BELLEVUE, WA – Reacting to the accusation from Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin that the United States is “exporting violence,” the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) said Martin is trying to scapegoat an entire nation for his own failed leadership, and for crimes committed by his own citizens.

“On the same day that Prime Minister Martin was blaming the United States for his country’s crime problem,” noted CCRKBA Executive Director Joe Waldron, “CNN reported on a border arrest of two Canadian residents who were detained for trying to re-enter the country with handguns and ammunition concealed on their bodies.

“Ali Dirie and Yasin Mohamed are not Irish Americans from Boston, but residents of Toronto,” Waldron said, “apparently trying to import guns illegally. And now that Mr. Martin has announced his plan to ban handguns in Canada, black market gun running is liable to take off just the same as illegal export of Canadian liquor into the United States during Prohibition, and with just as much success for the criminal underground in both countries.

“Canadian handgun sales have already climbed in anticipation of this ban, according to wire service reports,” Waldron continued. “What Martin and other Liberals in Canada don’t seem to grasp, or maybe they just don’t care, is that a ban is only going to take guns out of the hands of law-abiding citizens. Criminals will still get guns, and Martin will continue blaming the United States for his administration’s monumental failure to address a growing crime problem.

“Isn’t it curious that crime has been climbing in Canada at the same time the Liberal government under Martin and his predecessor has been squandering billions of dollars on the gun registration fiasco,” Waldron observed. “Martin and his Liberal cronies may not want to admit it, but gun rights activists down here in the states predicted this would happen from the outset. Canadian gun owners forecast the same thing, insisting that registering their guns would not prevent violent crime. Turns out gun owners were right, and all Martin can think of is taking further sanctions against his law-abiding citizens while doing nothing to actually reduce crime.

“It’s all flash, and no substance,” Waldron concluded. “The Prime Minister has no real solution to crime, so he blames honest gun owners and his good neighbor to the south for his government’s failures.”