A Canadian On Canadian Gun Control

[Kennedy 0]

Quote

Gun control myths just won't die
Lorne Gunter

I have never owned a firearm. Heck, I've never even held a real gun, much less fired one. Still, there are few federal programs that irk me more than Ottawa's gun registry.

It's not just the waste, although that's atrocious -- nearly $2-billion for a dysfunctional pile of uselessness.

And it's not just the uselessness. The registry is also one of those truisms for liberals, one of their articles of blind faith. To a liberal, universal registration of guns is something all intelligent people must support or, well, they're not intelligent. They use gun control as a litmus test for who is and isn't sophisticated and subtle of mind. So that even if you can prove the registry will have no practical effect -- it won't prevent armed robberies or murders, or keep enraged spouses from killing one another -- a liberal still has to cling to it for fear of being seen as NOKD (not our kind, dear).

But what troubles me most is what it says about its supporters' attitude toward the people and government. Backing most gun laws amounts to proclaiming trust in government over trust in one's fellow citizens.

This is especially true of Canada's gun registry. You really, really have to have faith in government, and be really, really suspicious of the gun owner down the block to continue to think our national registry will ever do any good.

Frankly, I'll take my law-abiding neighbours over politicians, bureaucrats, experts and advocates any day.

Believers in our registry like to say that since its inception in 1998 it has helped keep gun licences out of the hands of 13,000 people deemed unstable or too violent to possess guns. What they never boast about is that the registry doesn't even try to track the 131,000 convicted criminals in Canada who have been prohibited by the courts from owning guns.

Gee, who do you think is the greater risk?

Still, the fact that 13,000 Canadians -- about one-half of one per cent of applicants -- have been refused a licence in the past seven years might be meaningful if gun-controllers could then point to lowered murder rates, or show that firearms suicides have declined faster than suicides by other methods, or demonstrate a significant reduction in spousal homicides (most of the 13,000 denials have stemmed from complaints by one partner against another).

But despite these thousands of licence refusals, government ministers and special interest groups who favour the registry can't even point to a reduction in armed robberies.

The registry is not keeping the unfit from getting guns, just licences. And licences don't kill people, guns do. Keeping licences out of the hands of people who shouldn't have guns is meaningless.

James Roszko, the slayer of four Mounties in Alberta, had been banned from owning guns for the past five years. But paper gun controls were useless at keeping him from acquiring the weapons he used in his murders.

The only meaningful gun control is taking firearms away from criminals. And since crooks, drug dealers and murderers don't register their weapons, the registry is useless in this task.

Consider, too, (from the latest Statistics Canada homicide report), that 68% of firearms murders in Canada in 2003 were committed with handguns, and handguns have been subject to mandatory federal registration since 1934. Indeed, in the past 15 years, the percentage of total murders committed with handguns has doubled, despite their being tightly controlled.

That should tell you all you need to know about the worth of firearms registries.

Now the Library of Parliament has released a comparison of violent crime rates in the Northern Plains states versus Canada's Prairie provinces. The simple conclusion: Rates of gun ownership among law-abiding private citizens have no effect on crime.

Despite having nearly twice as many households with guns as their Canadian counterparts -- and similar economic, cultural and social demographics -- Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana and Idaho have lower crime rates than Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Researchers determined "both violent and property crime rates were two-thirds higher in the Canadian Prairie provinces than in the four border states."

Murder was 1.1 times higher; violent assaults and attempted murder, 1.5 times; robbery, 2.1 times; breaking and entering, 2.3; and vehicle theft, 3.2.

Harassing duck hunters, target shooters and gun collectors to register their firearms will have no effect on crime. But don't tell liberals. They take great comfort in their myths.

witty subliminal message
Guard your honor, let your reputation fall where it will, and outlast the bastards.
1*

[Kennedy 0]

In Arizona:

Quote

Firearms teacher can't get permit
By LINDA MAN

Marvin Moore is a firearms instructor who can't believe the Jackson County Sheriff's Office refuses to accept his concealed-carry application.

The problem began in April, when Moore didn't bring a firearms safety training course certificate with his application. The certificate indicates that the applicant has mastered aspects of gun ownership, such as marksmanship and gun storage.

Moore argued that he didn't need to bring the certificate because he has been a National Rifle Association instructor for 12 years. He said the law backed him up.

“It's funny that the students I teach can get a permit, but I can't,” he said.

Instead, Moore said, he brought paperwork indicating he was an NRA instructor who was qualified in pistol marksmanship and personal protection.

However, sheriff's Capt. Phil Moran said Missouri law required all applicants to submit the certificate — including firearms instructors.

“There's nothing in the law that gives them a free pass,” Moran said.

He used the analogy of law professors. They must pass the bar exam if they want to practice law, Moran said.

But Moore argued that he had to pass gun-safety tests to become a firearms instructor.

Sheriff offices in Cass, Clay and Platte counties said they don't require firearms instructors to submit a signed certificate in addition to paperwork that indicates they're certified instructors.

In April, two firearms instructors successfully sued the Jackson County Sheriff's Office in small-claims court, alleging it had overstepped its authority when it asked them to bring the safety certificates.

Gary Davis, one of the complainants, said he submitted the paperwork indicating he was an NRA instructor.

“We were in there and out in five to six minutes with a court order,” Davis said. “I don't know if they didn't read the law or didn't understand what they read.”

The court ordered the Sheriff's Office to accept the instructors' applications.

But sheriff's official Moran added that Davis' court case doesn't waive the requirements for other applicants like Moore. He said it applied only to the complainants.

Moran added that firearms instructors could make it easier for themselves if they signed the safety certificate for each other.

But Moore and others said that would be perjury. The certificate indicates that providing false information is a Class C misdemeanor.

“Under no circumstances should they do it,” said Kevin Jamison, Davis' attorney and a board member for the Western Missouri Shooters Alliance. “The law is clear enough.”

Davis said he knew at least a dozen NRA instructors, including Moore, who were miffed at having their applications turned away.

As for Moore, he acknowledged that it would be easy to take another safety class, but he refused.

“It's the principle of the thing.”

witty subliminal message
Guard your honor, let your reputation fall where it will, and outlast the bastards.
1*

[Kennedy 0]

A letter written to a Philadelphia newspaper

Quote

Letters | High-tech gun control

HERE'S A suggestion on possibly alleviating the gun problem.

If scientists can send a radio signal to a robot on Mars or on a moon of a more distant planet to order its movement, then why don't we require small-arms and rifle manufacturers to install chips right into the grips and stocks of weapons that will radiate a detectable signal?

Sensors can be installed on light poles, or on buildings. The sensors can be monitored using a system similar to cell phones and signals may be relayed via computer/radio to alert a task force to the location of a firearm. The signal can be instantly run through a database verifying ownership, permit and licensing for the weapon. If no registration exists, then trained personnel can act to apprehend the violator.

Simple metal detectors that don't actually look like detectors could also be installed strategically to signal the presence of a gun. Again, trained teams can converge on violators to prevent injury to police and civilians.

The element of surprise is the invaluable key to success.

Trying to pass such legislation may raise some protest initially. However, in view of the extremely critical circumstances, this type of gun control is absolutely necessary.

Only firearms manufacturers need to have control of the chips. If this idea seems at all feasible and practical, then its success will ultimately be rooted in this type of confidentiality.

Manufacturers who refuse to comply should face a penalty.

We may not be able to get illegal guns off the streets, but maybe this is a way to detect their whereabouts. This monitoring is possible with the cooperation of the manufacturers.

It should be apparent that this technology has to become mandatory.

This system will allow licensed ownership of weapons to continue while denying illegal possession of these weapons.

witty subliminal message
Guard your honor, let your reputation fall where it will, and outlast the bastards.
1*

[rushmc 23]

Same story, second, ah, third, no fourth, wait fifth...........crap.......how many verse does it take a liberal to learn that they aren't smarter than everybody else

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[kallend 2,148]

Quote

Same story, second, ah, third, no fourth, wait fifth...........crap.......how many verse does it take a liberal to learn that they aren't smarter than everybody else

About a tenth as many as it takes for a busybody conservative to learn that their morality shouldn't be imposed on everyone else.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[mnealtx 0]

Quote

Quote

Same story, second, ah, third, no fourth, wait fifth...........crap.......how many verse does it take a liberal to learn that they aren't smarter than everybody else

About a tenth as many as it takes for a busybody conservative to learn that their morality shouldn't be imposed on everyone else.

Don't act so high and mighty...that's exactly what the liberals are trying to do, too...

Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706

[Kennedy 0]

Quote

Quote

Same story, second, ah, third, no fourth, wait fifth...........crap.......how many verse does it take a liberal to learn that they aren't smarter than everybody else

About a tenth as many as it takes for a busybody conservative to learn that their morality shouldn't be imposed on everyone else.

So some conservatives think they're on higher ground, so everyone should do as they say, and some liberals think they know better, so everyone should do as they say. Tell me again why one is better than the other?

But of course the liberals must be smarter (they agree with you), so even though neither side will ever accpet it, the liberals will accept it sooner.

witty subliminal message
Guard your honor, let your reputation fall where it will, and outlast the bastards.
1*

[rushmc 23]

Quote

Quote

Same story, second, ah, third, no fourth, wait fifth...........crap.......how many verse does it take a liberal to learn that they aren't smarter than everybody else

About a tenth as many as it takes for a busybody conservative to learn that their morality shouldn't be imposed on everyone else.

Morality? I thought this thread was about the failure of gun control
But since you brought it up..........The imposition is from the left IMO. It is the left working to tear down morality! Morality that has existed in the US since the begining of this country! And what they can't do in the halls of congress they atempt to impose in the courts.
The lastest example is Nebraska

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln