September 23, 2006
Gun control and the tragedy in Montreal
From: [Name Withheld]
Reply-To: cyf-talk@yahoogroups.com
Sent: September 17, 2006 10:21:25 AM
To: cyf-talk@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: (cyf-talk) Debate Over Long-Gun Registry
I recently blogged about this. A couple of quick but important points about this incident and the gun registry:
First and foremost, let me extend my sympathies, condolences, and support to the students and the families affected by the terrible shooting in Montreal. My prayers are with them.
This is a terrible tragedy. I don't know if there was much of anything that would have prevented it. It is so sad and so frustrating. It's also frustrating to have to start this discussion so early. Personally, I would have preferred to wait, but I also believe that it is imperative to respond to misconceptions on some of these issues before they spread and turn into gospel.
Reply-To: cyf-talk@yahoogroups.com
Sent: September 17, 2006 10:21:25 AM
To: cyf-talk@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: (cyf-talk) Debate Over Long-Gun Registry
I recently blogged about this. A couple of quick but important points about this incident and the gun registry:
First and foremost, let me extend my sympathies, condolences, and support to the students and the families affected by the terrible shooting in Montreal. My prayers are with them.
This is a terrible tragedy. I don't know if there was much of anything that would have prevented it. It is so sad and so frustrating. It's also frustrating to have to start this discussion so early. Personally, I would have preferred to wait, but I also believe that it is imperative to respond to misconceptions on some of these issues before they spread and turn into gospel.
- There should not be so much as one single photograph of the shooter displayed online, on television or anywhere else. There should be no or very little reproduction of his "message." He should barely be named. We should try our best to minimize any popular circulation of these things because we do not want to give the impression to other young people (or anyone) that such "statements" will be heard in any way shape or form.
- I believe, and I admit this is more of a feeling than a quantifiable thing, that young people in most parts of Canada today only happen upon a decent moral compass and an appreciation of the real world threats, values and principles if their families take it upon themselves to offer it or if teachers and other mentor-figures take it upon themselves to do something extra to instill that. It's no longer a society-re-enforced school-taught thing. This is, in my opinion, unfortunate. I don't know if more instilling and monitoring of the development of that moral compass in our children would have made any difference in this situation, but I think it makes sense to really look hard at what we're doing on that front. We need to do more.
- Instead of Jean Charest dignifying leading questions during a period of tragedy and going on at length about a hunting rifle registry that in no way would have prevented this tragedy, if he must start the discussion so early, he should do so by first looking at what he can himself control. There are visible security guards in everything from office towers to shopping malls to downtown bars. Yet there is clearly not enough security guard presence in schools protecting the most important thing of all -- the safety of our children. In urban schools there should be guards and those guards should be armed.
- Wendy Cukier, head of the Coalition for Gun Control should be ashamed of herself for using this incident to grind a very different axe indeed. She should also be ashamed of herself for describing law abiding gun owners as "dangerous people" on a CBC news TV spot today. She did so when she suggested that eliminating the new registry would be "making it easier for dangerous people to get guns." This is patently false. Even if the latest registry is totally repealed, Canada will still have every restriction in place concerning who can and cannot use firearms and significant gun control laws. Even if we had a registry that extended to pop guns, pellet guns, water guns, pointy sticks, and cutlery, we wouldn't have prevented any of these sorts of crimes.
- The Italian-made Beretta Cx4 Storm semi-automatic rifle owned by the killer has nothing to do with the latest registry. It didn't need to be. It was already a severely restricted weapon (http://www.cfc-cafc.gc.ca/info_for-renseignement/factsheets/restricted_e.asp). If Parliament voted tomorrow to repeal every lick of the changes Alan Rock and Anne MacLellan pushed through (re the registration of duck hunting guns etc . . ), this weapon would still be totally restricted. It is the heights of ignorance for Liberal MP Marlene Jennings and her Bloc counterpart who appeared on CBC Newsworld's Politics to imply that scrapping the registry in any way makes it easier for these sorts of weapons to be accessed. It's simply false.
- To the pinkos: please don't compare us to the United States, it's a silly comparison and it's the usual bogeyman use of our neighbour to the south. But if you insist, remember a few things about the trends of violent crimes in different countries. Simon Fraser University professor Gary Mauser (http://www.sfu.ca/%7Emauser/papers/failed/FailedExperimentRev.pdf) shows us, that the United States, while having a higher violent crime rate, has actually had more luck in reducing its homicide rate than Canada. If these trends were to continue, Canada could end up with a rate higher than the US rate. As it stands, According to the 2005 U.N. Human Development Report, a greater percentage of Canadians have been victims of total crime (23.8%) and the measured forms of violent crime (assault [0.9], robbery[0.8], sexual assault[2.3]) than the percentage affected by such crimes in the United States (21.1, 0.6, 0.4, 1.2). Gary Mauser has studied the effect and experience of four different countries with four different flavours of gun control: Canada, U.S.A, U.K., and Australia. His findings will surprise you. Please read it. Check out his sources too. It's very solid.
- The most important piece of firearms control was established back in 1979 -- the FAC system. The rest since then has been mostly garbage.
- The latest incarnation of the firearms registry was expensive, intrusive, ineffective, and even counter-productive. The government should definitely go ahead and scrap it. Maybe the money that can be saved can go towards better programs to address violence issues in school, better enforcing more sensible laws, and keeping Canadians more secure.
