I’m a Western Canadian guy from a part of Canada that embraces the gun culture. I live in a region where a firearm is a valuable tool for farmers and outdoorsmen. The big difference is that we live in a country with restrictive handgun laws-and I can live with that fact.
Our rules prevent owners from everyday carry. They are only supposed to carry the weapons from a gun club to their homes in the most direct route possible. This law has been on the books for many decades, so we are used to the idea.
But the US is a completely different program because the handgun genie is out of the bottle; dead, long-buried, and now just a famous ancestor for its great-great-great grandchildren.
The issue in your country has always boiled down to two contentious issues of Constitutional rights; a right to bear arms and a right to defend one’s family and property. The hairsplitting on who’s right and who’s wrong in a Constitutional sense is kind of a dead issue, in view of massive legal gun ownership of all styles of firearms. The winner of this argument will not change the reality of guns in America.
So an outsider like myself is left with a bird’s-eye view of the American gun issue. A ban on handguns would produce a serious black market with Capone-like profiteers in the middle of this new Prohibition. Right now these guys are likely middlemen for weapons that are currently in use in the free-fire zone south of the border in Mexico.
Your weapons have also surfaced north of the border in my country where gang warfare is alive and well in our bigger cities. We are not thrilled to have an abundance of illegal weapons in our country via your country, but that again is a reality. We only hope that our lowlifes get to be better shots so they only kill each other instead of a random number of innocent bystanders. Unfortunately they have proven to be terrible shots so far.
The current government has plans to make gun crimes into a very long prison sentence in Canada. That is the second best answer to their timely deaths by other lowlifes.
The Arizona situation is just the latest in a long series of similar situations in your country. “Going postal” is too narrow a term because of the places and people involved in these massacres in the US. It will happen again and again-and it will be debated again and again by both sides.
It does make me happier that we have measures of control on Canadian firearm ownership that may have prevented easy access to weapons by nut-bars in our country. But as I’ve said before on this site, if I lived in the United States, I would be well-armed and trained in use of same. Because that genie ain’t coming back anytime soon.
“This law has been on the books for many decades, so we are used to the idea.”
So if they passed a law in the Great White North that required all citizens to kneel and pay homage to the greatness that is the prime minister every day, how long would it have to be in place before you get used to that idea, too?
Does longevity on the books make a law more palatable? Has Canadian testicular fortitude diminished over time as well? Is that why there are so many Americans and Europeans in the NHL now?
So if they passed a law in the Great White North that required all citizens to kneel and pay homage to the greatness that is the prime minister every day, how long would it have to be in place before you get used to that idea, too?
More like face east south east and kneel five times a day.
“Your weapons have also surfaced north of the border in my country where gang warfare is alive and well in our bigger cities. We are not thrilled to have an abundance of illegal weapons in our country via your country, but that again is a reality.”
This sounds suspiciously like you’re making the same claim as the media does with its mythical “iron river” of guns running to Mexico. Do you have any evidence to back up the assertion that American-originated guns are what’s fueling Canadian gang warfare?
As a Canadian myself I should be able to shed some light on the issue of these vague and pointed statements. Most Canadians view Americans as ignorant hicks who love going to war for no reason. Where do I get to say this? I get to say this because nine out of ten of every Canadian that watches the news will have some negative thing to say about America because of some incident that is all the rave. Kidnappings are an example. This latest shooting the newest round. Most Canadians I have spoken to, know and am family with have a pious attitude when it comes to other countries, especially America. My father for example. He thinks all of America is a violent wasteland because I have crime and break ins in the city where I live. He can say this because there is no one to argue his point and most will just go along with it. He can do this despite the fact that his home has been broken into four times in four years for nothing more then some country music CDs (no joke). I recall a girl I used to date when I was in my twenties. Her mother would watch the news and spew racial obscenities regarding Blacks every time she saw one being arrested on the news for whatever reason or even on the TV show Cops. Where I used to live is very rural, an island in fact. This woman had probably never even seen a black person in real life, let alone walked by one in the street. She however had a formed conclusion of what she would do if she came across one though (I won’t use her words). ‘Liberal minded’ as she was, her ignorance still shone brightly. Gun crime in Canada is largely perpetrated by users of shotguns and rifles. These completely bypass the stringent handgun laws and are the choice of weapons even in large cities where hiding these things are difficult.
The idea of blaming other people for their problems is common place. You can’t look in the mirror as a liberal thinker and say you are better if you have to admit that there are issues caused by you and your own. Of course the guns are coming from down south. No Canadian would sell firearms illegally! They do however do this…
“Legal guns which are diverted to the illegal markets through theft or illegal sale: there
is no virtual ban on handguns. There are 500,000 legally owned handguns in Canada.
• Legally owned guns are often improperly stored, and stolen or sold illegally.
• Every year, over 5,000 firearms are reported stolen in Canada and in the hands of criminals.
• According to the police, about half the guns used in crime in Toronto are guns at one time
legally owned in Canada, many of them stolen in breaks-in.
• Between June 20 and August 3, 2005, burglars made off with 84 firearms from Toronto-area
homes. More than half, including 43 pistols stolen from Cobourg area, were handguns.
One of these was used in a murder in Toronto this year.
• Lately, the Toronto Police discovered that it was easy to buy guns over the Internet. The
investigation led them to arrest four people who face a total of 276 charges and to seize
many firearms.
• Following a break-in in July 2004, two fingerprints led police to an apartment in Toronto,
where ten rifles and shotguns were recovered. The investigation determined that the
firearms had been reported stolen from a residence in a different area.
• Three young men armed with knives stole three rifles, a shotgun and ammunition from a
south Scarborough home after terrorizing and locking up a 63 year old couple.
• A Toronto lawyer had 14 handguns stolen from his office last month one has turned up in
crime.”
5000 guns stolen! Not bad for a country of roughly 33 million of which a very, very small portion actually owns guns. To me this sounds like Canadians need to lock up their homes and especially their guns.
Anyways. Long story short. Canadians love to say how the U.S and other parts of the world are falling apart. Canada doesn’t have a drug trade, no! I truly believe it is one of the most fickle-minded, unpatriotic countries I have ever lived in. Don’t get me started on the dissolution of belief and religion in that country. Ones comment about kneeling and praying five times a day is not that far off.
I addressed some claims by some anti-gun Canadians (Dominique Millette, James Sheptycki, and Wendy Cukier) in an editorial last year, Pistolization? Pistolize this!
I think it makes sense that black market handguns in Canada would mostly come from the US. Where else would they come from? Why go to the trouble of smuggling arms in from Asia or Mexico when you can buy them so easily over the counter on the other side of an extremely porous border? As a good neighbor, Americans should do our part to help stem the flow of arms outside of the country – just as we expect the Mexican government to do more to stem the flow of illicit drugs through their country into ours.
How? Border patrol? Erect a wall on the world’s largest unprotected border?
“I think it makes sense that black market handguns in Canada would mostly come from the US. Where else would they come from?”
Canada? Yes, Canadians commit crimes too.
I’m not saying Canada isn’t responsible for its own crime. I’m saying Americans need to police our own crime, which includes arms smuggling. And that doesn’t mean that the U.S. government has the right to infringe on 2A rights to do so (i.e. throw the baby out with the bath water). Yes, border patrol (not a wall) and working with Canadian authorities to identify and track down smugglers.
“I’m not saying Canada isn’t responsible for its own crime. I’m saying Americans need to police our own crime, which includes arms smuggling.”
I assume where you say ‘Americans need to police our own crime…’ you mean Americans need to police their OWN crime. In which case my reply is that they already do. I challenge you to say that Canada (known as a bad filter for criminals and terrorists in regards to border policy) has a better checking system for International product, transportation security and airline security measures.
If you do not and you do mean that America has to police Canada’s crime in relation to smuggling then refer to my post above where I refer to piety and not being able to look in the mirror…
Also what you say here…
“Yes, border patrol (not a wall) and working with Canadian authorities to identify and track down smugglers.”
Again, if you would refer to the above comment I had written regarding stolen guns from Canadian residences you would clearly see that if the police rooted out the source of these occurrences you would quickly have your gang members, smugglers and all kinds of bad guys behind bars. To think that the majority of your problems is because of American gun policy is silly. Canadian gun problems stem from sad policing, lax laws and poor investigational skill…
“just as we expect the Mexican government to do more to stem the flow of illicit drugs through their country into ours” – I suppose we could stop using drugs here in America. That would probably help, just a thought though…
Nah. Lets just ban imports altogether. Put up 50 foot walls with turrets and all that.
Just say no.
“We are not thrilled to have an abundance of illegal weapons in our country via your country, but that again is a reality” – Don’t worry, we’re not too thrilled by the abundance of bad actors and mediocre singers that hail from you country either! Do you have any numbers or reports to back up these claims? We here this same bla bla bla from the BATFE about guns going to Mexico, and we all know how honest they are. You say that your big cities have gang problems that are “alive and well”. While you do not explicitly state it, I get the sense that you are implying that you have gang problems because of guns. In reality, you have gun problems because of gangs and not the other way around. I wonder if Canadian’s packed personal weapons, along with the ubiquitous thick-rumped horse and coon-skin cap, would there be less gun violence?
I’m still at a loss as to the vitriol coming from BOTH sides of the border(s) about handguns. How are you any less dead if you’re killed by a shotgun or rifle? In fact, high-powered rifles do a bang-up job (no pun intended) of creating spectacular wound channels and gory crime scenes. If Canada’s going to ban handguns, what’s the point, if they are not also going to ban rifles and shotguns? (Same goes for here, for that matter.) If you can get past all the heated rhetoric and emotion, a gun – any gun – is just a tool. (Much like an automobile, be it Hummer, Prius or anything in-between is just a tool.) A handgun is no more dangerous than a 30.06 rifle or a Wingmaster 870. It depends on how it is used, and who is using it.
You wanna ban something that might change the equation? Make the laws for mixing drinking and carrying so draconian that nobody would dare violate them. Or simply make it possible for every law-abiding, sane citizen to get a permit to conceal carry. ALL the data shows that CHL holders in this country are statistically more law-abiding than those who do not have a permit. And as RF has pointed out, the reason is obvious: if you hold a CHL, you don’t wanna do ANYthing that might get your permit revoked. I don’t even break the speed limit laws, regardless of if I’m carrying or not.
But we do need to stop illegal traffic coming in/going out over our borders. It’s the good fences make good neighbors thing, plus a heapin’ helpin’ of “let’s make it a little harder for the terrorists to sneak in.”
I still remember when Montreal was a war zone courtesy of gangster Mom Boucher. His boys used bombs as well as guns. None of them were marked “Made in the USA.” No vitriol here — I like the country and its people and visit there often — but it’s also a nation with a recent history of internecine warfare. Reference the FLQ — the French separatist movement. It was from time to time extremely violent, and the movement was well financed by French interests, not American. For a nation with such a small population, Canada has also been plagued by a disproportionate number of notorious serial killers. Our friends to the north are not as passive as even they might choose to believe.
Right, Ralph. Most people view Canada as a happy go lucky ‘eh’ saying kind of place. Some of the most notorious and crazy killers are from there… warped folks. I am not sure if you are referring to the thing in the 80’s where there was a huge standoff between these people and the RCMP? Also biker gangs were all the rage back then too… the police were afraid to move in certain parts of Montreal.
Yup. Canadians are damn good people, and just as subject to BGs as people in the US.
As an aside, the Wehrmacht thought that the Canadians were the toughest soldiers they had to face on the Western Front.
Hah! Funny you mention that. I was just talking to my wife about that the other day… they would call commnad and yell Canadians… I think it was because of the Piat (spelling) launchers that they had. Brutal against the pillboxes and such.
Yeah, the PIAT was a British antitank weapon, like the bazooka. The Brits used them, but the Canadians rammed them right up the Wehrmacht’s . . . um, let’s just say that the Canadians used them to even greater effect. It wasn’t the weapons that the German’s feared. It was the troops. The Brits were good soldiers. The Canadians were even better.
‘S funny in many ways…
I’m close to Seattle, and have LE friends. A recent discussion was over our own area gangsta problems. Even tho we have the usual Bloods/Crips/Banditos/M13 crap going on, the biggest surge in gangsta-crime is from the “East Asian” area. (Think Triads..). You have at least 5 local internet hosting services in the ‘Couver area on the Spamhaus shitlist for either providing emailservice, site hosting, or other spam-support actions.
It’s not over “BC Bud”.
It’s the whole old Mafia routine ramped up to cyberspace. (add the “former USSR” to this as in the carders, phishers and spammers and etc)
Where are the kingpins? Places like Surrey, White Rock and the overall Vancouver BC area. There’s even are lesser-known links leading to the Okanogan and further east .
I do have a few contacts in Alberta, used to live in Montana. What they see there is the same “East Asians” added to the (no way I’m going to caps on these assholes) neo-na*is.
From what I see in the news, the biker gangs are still going strong from Minnesota on east, mostly meth but same as here otherwise.
It’s big-time stuff. All the (non-data, crap they do across the border (up or down) is slipped in/stuffed in ship containers. There’s no way that either US or CA customs can catch enough to even make a dent in that. I’m not driving I-5 as much as I used to, but probably 20+% o9f the truck traffic between (guessing Portland OR) and BC is containers.
I have no problem with Cheesheads/Knucks/whatever the current CA slur is.
You have a different mindset and politics (some of which I think us USAians need); but we basically are the same.. except for doing English pastries.. On that you win!
I’ll brave customs both ways just to go to my fave bakery in Abbotsford.
Just as an aside;
Are you aware or the Hutterities? (http://hutterites.org/) Think Amish with technology in farming. We had a “Hoot” colony (and for me some long-time friends) for neighbors in Montana (and I’m doing slurs again but..how can you insult a true friend?). Even in the ’70’s they were getting targeted by the neo-na*i and other hate groups. (IMHO, they are the only true “communists” in the world, fuc* the definitions. For them, it works)
Even with their philosophy, I have been told (by Hoot friends) that their pragmatists have been known to pack some heavy iron in both the USA and CA. They won’t shoot first, but anybody goes after their extended family…
Screw-up on my part. The thing about spammers was supposed to follow the “former USSR” taunt.
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