GUNS DON'T KILL, PEOPLE KILL

In the days after James Roszko shot four RCMP officers in Mayerthorpe,
Alberta, the force's commissioner, Giuliano Zaccardelli, called for tighter
enforcement against marijuana grow operations, and civil libertarians
responded with a call for the government to hurry up and legalize pot. But
retired Victoria history professor Foster Griezic has another answer.

"If that guy didn't have a gun, that never would've happened," he says. "I
don't think the pot is the issue. The issue is people having guns . . . If
you don't have guns, you can't shoot and kill people."

Griezic says he would go so far as to take guns away from police officers,
a step that would prevent at least some of the killings by police officers,
such as that of Majencio Camaso, who was shot and killed by police in
Saanich last summer.

Of course you can still inflict a nasty wound with a ploughshare.