... Registering your marriage will not prevent divorce. Registering a birth certificate will not prevent naughty children.It's part of living in a civilized society.
And I swear if I hear one more person suggest that registering a gun will not prevent shooting deaths, I'm going to scream. And it will register so high on the decibel scale, your ears will be ringing for a week.
If any gun owner finds it bothersome to register their guns, then they obviously are not the kind of people who would make any extra effort to make sure that their guns are kept in a safe place. It would be too much of a bother.
And they would not be the kind of people who would take the extra time to learn how to safely use a firearm. It would be too much bother.
And it's exactly those kind of people who should never own a gun, because responsible people would abide by the laws of the land. According to Stephen Maher:
On one side, we have gun owners — hunters, farmers and target shooters — who bear the burden of having to fill out a form every time they buy a gun. On the other side you have people — like police and emergency room doctors — who want the registry saved."Bear the burden ... every time they buy a gun"??? How many bloody guns to they want to have, that they would find the whole thing so burdensome? Add them to my list of people who should never own a gun.
And at the top of that list would be Garry Breitkreuz. That man is criminally insane.
Saskatchewan Tory MP Garry Breitkreuz recently warned that the police want to take all the guns.“Why are police chiefs so strident in their quest to keep the registry in place?" he wrote.“They won’t admit it, but it appears they don’t want Canadians to own guns. To that end, they need a database that will help them locate and seize those firearms as soon as a licence or registration expires."That’s wacky..."Wacky" Yuh, think? How is he not in a home?
There are excerpts from a letter to Jack Layton, written by Patricia Freeman Marshall, former co-chair of the Canadian Panel on Violence Against Women, and Peter Jaffe, academic director of the Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women, published in the Star: Jack, do what’s right for Canada. I posted an open letter to Jack Layton myself.
The Reformers are attacking Michael Ignatieff for whipping the bill, despite the fact that they have to vote party line on 99.9% of everything.
C'mon Layton. Do the right thing and demand that your MPs save this important piece of our Canadian identity.
""If any gun owner finds it bothersome to register their guns, then they obviously are not the kind of people who would make any extra effort to make sure that their guns are kept in a safe place. It would be too much of a bother.""
ReplyDeleteI find this off base the reason some are very responsible but do not agree with the registry.
So to paint them with the same brush is wrong.
I did register my hand guns when I did own them. I sold them off to legit owners and collectors. Same with my rifles. Following the letter of the law. Plus my life style has changed and my firearm hobby did not fit in. That was before the rifle registry.
When Allan Rock and Kim Campbell. Started there banning of certain firearms they basically took a book on fire arms and said wow that looks nasty lets ban it. I protested on the hill against C-62 ( I believe that was the bill number.)
I can understand how it can help.
But I don't believe it will make or streets safer. Then there were back then.
I do find it is interesting that Harper and his punishment crusaders are wanting to abolish it. That I do find disturbing. Buying votes is all I can guess.
But in Canada it is a privilege not a right to buy guns. To me that is something that a lot do not realize sad to say.
Did you know Adolf Hitler wanted to register all firearms at one point. Wonder what would happen if he got his wish. ??
I do understand it can help. But to me its a false sense of security.
Best way to say it is..
"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety"
Ben Franklin.
Imagine your a mother in one of those rural communities. Imagine your neighbours is a man who likes to get drunk and you know he has a gun. Imagine many of your neighbours are like this.
ReplyDeleteHow safe is a woman in this community?
Registering guns is a woman's issue.
Naturally we would prefer a total ban, but oh well.
♥
Our current gun legislation in Canada has emerged over time, as bills were passed that reflected the will of the Canadian people. I posted the history here:
ReplyDeletehttp://pushedleft.blogspot.com/2010/08/truth-about-gun-registry-and-loss-of.html
Most people who register their cars and buy licenses to drive those cars, are responsible, law abiding people. There are some who are not. But car registrations and drivers licenses are used on a regular basis to track down the latter group.
They also help the law abiding whose cars are stolen, track them down. If you report your car stolen and the thief has an accident with your car, you are not responsible.
And the very fact that those registrations and licenses are in our name is a silent but constant reminder that we are responsible for that car and how it is driven. We follow the rules of road that are designed to keep everyone as safe as possible.
Our drivers license is a privilege, and we don't want to lose that privilege.
Guns are the same. When a Canadian knows that they must register their gun, they know that along with that comes a responsibility. That gun is in THEIR name. A silent but constant reminder that they are responsible for that gun and how it is used.
If during a police search, the officers find unregistered firearms, they can take them. But the police don't search the homes of farmers and hunters who are abiding by the law. They search the houses of known criminals, whose purpose for owning guns is to commit crimes, possibly even murder.
To suggest that it is burdensome as a reason for abolishing it, is nonsense. It should be burdensome. It should never be easy to own a gun.
Ben Franklin's quote, while wonderful, could apply to all laws deemed to protect us. So which freedoms are we willing to relinquish for safety?
From Gerald Kaplan's Globe piece this weekend is this quote from former Justice Minister Allan Rock:
ReplyDelete“When I began to learn about the subject after my arrival in Justice, I was shocked to discover that one women was shot to death on average every six days in Canada. These killings were almost always in the home, almost always at the hands of an intimate partner, and almost always with a long arm (rifle or shotgun).” Compare this with the Prime Minister’s phony accusation that registry advocates are simply trying to victimize innocent “duck hunters and farmers”.
This has always been my main take on the gun registry and why I believe it should remain in place. I do not understand for the life of me why this angle isn't played up more by the opposition parties than it is. That the plight of duck hunters and farmers is somehow given precedence over violence against women is simply and utterly shameful.
You're right Omar.
ReplyDelete