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Any attempt to ban firearms is always countered with a specious argument about “criminals.”

Opposing voices insist no laws banning or restricting guns will do anything to deter criminals. No, of course they won’t, but the argument is always trotted out because it sounds so plausible, so right and so morally just. Yet the argument is so old, so tired and so wrong it has moss growing on its side, like some old tree sitting in the shade.

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For six months, a “conversation” about banning handguns and assault weapons was held across Canada by Bill Blair, former Toronto chief of police and currently federal minister of the awkwardly named Border Security and Organized Crime Reduction.

The upshot was a report that Canadians are polarized on the question of banning handguns and assault weapons. It was not about criminals — that’s another consultation completely.

The focus was “law-abiding” gun owners. That’s how they describe themselves. It’s yet another specious statement because just about everyone who legally buys a firearm is presumed law-abiding. And they are. Until they shoot someone. Usually themselves. (Three-quarters of gun-related deaths are suicide.)