Lorne Gunter

“While gun owners throughout the country are contemplating the potential effects of the recent national election on the individual right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms, it is most appropriate that we have as the CCRKBA Gun Rights Defender of the Month an international writer who posits gun ownership itself philosophically as an indication of private individual freedom as distinguished from state authority or governmental power,” states John M. Snyder, CCRKBA Public Affairs Director.
“Indeed,” says Snyder, “I am happy to nominate Lorne Gunter as CCRKBA Gun Rights Defender of the Month for December in the belief that the absolute philosophic underpinning he provides for the right to keep and bear arms will serve us all well in the battles for gun rights we face in the months and years ahead. As a matter of fact, he wrote me recently that, ‘I have never owned a gun, never even fired one, but I believe private gun ownership is one of the surest signs that individuals, not government, are in charge of a society.’”
Snyder says that, “Lorne Gunter philosophically places the right to keep and bear arms right at the heart of the continuing functioning of a free society. Because of the articulate way in which he does this, he certainly deserves this Award.”
Lorne was born in 1958 in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada and has been a journalist since 1991. He is married and is the father of two children.
In a recent analysis of the fact that, “Handgun bans don’t prevent murder,” Lorne wrote in a sarcastic vein that, “There is no one more persistent than a liberal with a bad idea. He knows his intellectual and moral superiority make him infallible, so he easily convinces himself there is nothing wrong with his idea. It is the world that is mistaken. Even the facts cannot be the facts when they disagree with his idea. So he forges ahead against all reason, attempting to remake the world until it accepts he was correct all along.
“Which brings me to the subject of gun bans. As useless as bans have proven liberal politicians will raise the subject over and over. Thankfully new, unconnected reports from statistics in Canada and Chicago once again point out the futility of banning guns as a way of lowering crime.”
Gunter’s statement appeared in the National Post of Canada. He is a columnist and editor board member of the National Post and a columnist with the Edmonton Journal in Canada. He has been a commentator on political and social issues since 1995 and has published nearly 2,500 pieces in that time.
Lorne pointed out that recently, “Chicago took over as murder capital of the United States. There are several cities that have higher murder rates per 100,000 population, but no city with more total murders. Even with a population of just over three million, Chicago can expect more murders, 500, in their city, than in New York (400 murders and five million population) or Los Angeles (300 murders and 3.8 million people).
“Chicago is also the gun confiscation and voluntary hand in capital of the United States. Over the past decade, Chicago police have confiscated or had surrendered to them an average of 10,800 guns per year. Chicago also had a complete ban on handgun sales and possession since 1982.”
With these statistics as background, Gunter asked, “How come there are so many handgun murders and so many confiscations in the Windy City if handguns are banned?”
Gunter answered the question. “The answer is simple,” he wrote. “Criminals ignore laws against handgun ownership more contemptuously even than they ignore those against robbery, assault, rape, drug dealing and murder.
“Crusading politicians may keep law-abiding citizens from possessing guns, but they will do nothing to stop firearm crimes because law-abiding citizens aren’t shooting down their rival meth pushers outside strip clubs at two o’clock in the morning.”
Lorne Gunter is an occasional panelist on the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) program, The National. He also is a frequent guest on Adler Online on the Corus Radio Network. He has published essays and opinion pieces in various newspapers and magazines, including Readers’ Digest, National Review, the Weekly Standard, TechCentralStation and others.
In addition to his journalism, Lorne is the past president of Civitas, a society for conservative and libertarian academics, think tankers, lobbyists and journalists, and a former member of the advisory board of the Canadian Constitution Foundation.