True Grit

David Weigel | May 18, 2006

First they elect a Conservative government, then Canadians say they want to dump the national gun registry. It's almost like they don't want bitter Kerry voters to relocate to Vancouver.

Comments

|5.18.06 @ 4:00PM|#

Mandatory gun registration is a complete waste of money, inefficient, and doesn't stop crime?

I'm shocked. Shocked I tell you.

|5.18.06 @ 4:38PM|#

At least the still have free health care.

Jersey McJones,

has there been an influx of ignorant, racist, rednecks into Canada?

|5.18.06 @ 4:41PM|#

But keep reading. To the next question: "Keep in place some sort of system that makes gun
owners across the country register their firearms", the poll showed 67% in favor.

|5.18.06 @ 4:43PM|#

But keep reading. To the next question: "Keep in place some sort of system that makes gun
owners across the country register their firearms", the poll showed 67% in favor.

|5.18.06 @ 4:45PM|#

Oh, I heard this in the same story being discussed by a correspondent from the Vancouver Sun about how Canadians are 35% above their 1990 levels of co2 emissions-- and if you count the 6% they're supposed to be down, that's 41% above. He even commented that those figures show that the U.S. has a better record of slowing co2 emissions than Canada. And if anyone needs reminding, the U.S. has not signed Kyoto.

Heck, let's just make this bash Canada day. I feel that one of those is needed once in a while.

But seriously, it's sad that no one who wants a nat'l gun registry in the us will look at this news and consider it before continuing to push for a nat'l gun registry.

|5.18.06 @ 4:45PM|#

I love how it cost $854 million to figure that out.

I want to know who makes criminal justice policy decisions like this. Christ, even the most liberal crim just profs I had knew something like that would never work.

MP|5.18.06 @ 4:59PM|#

Alright, now I'll call out a Reason blogger for a misleading post. The article clearly says that 67% of Canadians want a gun registry. They just don't like the one they have. Typical voters...I want it, but I don't want to pay for it.

|5.18.06 @ 5:06PM|#

A gun registry may be terrible at stopping crime, but it's excellent for discouraging potential revolutionaries.

|5.18.06 @ 5:06PM|#

Oh, I heard this in the same story being discussed by a correspondent from the Vancouver Sun about how Canadians are 35% above their 1990 levels of co2 emissions-- and if you count the 6% they're supposed to be down, that's 41% above. He even commented that those figures show that the U.S. has a better record of slowing co2 emissions than Canada. And if anyone needs reminding, the U.S. has not signed Kyoto.

Heck, let's just make this bash Canada day. I feel that one of those is needed once in a while.

But seriously, it's sad that no one who wants a nat'l gun registry in the us will look at this news and consider it before continuing to push for a nat'l gun registry.

|5.18.06 @ 5:19PM|#

If they stop registering guns, how will they know who all the criminals are?

|5.18.06 @ 5:32PM|#

Career Canadian Criminals get Senate appointments.

Kevin

strat|5.18.06 @ 5:45PM|#

O.k...Here's the real question:

How likely would the U.S. Congress be to ever repeal something like that, today? Don't cite prohibition...those were Americans who believed in managing their own destinies.

|5.18.06 @ 7:07PM|#

"First they elect a Conservative government"...
Uh, let's not forget that something like sixty-three percent of Canadians voted for parties to the left of the Conservatives...

|5.18.06 @ 7:47PM|#

Uh, let's not forget that something like sixty-three percent of Canadians voted for parties to the left of the Conservatives...

Yeah, lets not forget that in Canada, even Liberals support balanced budgets. The far-left NDP party is more fiscaly concervative than the Republicans.

|5.18.06 @ 10:26PM|#

"Yeah, lets not forget that in Canada, even Liberals support balanced budgets. The far-left NDP party is more fiscaly concervative than the Republicans."

Wow. The scary thing is that I'm really having trouble dismissing that statement as preposterous, which by all rights it should be.

God, that's depressing...

|5.18.06 @ 10:38PM|#

Adam:

Sadly, it's true. Even sadder is that our first Conservative-billed budget introduced a couple of weeks ago, increases spending over the previous year (under the Liberals), and projects to give us our first deficit (through 2007) in over a decade.

The Liberals were working on a National Day Care Programme (stupid) and the Conservative alternative, rather than 'nothing' as it should have been, was to give every single parent of a child under six $100 a month. Nice, eh?

(Even more entertaining is that Stephen Harper, the new PM, once declared himself 'Libertarian.' He's also defended the Canada Health Act, which makes illegal any private 'essential' health care services, like pediatricians.)

|5.19.06 @ 3:29AM|#

Clean Hands,
Canada isn't exactly known for their revolutionary movements. They became their own nation when the Brits stopped caring, not by some insurrection.

|5.19.06 @ 3:44AM|#

Mo,

That is incorrect. The kernal of Canada, upper and lower Canada (Ontario and Quebec respectively) came about as a result of rebellion against the crown in the 1850s.

|5.19.06 @ 3:45AM|#

somtimes, i miss Ray Stephens

|5.19.06 @ 5:20AM|#

PL,
Wow, didn't know that. I read the Wikipedia entry on those (failed) insurrections. Interesting stuff.

Thanks for the correction.

|5.19.06 @ 7:43AM|#

"Canada isn't exactly known for their revolutionary movements."

"That is incorrect... ...rebellion against the crown in the 1850s."

"Wow, didn't know that."

The fact that you didn't know about it would serve to validate your initial statment.

Anyway, the lack of notable rebellions, revolutions or insurrections is hardly surprising when you contrast the Canadian Dream of "Peace, Order and Good Government" with the American Dream of "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness".

|5.19.06 @ 8:10AM|#

Russ R.,

When you were taking a chemistry test in college did you make a similar argument when you were stumped by a question?

|5.19.06 @ 8:13AM|#

Anyway, lots of Canadians have died in the cause of freedom (their exploits in WWII were extraordinary be it at Normandy or in Italy) so trying to protray Canadians as foppish weaklings doesn't stack up to the historical record.

VM|5.19.06 @ 10:54AM|#

To Echo PL's note about Canadian fighting, just look no further than Olgie Ogelthorp for a tough guy!

cheers

|5.19.06 @ 1:00PM|#

Canada's 'revolutions' were trivial. The Upper Canada Rebellion was little more than disgruntled boozeups that got out of hand. It was over in about a week and hardly a shot was fired.

They did NOT result in anything vaguely resembling political change. They may have provided, in some very small way, a little incentive along a direction which was already inevitable, but that's about it. In the way that a squashed bug on the windshield reminds a driver that he hasn't stopped for a bathroom break in hours.

They didn't cause change so much as allow another faction to say 'look, we're better than THEM (the radicals)' and gain power which, eventually, lead to responsible government in Canada (good lord that it was hard to type 'responsible' 'government' and 'Canada' in the same sentance).

The FLQ crisis did FAR more to change Canada and none of THAT was for the better.

Canadians DID very well in both world wars, but the Canada that accomplished that has not existed for 50 years.

Back on topic, yes, a lot of Canadians probably approve of a gun registry and gun control but that's because they really don't have a clue what they are talking about due to having been deliberately lied to on the details for decades by Prav.. um.. by the CBC.

Most Canadians don't know word one about the laws in Canada eg. they believe that before the registry anyone could walk into a store and *gasp* JUST BUY A GUN! That has not been true for almost 30 years and hasn't been true for sidearms for almost 80 years.

They are so completely misinformed that many are actively hopolophobic to a degree that would be comical were it not adding weight to matters of public policy.

The very concept of a registry being useful in preventing crime is so logically false that it doesn't even bear discussion. Moreover, it is demonstrably false as Toronto's 'Year of the Gun' has so pointedly illustrated.

Finally, anyone who is vaguely well versed in Canadian history knows that 'gun control' in Canada has absolutely NOTHING to do with the stated agenda of public safety and everything to do with a creeping effort by the Federal Bureaucracy to gather and consolidate all power unto itself.

Jake
(who loves his country and hates his government)