Senator Klyne: Thank you for the question. I don’t know that I was at the same meeting, but I did hear that as well. I think it should be cause for study in that regard. What is the deterrent? If 10 years is not enough, is 14 enough? What do we need to do to make that a deterrent enough to really clamp down and start making some inroads and progress on gun smuggling and other illegal firearm offences?

As I said in my speech, it’s the last stop before a life sentence, so what is it going to take? I think we need to do some education around this, potentially with the judicial system, and make sure that we lean into this with more bravo and brevity on these gun sentences and take it to the max. I think the more we allow this to happen without a strong deterrent like the 14 years, more problems will happen. There needs to be a deterrent and I think it has to be pain. Pain is the best leverage against a deterrent here. If they don’t feel the pain, we may not catch their attention.

I think it probably deserves further study and understanding of the behaviours of why they continue to commit these crimes. Also, how do we make sure that we implement and execute the justice that is available to us to serve that purpose?