City pulled off the real crime Closing range won't end killings

City pulled off the real crime
Closing range won't end killings
By Joe Warmington


The final shot for the Canadian National Recreation Association Gun Club's shooting range in Union Station was fired Wednesday night -- the fatal round coming from Toronto Mayor David Miller.

Bull's eye!

Are you feeling safer today with the eviction and closure of this pistol range?

Or did you even know it was there, since nothing terrible happened there in the eight decades when it was a CN-owned property and then later when it was turned over to the municipality?

Unfortunately for the 130 members who had never had an incident or accident in 81 years, Miller found out they were tucked away on the seventh floor and that was the end of them.

"It's a crime," said club president Tom Bradbeer, a member since 1982. "We feel very sad."

He described a sombre scene of about 20 defeated members gathering around telling stories and each taking a final shot in the range that helped train everyone from police officers to Olympians like Avianna Chao, just back from Beijing.

"There were some speeches," Bradbeer said. "We cleaned out the filing cabinets. When we left, the lock codes were changed and we can no longer get in any more."

Just like that.

They were evicted from their only home since 1927.

"It's just awful," said Councillor Doug Holyday, who fought and voted against this. "It's a shame because these are honest and ordinary people partaking in a eye-to-hand sport in a safe, confined environment."

The question for Mayor "We Must Ban All Handguns" Miller, of course, is now that you have put the squeeze on some legal guns and owners, how are you doing on the illegal ones?

Dismally, say the statistics.

It's been a whole year of shooting murders. Thanks to research by Sun crime reporter legend Rob Lamberti, the dead with their shooters still on the loose are Hou Chang Mao, 47, Shawn McLean, 22, Tristan Wright, 23, Sasha Haroutiun, 35, Shammal Ramsay, 18, Levis Taylor, 17, Dylan Ellis, 26, and Oliver Martin, 25, Claudio Andres Alamos, 19, Justin Brunet, 21, Michael Sean Williams, 27, Brendan MacDonald, 20, Kurt Atiba Charles, 27, Adrian Inglis Bannerman, 29, and Devon Wynter.

It's a shocking number and none had anything to do with the CNRA at Union Station.

"We feel like scapegoats," said Bradbeer, who was first introduced to Sun readers by columnist extraordinaire Sue-Ann Levy, who originally broke this story. "We have never had an incident and yet feel we have been labelled."

Although rare, there have been incidents with licensed handguns, namely the shooting death of John O'Keefe on Yonge St., allegedly perpetrated by a suspect possessing a registered handgun.

It's also a fact these pistols are sometimes stolen and end up the hands of criminals.

"I don't think there's any defence for sport shooters any more," Miller told reporters after the O'Keefe murder. "It's a hobby that creates danger to others."

The truth is it's a paltry number of hobby shooters who cause problems, compared to the guns which come over the border.

Miller's spokesman Stuart Green said the "mayor's position -- and that of city council -- is shooting clubs don't belong on city property. They will be allowed to stay open on private property."

The thing is, even with this crazy move, these members still have their guns and will now travel with them to other clubs. Not one registered gun has been taken out of commission.

In fact, not one gun has been removed from circulation.

The truth is a lot more people have killed in cars or on motorcycles, on horses or Sea-Doos, airplanes and even on treadmills than by legally owned guns.

"What's next, are they going to ban cars because people die on the roads?" asks target shooter James Gard, who then realizes he does not want to give them any ideas.

'Decent, law-abiding'

Gard describes this decision "deceivingly dishonest" and that "decent law-abiding citizens have had their freedoms suspended in the guise of stopping gun crime."

He believes it's too simple to call it gun crime. "This problem has everything to do with illegal drugs, public housing and primarily the ruthless gangs who emanate from those dwellings and make huge profits from the procurement and sale of illegal drugs."

Toronto's drug trade will continue to operate while the pistol shooting range at Union Station will not.

"It is a real injustice," said Bradbeer. "But he won."

You got your target shooters, David. Let us know when you get the murderers.