Posted on 09/06/2002 5:18:41 AM PDT by Lorenb420
Gun shop owners want the government to stop making life easy for criminals and start helping retailers protect themselves.
Nick Barlas, owner of Nick's Sport Shop on Yonge and Wellesley Sts., said it's the government's tough gun control laws, not robbers, which keep him from defending himself.
"They're not protecting me, they're protecting the criminals," he said.
Registration laws have gotten stricter on regular gun-toting citizens since Bill C-68 was implemented in 1995.
Barlas said he isn't surprised when any shop is robbed these days.
Shop owners in countries like the United States, where gun control laws are much more lenient, are in a far better position to protect themselves.
"If a robber knows you have a gun under your store counter, he's not gonna come in."
Patricia Interdonato, owner of Giovanni's Gun Shop on Wilson Ave., agrees -- but after being robbed three times, she doesn't take any chances.
Now she won't let anybody through the store's locked gated door without seeing a gun owner's licence. "Maybe they should follow my example," she said of other gun stores.
David Austin, spokesman for the Canadian Firearms Association, said that shop owners are always welcome to apply for a permit that allows them to carry a gun.
Outlaw guns and only outlaws have them.
That's not the only favor they're doing us: their best and brightest are leaving those rat-infested dens of socialism and coming to this country, bringing with them good educations and a strong desire to live unfettered, and oh BTW, a command of the English language, to help balance out the gutter wash we admit from south of the border.
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