Harper's Shot Across the Bow Had a Horrible Recoil

So for all of his posturing, taxpayer funded pamphlets and billboards that must have left him longing for his National Citizens Coalition days, Stephen Harper's anti-police, anti-Canadian battles to scrap the gun registry went up in smoke.

The latest poll shows that 2/3 of Canadians now support the registry.

Two-thirds of Canadians support the controversial long-gun registry and even voters who back Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives are split on the issue, a new poll has found.

The national survey conducted exclusively for Postmedia News and Global Television finds that support for the registry stands at 66% nationally. Moreover, support is strong in regions throughout the country — even though Harper has said his party will not “rest” until it abolishes the registry.

Harper's only gain was shoring up the support of his "base". They will now be frantic realizing that their dreams of an armed populace are further away than ever, so we can expect anything next election campaign.

But the uglier they get, the more Canadians will be reminded of Stephen Harper's extremist past. He may have opened up a real can of worms.

After my last posting on Harper's hypocrisy over the registry, someone sent me a couple of nuggets from Reform Party policy. When Stephen Harper was policy chief. It's pretty clear they supported the registry.

Reform Party Caucus Issue Statement
February 22, 1992

...the cost of licensing must be borne primarily by firearms users themselves. Those who are not gun owners should not be forced or even asked to subsidized those who do exercise this freedom

There must be higher priority on the right of Canadians to public safety than on the right to own and use firearms.

In his book Waiting for the Wave, former Harper insider Tom Flanagan, mentions that not everyone was happy with the position the party was taking, so Stephen Harper himself "intervened to table" several amendments.

... the right or law-aiding citizens to own and use firearms will be protected.

... the Reform Party support the right of citizens to protect themselves and their property, against criminal acts using all reasonable means, and that their right to do so has priority over the offender's rights. [This, together with the first resolution, came close to endorsing a right to bear arms ...] (1)

So the guns had to be registered and the costs absorbed by gun owners. But to appease the gun totin' crowd, Stephen Harper added a 'right to bear arms' and the right to shoot anyone who touches your stuff.

It's those two amendments that we should be concerned with, because it's exactly what I've been saying. After browsing through pro-gun sites on the web, it's clear that abolishing the gun registry was only the first step. They support allowing citizens to carry concealed weapons and keep a loaded gun by the door to shoot intruders.

This has nothing to do with farmers or hunters.

Sources:

1. Waiting for the Wave: The Reform Party and Preston Manning, By Tom Flanagan, Stoddart Publishing, 1995, ISBN: 0-7737-2862-7, Pg. 196-7