Criminals 'Laughing' At Martin's Plan During a campaign stop in Toronto, Canada’s Prime Minister Paul Martin announced Thursday that his party would ban handguns outright. The Liberal Party leader says his plan would be used to curb violence in cities, but critics say the only thing it will accomplish is stripping law-abiding citizens of their rights at the expense of taxpayers. "This man goes into the ghetto and says he wants to ban guns—they are laughing at him," said a Toronto parent whose son was killed in a violence-torn section of the city. Under the ban, only law enforcement officers and a small number of target shooters would be exempt. Collectors, who own half the estimated 560,000 legal handguns in Canada, would need to surrender or disable their guns in areas where the ban is enforced. Martin’s election promise has also further fueled resentment in rural areas, where voters are still angered by the government’s long-gun registry that has been more of a high-priced headache than a crime-reducer. Alberta has already said it would reject the ban.