Monday, September 08, 2008

Stephen Harper Cannot Be Tough On Crime When He's Soft On Guns

Stephen Harper cannot be "tough on crime" when he's "soft on guns"... (Stephane Dion).

Perfect... And 100% accurate. While Connies gun-nuts cry about "stolen guns" being the problem, the public needs to be reminded that a lot of these stolen guns are stolen from poorly stored collections because we don't have serious penalties for NOT storing your guns appropriately. If a gun is stolen from your home and used in a crime, YOU should also be charged with criminal negligence (or something akin). If I were to lend my car to my 12 year old nephew and he ran someone down with it, firstly, it would be traced back to me because of the extremely tight controls on car ownership in Canada, and secondly, I would be held accountable as the registered owner as the party partly responsible - due to my own negligence.

Some arguements just don't get past the gun-nuts and NRA. So sad. Sick really...

5 comments:

Jim said...

So if someone broke into your garage and STOLE your car then mowed over a bunch of people with it, then by your logic you should be charged with criminal negligence? Remember, to have a stolen car or gun, a CRIME was perpetrated against the property holder.

As to the penalties for unsafe storage, you obviously have NO idea what you are talking about. Read the Firearms Act and the related CCC statutes and you will see that there are indeed severe penalties for unsafe storage.

If you are going to post like an authority, at least know the basics. BTW, somebody should tell your leader that ALL ASSAULT RIFLES in Canada are already PROHIBITED, and those that do still own them after grandfathering cannot take them to a range to shoot them because the Conservative government refuses to issue the SAP (special authority to possess) paperwork to let them do so.

Again, educate yourself or STFU about thing you obviously know NOTHING about.

Jim said...

I would venture to guess that you will not post my previous comment, but if you are going to generalize me as a "sick" person, I believe it is only fair that you post both sides of an issue.

Jim said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
WesternGrit said...

If I left my car running with the keys in, then I may have contributed to the stupidity. Improperly stored guns used to go missing from homes in my rural Sask village on a yearly basis. That was one small town. Multiply that by the hundreds of locales nationwide. We also used to hear of "accidents" involving firearms on farms on a regular basis. So much so that my father - the school principal - had the Provincial firearm safety certification brought into the school. Yes, I took it. Fired a 270, several 22s, and a 30-odd-6.

As far as the "joy" of shooting, I have spent time in the range in Regina (the City Police range - lower level, City Police HQ), spent time at the IPSCO range in North Regina shooting one of my friends' Browning 9mms. I can honestly say I'd rather spend a weekend day with my girlfriend on a beach somewhere working on my tan (or with my girlfriend anywhere, for that matter). Or racing a car. Or watching football.

I do enjoy a good day of paintball, but it's the jumping, diving, and "team tag" aspects and strategy - not the idea that I can put a lump of lead into some living thing.

I'm not anti gun at all. I am anti "gun zealot" and NRA poking their blood-stained fingers into Canada's business.

WesternGrit said...

I'm also a 4x4ing nature lover. I spend time in "the wild" shooting things - with my cameras. Not in National Geographic yet, but someday...

Enough of the getting to know you part... I can't help but know for a fact that a LOT of users (gun-users, that is) have a "romantic notion" about gun-slinging, or "iron justice" in the US sense. When they import the NRA lobbyists with them, it ceases to be a fair or unbiased argument, and ends up being outside interference. Our nation was formed by the gun, but the gun caused a lot of problems for us then - and still to this day. Still, crime is at all-time lows, and that factual statistic includes violent crime.

I studied criminology in University, and even in the 90s the talk centered on the drop in crime. It was attributed to better education and better job prospects. People with half a brain and a decent job don't seem to feel the need to buy a gun and hold up the local bank... We need to shed the "seige mentality" ala USA... We're braver than that.