The Ben Mulroney Show - Homeowner who fired gun during attempted car theft is charged

Episode Date: June 13, 2025

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And let's talk about this Vaughn man who in an effort to and we don't know what he was thinking But he saw that his car was about to get possibly stolen and And he pulled out a long gun and shot a bullet in the air almost as a warning shot And and he got arrested along with the potential carjackers Car thieves for illegal discharge of a weapon and possession of an illegal firearm and all sorts of stuff. Discharging a weapon in public. And this to me is an example of just how, how, how we've lost the plot in the city of Toronto,

the greater Toronto area, as well as just across this country. I want you to, I want you to imagine, I want you to remember that for years, we have been witnessing almost in real time, gangs of young people breaking into people's homes, carjacking, stealing cars, smashing grabs in malls across this country. And almost invariably, we hear the stories that they're out on bail only to do these things again. We've been reporting on the woefully inadequate 911 response times. Just this week, two incredibly sorry stories about how if you need help, it doesn't come. I've had calls on this show of people saying, we told by 911 nobody is coming to help you. So and I want you to imagine it all of these stories and all these images of these violent crimes that

were not the norm a few years ago that are far too common today. They are colliding with us in right in our faces, on our cell phones, through our social media feeds, on the daily. So you put all of that stuff together, and a guy sees a group of four people masked, one of them apparently with a gun, in his driveway, on his property. And we don't know what he was thinking.

We don't know if he thought to himself, shoot, are they coming towards me? Are they coming towards my house? Are they coming to get my family? And he pulled out his gun and he shot a warning shot in an effort to scare them off, ward them off, warn them not to come to his house anymore.

I don't know. Neither does anybody else at this point. But can anybody blame him with the context that I just described? And here's another wrinkle for you. I don't know yet but let me speculate that there's, it's entirely possible that the gun that was in his possession was legal a few years ago only made illegal by what I think is the performative nature of the gun bans by the Trudeau Liberals.

If I had to guess, that was not an illegal long gun that that guy bought on the streets. He probably bought it through legal means. He probably went through the registration of it and the payment of it and the safety courses required. He's probably registered with the cops and registered with whatever agency needs to know that he owns a gun. And the only reason it's illegal today

is because it was made illegal. So he was turned into a criminal by, and by the way, remember the gun buyback? They have done nothing to get those guns. So he was sitting there in possession of what was probably a legal gun a few years ago. The liberal said, now it's illegal, but we're not going to do anything to take it off your hands. What would you do in that circumstance?

I'd love to hear from you. 416-870-6400 or one triple eight two two five talk. You're living in a world where it's less and less likely that the cops are going to, that it's more and more likely that a group of people is going to come steal your car and it's less and less likely that the cops are going to do anything about it. And if they ever do anything about it, those same people are going to be out on bail that day.

So you as a citizen who pay your taxes, who play by the rules, what would you do in that circumstance? Especially if in that moment at 4am when you've been woken from a sleep and you are not fully there, you don't know, you can't make out what those people's motivation is. All you know is the cops are probably not coming. I hope to God the police realize that this is not on him. This is not a him problem. This is a society problem. Society failed this guy and he stood up to protect himself and yes his property.

And the fact that we can't live in a world where protecting your property is allowed? That we have lost the plot. Let's welcome Steve to the conversation. Steve thanks so much for calling in. Ben, how are you? Your favorite Greek plumber. Hey, my favorite Greek plumber. Happy Friday to you. Happy Friday, buddy. I got baseball bats at both entrances. Yeah.

Yeah. I'm going to swing until I hit the white meat. But apparently one of the other, one of the guys there had a gun. Good for him. No, no, one of the criminals had a gun. Oh. Yeah. I think he was, one of them was charged with possession of a firearm.

So the fact that we, the fact that we can't, look, I don't want this, Steve, I don't want Canada to become the United States. I'm not looking for every citizen to be armed. No, you've got to be able to defend yourself. There has to be a pathway where this guy is let off without this becoming a conversation about, oh, it's a slippery slope now everybody's going to buy a gun. Where are they going to buy a gun, Steve? You can't buy guns anymore. It's not a slippery slope. This is an exceptional thing that happened. The reaction by the homeowner was exceptional what happened to him is far from exceptional and that's the problem and these guys are probably out on bail listen i got i got a message for all the criminals go after a couple of politician cars then we're going to see some

rules change yeah well i'm not urging anybody to do that but i do appreciate the sentiment steve thank you very much uh let's welcome rick into the conversation thanks so much for calling in rick oh you're welcome uh great day i'm'm all for guns. I love gun ownership. You know, the laws are there. We got to be responsible, but you can't be shooting them off outside of your house. Like if they come in your house, then maybe show your gun, but shooting it off in a residential neighborhood. And look, I'm not saying, I'm not saying that this,

this, this went off exactly as it should have. And, and, and the, maybe, maybe there's some sort of penalty for the guy. But look, you're living in a world where he doesn't, he doesn't know. He doesn't know if they saw Lamborghini, maybe they think there's some other great stuff in that house. Right. And they're wearing masks. Yeah.

So sit in your doorway with your gun, cops ready to go showing it off. Well lit, but going out to shoot it off. A small small charge maybe but I don't think you can shoot it off outside your house. Listen I don't know if this if this would repeat but thank you for the call like this this his reaction was exceptional and by letting him off you're not letting everybody in the country know that that you now have license to pop off in your neighborhood. That's a silly argument. I don't know how many people own long guns or guns, legal guns anymore. So it's a non-argument as far as I'm concerned.

Our society needs to realize that they have failed us. And this is a reaction to that. This is not the man in Vaughan behaving as a criminal. This is an example of our society failing us at their basic fundamental services. And he had to do what he had to do. And so this should be a wake up call to governments to fix the problems that they have allowed to fester.

This is not on him. This is on us. Let's welcome Peter to the conversation. Hey, good morning, Ben. How are you? I'm well, thanks. So I say, shoot them, shoot them dead, drop them on the spot, blow them away. Legal gun owners are the most law abiding citizens in this country.

Yeah. I happen to not be one and my brother is one. This is an attack on, on, uh, law abiding people. And of course we all know we had nine years of the man child for prime minister who was going to save the world. And, uh, you know, Canada can do it all and look at the mess we are in. And the criminals do know they could just get away with anything. Yeah.

They're going to be out the next day. The 16 year olds are committing most of it because they're being manipulated. And I say we need more of them getting shot. They will stop breaking in. I don't want anybody getting shot. I don't want anybody to have to have a gun. I want society to do its job. I want governments to recognize they have failed us, which is why these four young men

thought that they could troll a neighborhood at 4 a.m. and do whatever the F they want. And something's got to give and not on the citizen side who was just trying to sleep. It's got to happen on the other side of the equation. This guy has no business in a jail cell. Let's welcome Paul to the conversation. Paul, thanks so much for calling in. Hey, how are you? I'm well, thank you.

That's good. I was talking to the screener telling them that two and a half years ago out front of my house, I pulled out of my driveway and there was a car parked out front with a passenger door open and I couldn't get around them because I had a trailer behind me and I would have jackknifed it if I backed it up. So I gave it a little beep. The guy freaked out. I got out of the car, walked over to the driver's side door. He opened up the door, swung his leg out and cocked a gun at me. Jesus. I had called the police, gave him a description of everything that went on. They finally caught him at the 401 in Durham region with the gun loaded and a bag full of fentanyl. He was out on bail that day. Right. So he knew where I lived. Yeah. But I wasn't allowed to know where he lived. So there you go.

So we hear stories like that. We report on stories like that. And you think it makes you think it's, it's strange that a man would, which would pop a gun off in his neighborhood to get those people away. Of course not. We hear these stories every single day and it's always the criminal that comes out on top. Meanwhile this guy who was doing nothing but sleeping comes outside and does something, anything, to get the criminal element away from his house and possibly his family and

he's the one in a jail cell right now? Give me a break. Listen everybody on the line don't go anywhere. I want this conversation to continue next on the Ben Mulroney show. Welcome back and thank you so much for sticking around on the phone lines. I appreciate everybody calling in. We are obviously talking about this Vaughn citizen who in an attempt to, I don't know, scare some car thieves away, shot a gun in the air and now he's been charged. There's no doubt in my mind that those four people who were trying to steal his property

and who knows what else they wanted to do, they're probably out on bail already and they know where this guy lives. He shouldn't have spent the night in jail, he shouldn't have been arrested. It's a travesty that this, that our society has been allowed to devolve to such a point that these roaming bands of car thieves are commonplace and citizens are not allowed to do anything. You'll remember when the police at one point told people, just leave your fob for your car by your front door, because that's all they want. That is a failure of leadership.

That is a structural failure in society. That is a breakdown of society. And this gentleman is a reaction to that. He is not a criminal. He's somebody who's just trying to do what society used to do. And there you go. That's all I have to say about that.

Let's see what you have to say. 4168706400 or 1-888-225-TALK. Greg, welcome to the Ben Mulroney Show. Hey there, how are you? I'm well. I don't blame the guy. No. No, I to the Ben Mulroney show. Hey there, how are you? I'm well. I don't blame the guy. No. I'm a legal gun owner.

I have a young family. I believe the government should have some sort of castle laws for people. I mean, if you're a legal gun owner, you've been trained, you've gone through the proper routes to own a firearm, you should be able to protect what you own, where you stand. I've done nothing. The criminal is taking the risk, but yet he gets the reward because I can't fight back. Correct. Yep. That's the problem. Times have changed. You know, there's braids and break-ins, car thefts like crazy. I'm defending my household at any cost. If he comes to me, I'm coming to him. We are feeling now as regular, everyday citizens,

that all we want to do is get along with our days and we want to go to our jobs, we want to pay our taxes, we want to have our weekends off. We are increasingly feeling under threat. We are feeling under threat and one of the reasons is a breakdown in social cohesion due to, I think, out of control policies by ideological politicians that don't care that the results are causing us to feel unsafe. Thank you for the call. Hey, George, welcome to the Ben Mulroney Show. Hey, Ben, how are you this morning? Well, yeah, I'm a little frustrated on behalf of this guy. I think this is a demonstration of just how far we've fallen and how crazy the world has gotten, sorry,

how crazy the country is that we've built. Oh absolutely, listen, my friend, although I won't use his last name, I'll just call him E.N.T., very famous case, or famous in my circles anyway, in the firearms community, had exactly this happen, only they were fire bombing his house with Molotov cocktails. He went outside with a registered restricted firearm that he bought legally and was trained to use and fired two shots in the air. The charges put him into bankruptcy.

He lost his house. He lost his house. He lost his business. He lost everything because he defended his property from some punks who were firebombing it. He didn't hurt anybody. He fired the gun in the air. It cost him everything. This wasn't yesterday.

This was 15 years ago. Yeah. No. Well, this is, and look that that was 15 years ago. Yeah, no. Well, this is and look at that. That was 15 years ago. I mean, it's a it's been a slow march and an increasingly rapid march towards this result today. Hey, Paul, welcome to the show. Thank you for calling us on the Ben Mulroney show. I've been I really enjoy your show. I wanted to call in about a

year and a half ago, we had a guy I want to garden center in Niagara Falls had a guy who was coming in at night and he was putting flowers up on a road behind the garden center and he one day came to steal the mall but he had a trailer actually a rented a trailer for you all to load them all up one of my neighbors had basically seen him so he had stopped him and wouldn't let him out of the road so he called the police the police came uh... they called me i went over saw it and he had well over thousands of dollars of stuff sitting in there.

Ultimately, they didn't charge him. They gave him a citation, I think, that he didn't have to go with the police. So I said, basically, I'm gonna follow this guy because I wanna find out how much of my stuff he has, where he is and maybe get my stuff back. So when they finally let him go, which was probably an hour and a half later,

I started following and the police pulled me over. Of course. Of course. What am I charged with? He says, we're not, we're just stopping you from following him because we're afraid you're going to do some sort of vigilante justice on this guy. Can we ask the question, why are people doing this? They're doing it because the police aren't doing their job and the police aren't doing their job because the laws are preventing them from doing or the leadership is preventing them from doing this. They're doing it because the police aren't doing their job. And the police aren't doing their job because the laws are preventing them from doing or the leadership is preventing them from doing it. So yeah, I see I see the reasoning behind it. Who are we going to next? Matt, welcome to the show. Hi, Ben. How are you? I'm great. Happy Friday. Happy Friday. I'm a big fan of your sisters. I hope she moves on up in the government. I'm a big fan of her as well.

of your sisters. I hope she moves on up in the government. I'm a big fan of her as well. I was just saying, I don't believe that this is right. The guy had an illegal firearm. Why did he have an illegal firearm? And his life was not at risk. He went and shot just because he was angry somebody was stealing his car. If his life was at risk, if his family's life was at risk, then I'm all for the vigil anti-justice. Well, we don't, but we don't, we don't know. He was woken at 4 a.m. from a sound sleep as a, as a law abiding citizen and that illegal gun that you're talking about, it's a, I, none of us know the facts yet, but it's entirely possible given the world we've been living in that five years ago, that was a legal gun that was made illegal by legislation, even though he went

through all the legal hoops to get it. So I, it's far more complex than, than, than something like that. We've got time for Brad, Brad, welcome to the show. Good morning, Ben. Yes. Yes. You're, you're in law enforcement. Thank you for your service. Thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah. So I have a bit of insight on this. Yes, I'd love it. Where I wish they would just slow it down a little bit. There's no rush to charge someone for something like this. There's no risk to public safety.

You can seize that firearm, seize any documentation, ammunition, do an investigation, speak with the Crown, and determine if there is a reasonable prospect of conviction in the first place. So I'd just like them to slow it down. I've seen this happen before, that you feel like you just got to charge them and let the courts settle it. And that sucks because that's going to cost that guy a lot of money and potentially for nothing. And Brad, thank you for that. And it's true. I don't think he should get off scot-free. If he fired a gun in the air, then there's got to be something. But could you give him community service?

Could you give him something like that? You're charging the guy. He's got to get a lawyer. He's going to be out of work. He's going to have to defend himself. He's got to take time to go court. This is a man who all he wanted to do was sleep. And he was awoken by people trying to steal his stuff and possibly come into his home

and do him harm. We've got time for one more Frank welcome to the show. Good morning Ben you know what I think that police are just going through the steps to charge this guy he's he's going to get off eventually but he shouldn't be paying legal fees to have to defend himself. Yeah. Taking reasonable reasonable measures to prevent the commission of a serious crime. Yeah. Both are clear mitigating factors. I hope so. But unfortunately he was charged. And look, hey, yeah, Frank, I agree with everything you said.

Here's hoping somebody starts a GoFundMe for this guy. He shouldn't be out of pocket for any of this stuff. And hopefully there's a lawyer out there who takes this case pro bono so that we can show the sham of the rush to judgment on this guy to prosecute somebody who did not deserve it. The best high-concept sci-fi rig of her own in the universe is back. What the hell? Sh**, how long was I out?

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