But I also whole-heartedly agree with The Cowboy: in rural Canada, where opposition to the registry has been strongest (in fact I would say: the only part of Canada where opposition to it is particularly marked) a long gun is the murderer's weapon of choice. I would also point out that most violent per capita municipalities in Canada are out in Toryland, and suggest that at least some of the overblown reaction to the registry was the same kind of defensiveness you get from Scarberians when you mention gang violence.
So as policy the gun registry was clearly defensible, and given the way our healthcare system is structured, without it taxpayers in urban Canada will see a larger proportion of their hard-earned money funneled away to pay for the prosthetic feet of Alta. oil-rig workers who get drunk and try to kill one another with rifles but accidentally blow their own toes off instead. But I just don't see the registry as an achievable goal at the moment. So leave it be. Eventually demographics will solve the problem for us. The registry's most vocal critics are, demographically, angry old men who yell at passing clouds, and as time goes by there will be fewer and fewer of them. Then... a private member's bill late in the night and ....Ptonk! The West is civilized again.
11 comments:
"So as policy the gun registry was clearly defensible"
Only if you are delusional. The registry never worked. Why is that so hard for the politically-correct to understand?
I understand the upset, but again, the registry never worked, and it is distressing to see a lot of intelligent people buy into a warm and fuzzy delusion, that somehow, registering every shotgun in rural Canada is going to change things in Toronto or Montreal.
Crime and Public Safety.
The favorite kool aid flavor to serve the political base of every party.
Allan Rock served up the Gun Registry, and Vic Toews serves up the Omnibus crime bill.
They both do the exact same thing.
They cost the public a LOT of money that could much better be used in early violence intervention efforts and social programs.
They don't make us safer.
And.. most importantly, they appeal to a largely ignorant base who say, "Sounds good to me, I'll vote for that."
I'm no big fan, for now, of Justin Trudeau.. and he'll have to do some work to convince me that the world doesn't begin and end in central Canada.. but he's gained a few points in my mind for showing some common sense.
Oh.
And while I'm here.. making noise, and whatnot.. if Edstock is still around, do you really think that manditory minimums and putting more people in jail is going to make us safer.. or just make it more likely that Flaherty will NEVER balance a budget?
Frank's remark was dinged for being uncommonly stupid even for Frank. Take note Frank.
Hmm.. but my posts are still here.
I guess I'm flattered :)
BCL, you're also quite deluded on the demographics of firearms ownership. The "angry old men" stereotype is laughably off the mark, especially in the fast-growing Western provinces. This is clearly obvious from the fact that Justin Trudeau apparently felt the need to distance himself from the long-gun registry.
It's a great tragedy that the Liberal Party in specific and the left in general has chosen to waste so much political capital on this frivolous "cause". Wendy Cukier and David Miller and their ilk have driven more people to the CPC than you realise, and in doing so have have done real damage to true economic and social progress in this country.
The registry had nothing to do with safety and everytyhing to do with shoving a particular set of cultural mores down everyone else`s throat. Its cost has been far greater than whatever dollar figure its opponents have been throwing around.
oh, and the arrogance of suggesting that the west somehow needs to be civilised by our urban betters is breathtaking ...
Your breathtakingly condescending attitude toward Albertans is a great example of why your party dropped to third place. Learn some humility.
Vancouverois,
Blo me.
I see you're as lacking in class as you are lacking in modesty, intelligence, and political sense.
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