Uninformed hysteria

It astounds me to see the uninformed opinion of some in regard to pistols.

There are many activities in Canada, especially once you are out of major city centres that revolve around activities you may not do in a metropolis, such as owning a pistol, rifle or shotgun. 

Re: the letter No one needs a handgun, the writer suggests: "take a second to research countries where such weapons are banned." Obviously, he has not seen the stats for London, England, where handguns are banned. This year, it surpassed New York for murders per capita. 

I guess the handgun ban is working there? Not to mention the high rate of mass murder by way of stabbing that happens in China almost monthly, another place where it is difficult to own a handgun.

There are a myriad of ways people can be killed, a handgun is just one of them. It is just as easy with a shotgun, rifle, or crossbow which are all legal. Should we ban those also? What about knives, baseball bats, etc? 

My issue is with Big Brother initiating more and more rules for us law-abiding citizens. What will the next ban they impose on us be?

The issue I see is the lack of background checks for mental incapacity, as only someone "not in their right mind" would attempt to shoot and kill another individual. 

What we require is deeper and more refined background checks in regards to mental capacity. Of course, when we have these mass killings, it causes an uproar. But these are outliers and need to be investigated on a case by case basis to determine cause, not with a rubber stamp of 'let's ban all handguns.'  

It is this type of knee-jerk response that causes hysteria and continues to give Big Brother the cause and power to shrink our rights as Canadians.

J. Anderson