what the Toronto Police Service and its lead on this issue, Supt. Gordon Sneddon, is doing right now.
In a document cited by The Toronto Star Supt. Gordon Sneddon decries that “once they have a license they can buy as many guns as they want.”
Once you are deemed responsible to purchase firearms, is there some magical numerical limit which, once exceeded, transforms a responsible gun owner into a criminal? That’s the implication made by Supt. Gordon, and it’s offensive.
So long as a firearm owner abides by the law what difference does it make how many firearms he or she owns?
Supt. Sneddon’s memo goes on to claim that “No one is thinking ‘dirty’ during the review process” and actually places blame on the RCMP for creating this domestic firearm trafficking problem. Supt. Sneddon really ought to look more closely at the RCMP’s handling of the Canadian Firearms Program before he spouts such obvious misinformation.
But back to Danny Santapaga, Graham Jovanovic, Justin Green and Andrew Winchester.
Two of these idiots thought selling guns to criminals was a “good business opportunity.” The other two were drug addicts looking to pay for their expensive drug habits. All four of them lacked the intelligence to realize guns sold to criminals would easily be tracked back to them and send them directly to prison.
The Toronto Police Service (and the Star) uses the fact these four morons broke the law as foundation for their premise that all licensed firearm owners are criminals. The only difference is the rest of us haven’t been caught yet.
Sneddon saved his biggest line of garbage for the end of his memo; “It’s ironic that in the U.S.A. every sale of a gun including long guns can be traced by the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) as the store owner is required to report the sale to the ATF. In Canada we do neither.”
If that “ten-pounds-of-BS-in-a-five-pound-bag” statement is true, how did the Toronto Police Service trace the guns found at crime scenes back to Danny Santapaga, Graham Jovanovic, Justin Green and Andrew Winchester?
Guess they just “got lucky”?
Maybe this apalling disinformation is what Supt. Gordon Sneddon would like Canadians to believe. Or maybe the good Supt. Sneddon doesn’t have a clue what he is talking about.