“You can’t use a gun for self-protection in Canada,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau flatly stated in 2022. “It’s not a right that you have.”
Source: Why Toronto Cops Are Advising Homeowners: Just Give Criminals Your Car Keys - FEE
When I first saw this headline, I thought it was more of the typical government attitude that seems to have been developing for a while of them not wanting you to defend yourself. If you defend yourself from a criminal, you become the criminal. This seems to be increasingly true in both the United States and Canada though this particular story is from Canada. So I thought this was one of those typical pieces of advice from the police. Don't attempt to defend your property, just hand it over if confronted with a criminal determined to take it.
However, it turns out to be much worse than that. It's not just that the Toronto police don't want you to defend yourself, they want you to invite criminals to take your car. You heard that right, they want you to leave the keys to your car outside your door so that criminals don't have to break into your house to find them. It seems that even locks are too much resistance to put up against would-be thieves.
This is a problem for many, many reasons but lets just focus on one for a second. That is, making it so easy to steal your car (is it really even stealing at this point?) can only incentivize more crime. It will certainly increase the number of car thefts. I can only imagine what that will do to insurance costs.
So what's next? Will the Toronto police start suggesting that you leave all valuables outside? Perhaps you should leave any expensive jewlery and all of your cash outside? Perhaps unplug your TV and drag it outside every night? Where will this lunacy end?
I've never been a big gun guy. As a citizen of the U.S. I've always supported the second amendment (the right to bear arms) but the only gun I own is a shotgun that belonged to my grandfather. However, stories like this make me want to buy more guns. Clearly, the police are not interested in protecting you nor do they have the ability to do so. When seconds count, the police are only minutes away. If you're lucky. I'm lucky that Trudeau's quote above does not apply to me.