The Senate has finally voted to kill the long gun registry in Canada. Needless to say, the Quebecois aren’t all that happy, and are talking about starting a provincial registry. I guess the French Canadians don’t mine flushing money down the toilet that would be better spent on traditional policing. Firearms enthusiasts in Canada can also enjoy the sweet, sweet tears of defeated anti-gun folks. I think they’ll find they are energizing.
5 thoughts on “Canadian Long Gun Registry: Last Nail in Coffin”
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Next up, making the PAL an actual license and the utterly useless and endlessly confusing Prohibited / Restricted laws.
And then on to Shall Issue!
(Hey, I can dream, can’t I? ;) )
I’m surprised the screaming isn’t coming more from Ontario. Quebec is probably protesting since their man Chretien was behind the registry in the first place–part of Quebec’s legacy now within the Dominion.
For what it’s worth, nobody in the territories ever thought twice about handing me–a foreigner in their land–a rifle or shotgun to carry for bear protection when I was up there in the late 90s. Even the cops didn’t mention it when we would bump into them. It’s just a law for city boys as far as I can tell.
I guess the French Canadians don’t mine flushing money down the toilet that would be better spent on traditional policing.
Quebec residents pay the highest taxes in Canada from what I have been told, so maybe their leaders feel that they can afford to waste money on another demonstrably ineffective long gun registry. Despite all the taxes paid in the Quebec province, Quebec still lacked an adequate amount of EMS helicopters back when Liam Neeson’s wife suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2009. Crucial time was lost when she had to be taken by ambulance from the small hospital near the ski resort to the trauma center in Montreal. Ultimately, this lost time cost her life.
So what’s up next for the Canadian Gun Lobby [tm]?
The demise of the Long Gun Registry is a first step. Canadians still have to deal with The Firearms Act. Among many other travesties of individual freedom and property rights, this law makes possession of all firearms a criminal act, and then licenses qualified individuals to legally own their own property.
Qualified? The RCMP asks questions about ones’ private life that are an unconstitutional invasion of privacy.
Inane, badly written “safe storage laws” were actually written to prevent quick access. The standards are so badly crafted that Ontario police lay a charge of unsafe storage, seize all firearms on the premises, and arrest the owner. Thirty-thousand dollars in legal fees, a lost job, and often a destroyed marriage are the legacies.
Applied a bit late for your license renewal? You forgot? That day, the local police are informed. You are now a criminal. The tactical squad now has a job to do. Under new minimum sentencing laws, you will get years in jail. One Ontario judge showed some guts and refused to administer the required sentence–cruel and unusual punishment, she said. The Crown is appealing.
Use a gun in self-defense? By now, you’ve heard about the case of Ian Thomson, the Ontario man who fired three warning shots from a legally owned handgun at the four men in masks who were firebombing his home early one summer morning. Mr. Thomson was arrested. He was charged with numerous firearms offenses. They all have been dropped–except for unsafe storage. You see, in the mind of the prosecuting attorney, if the victim had the time to get his revolver, load it, and fire it, the gun could not have been “safely stored”. Fascinating, isn’t it?
It reminds me of D.C.
And now you know why so much remains to be done in Canada.