1,900 Guns Traded for Cameras in Toronto
Seems we plebes are going to have to learn the hard way, again. Throughout history, it has been only the ‘free men’ (gentry, nobles) – the ruling class or their minions – that have been permitted to carry weapons. Serfs were disarmed, and prohibited from carrying a sword. The reasons should be clear, despite public relations stunts of this kind. Disarmament of the population is a necessary incremental step on the road to tyranny. The historical precedents are legion(s), whether the front-line service personnel know it or not: The Samurai. The English Gentry. The Redcoats. The Nazis. The Romans. Take your pick.
CBC News
December 16, 2008
Police swap for cameras hailed for ‘huge’ turnout
Shootings in the city are likely to go way up in the wake of a gun amnesty program just completed by the Toronto police.
Luckily, the shots will be of the safe, photographic variety, after the Pixels for Pistols program traded digital cameras for roughly 1,900 guns and 60,000 bullets.
The final tally for the program, which wrapped up two weeks ago, points to a resounding success.
“It’s huge,” Sgt. Chris Boddy, head of the program, said yesterday. “Last amnesty (in 2005) we only got 250 firearms and less than 20,000 rounds of ammunition.”
The only comparable haul was in 2000, when owners faced either complying with gun registry, surrendering their arms or risking hefty fines by keeping them. That year, police collected 1,700 guns.
Like a fishing lure for hungry trout, the digital clickers worked like a charm to draw out cached arms, officials said yesterday.
One man alone handed in 20 handguns from the steel-fortified gun room in his Toronto home.
The middle-aged collector, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described yesterday how the amnesty program inspired him to gather an armful of choices from his 60-gun collection and lay them out for evaluation.
“I’ll never fire this one,” he’d said to himself, moving from firearm to firearm. “I don’t know anyone who would want this one.”
All were legally registered and acquired over a lifetime as “strays” needing a safe home or from downsizing collectors, with one or two saved from his childhood.
Many of the guns in front of him, he realized, weren’t worth keeping. “They were not fun to shoot. They didn’t have a lot of value. (But) as much as they were useless, I’d like to get something for them.”
Thus, his swap of unwanted guns for 20 digital cameras and lessons from the Henry’s chain.
Sidney Finkelstein, 75, handed in four rifles he kept padlocked, bought when his kids were young so he could teach them to shoot.
The thought of some thug stealing his arsenal made him lament for a time when that was unheard of, when youths and police waved hello to each other at crosswalks. “It’s not like that any more,” he said.
Henry’s has started to mail out camera vouchers to owners, after police cleared the cashiered weapons of any links to criminal activity.
Marketing chief Max Payne says the chain is “thrilled” by the keen response to the program. “Our expectations have been blown away.”
Source | See Also: Toronto Police offer gun owners shiny new camera, home visit to disarm themselves | Layton promises urban gun control | Ont. premier calls for Canada-wide ban on handguns | Citizens Witness Gunplay, Black Uniforms as ‘Flashpoint’ Shoots Drama in Heart of Toronto | A historic gun club’s final days | Chicago, awash in gun violence, gives Toronto advice: You need a gun ban like ours | Illinois governor suggests National Guard help with Chicago gun crime | Armed Police to Roam Toronto High Schools | My gun, my right. We’ll see | Municipalities Join Miller in Calling for Final Citizen Disarmament | Pistol Pendant Causes Airport Holdup | Miller wants shooting ranges shut down | Machine Gun-Toting Officers To Patrol NYC Subway
January 27th, 2009 at 1:01 am
[...] on debtors | Russian police beat auto tariff protesters | Lawyers slam CSIS on phone recordings | 1,900 Guns Traded for Cameras in Toronto | No charges to be laid against RCMP officers in airport Taser death | India to create national spy [...]
January 30th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
[...] on debtors | Russian police beat auto tariff protesters | Lawyers slam CSIS on phone recordings | 1,900 Guns Traded for Cameras in Toronto | No charges to be laid against RCMP officers in airport Taser death | India to create national spy [...]
February 5th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
[...] | Army ‘Strategic Shock’ Report Says Troops May Be Needed To Quell U.S. Civil Unrest | 1,900 Guns Traded for Cameras in Toronto | Get close to Obama on economy and security, paper says | Financial Times: And now for a world [...]
February 12th, 2009 at 11:28 am
[...] | Army ‘Strategic Shock’ Report Says Troops May Be Needed To Quell U.S. Civil Unrest | 1,900 Guns Traded for Cameras in Toronto | Public access vs. government secrecy the issue in Supreme Court of Canada case | Afghan war [...]
February 22nd, 2009 at 8:41 am
[...] | Army ‘Strategic Shock’ Report Says Troops May Be Needed To Quell U.S. Civil Unrest | 1,900 Guns Traded for Cameras in Toronto | Public access vs. government secrecy the issue in Supreme Court of Canada case | Afghan war [...]
March 1st, 2009 at 9:16 pm
[...] | Army ‘Strategic Shock’ Report Says Troops May Be Needed To Quell U.S. Civil Unrest | 1,900 Guns Traded for Cameras in Toronto | Public access vs. government secrecy the issue in Supreme Court of Canada case | Afghan war [...]
March 15th, 2009 at 9:40 am
[...] on debtors | Russian police beat auto tariff protesters | Lawyers slam CSIS on phone recordings | 1,900 Guns Traded for Cameras in Toronto | No charges to be laid against RCMP officers in airport Taser death | India to create national spy [...]
March 20th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
[...] | Army ‘Strategic Shock’ Report Says Troops May Be Needed To Quell U.S. Civil Unrest | 1,900 Guns Traded for Cameras in Toronto | Public access vs. government secrecy the issue in Supreme Court of Canada case | Afghan war [...]
March 23rd, 2009 at 10:40 pm
[...] | See also: Police-run gun amnesties in trouble across country | 1,900 Guns Traded for Cameras in Toronto | Toronto Police offer gun owners shiny new camera, home visit to disarm themselves | Layton [...]
April 13th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
[...] urges supporters to fight long gun registry | Police-run gun amnesties in trouble across country | 1,900 Guns Traded for Cameras in Toronto | Toronto Police offer gun owners shiny new camera, home visit to disarm themselves | Layton [...]
May 12th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
[...] | Army ‘Strategic Shock’ Report Says Troops May Be Needed To Quell U.S. Civil Unrest | 1,900 Guns Traded for Cameras in Toronto | Public access vs. government secrecy the issue in Supreme Court of Canada case | Afghan war [...]
July 7th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
[...] [...]
July 31st, 2009 at 9:43 am
[...] [...]
September 20th, 2009 at 10:01 pm
[...] [...]
November 1st, 2009 at 7:24 am
[...] [...]
January 14th, 2010 at 7:20 am
[...] [...]
July 16th, 2010 at 11:09 pm
[...] | Army ‘Strategic Shock’ Report Says Troops May Be Needed To Quell U.S. Civil Unrest | 1,900 Guns Traded for Cameras in Toronto | Public access vs. government secrecy the issue in Supreme Court of Canada case | Afghan war [...]