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Mayor wants city to be prepared if allowed to make own laws around handguns

Mayor Bill Mauro brought a motion forward at this week’s police board services meeting to ask the city’s police chief to weigh in whether or not to implement a handgun ban in the city.
Bill Mauro
(Leith Dunick, tbnewswatch.com)

THUNDER BAY - The city’s mayor says he wants Thunder Bay to make an informed decision if the federal government allows municipalities to form their own rules surrounding handguns.

Thunder Bay Mayor Bill Mauro brought forward a motion to Tuesday’s police board services meeting asking Thunder Bay Chief of Police Sylvie Hauth to weigh in on the need for a handgun ban in the city of Thunder Bay.

Mauro says the purpose of bringing the motion forward on Tuesday was to prepare for the possibility the municipality may be tasked to make its own decision.

“I have been following relatively closely from the federal side and initially my intention was to bring it to council,” he said, adding city administration thought the motion would be better suited for the police services board.

In May, the federal government passed a law prohibiting certain assault rifles and indicated municipalities could possibly be faced to make their own rules around handguns.

However, Mauro explained how it’s far too early to make any definitive plans but wants to be as prepared as possible.

“The chief said there is not enough detail yet to know what she would provide to council so we will wait a little bit until we know definitively what the feds are looking to do,” he said. “When that does happen, certainly speaking for myself, I would be looking at the police service for their information, their opinion on what we should or should not do.”

However, Mauro expressed he’s not sure if a city-by-city basis would be the best approach.

“If that is the way the federal government goes than council will be faced with making this decision and let's be as prepared as we can with information from the police service and whatever other sources of information that we think we may need to make our decision if that is what the federal government does,” he said.

Mauro explained how municipalities deciding their own rules around handguns could create a patchwork system that could potentially be ineffective.

“That was the purpose of bringing forward the motion to the police services board and asking the service and the chief to provide any information that they can,” he said.

The board decided on Tuesday to wait for official plans from the government before moving forward.

“At that point, through the police services board I will formally ask the chief for her to report back and that information eventually finds its way to the council table and we go from there.”

 



Karen Edwards

About the Author: Karen Edwards

Karen Edwards reports on court and crime under the Local Journalism initiative, which is funded by the Government of Canada.
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