scooter
04-09-2009, 10:29 AM
EDMONTON SUN - APRIL 8, 2009
An MRI in every hospital is a worthy aim By PETER WORTHINGTON http://www.edmontonsun.com/Comment/2009/04/08/9048351-sun.html
If the money spent on Canada's long gun registry had been otherwise spent, it could have put an MRI in every hospital in Canada, and advanced the elimination of those 3 a.m. MRI appointments in six months' time. It should be a no-brainer.
The registry of long guns in Canada that has cost the country over $2 billion with little or no effect on shootings - accidental or otherwise - should never have been implemented.
Why no federal government until now has moved to disband the whole thing stands as testimony to the hesitancy, if not cowardice, of politicians.
A noisy minority might protest - belay that, certainly will protest - if a vote is taken to revoke the registry of long guns as Prime Minister Stephen Harper hopes, when Conservative MP Gary Breitkreuz's private member's bill comes before the House of Commons.
While Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff clearly isn't enamoured with the long gun registry - which became law when he was a professor at Harvard and was probably mildly contemptuous of politicians - he's adopted a wait-and-see attitude but isn't hostile to rescinding the law.
Jack Layton probably favours the registry, but a lot of his rural NDP supporters thinks it's nuts, so he'd likely allow his MPs to vote their consciences.
When asked his opinion, Ignatieff was cautious but acknowledged there's a difference between farmers with shotguns, target shooters, hunters, and such, and those who use guns to murder or rob people.
Toronto Mayor David Miller resists this distinction, and wants a bylaw to prohibit shooting ranges and gun clubs in Toronto, including one at Union Station. His rationale seems to be that while people who belong to gun clubs or use ranges are not criminals, such clubs might be robbed by bad guys who'll use these guns to commit crimes.
Many criminals get their guns from the U.S., and as yet there is no foolproof way to prevent that. Of all homicides, 2.3% are committed with registered guns.
Handguns are the weapon of choice for criminals. And they've been registered in Canada since 1934, with legal ownership further restricted since 1968.
Yet the percentage of their use in crimes hasn't varied much over the years.
There's no pressure to rescind hand gun registration, simply because most people realize they are a threat. Even at that, knives are used in violent crimes three times more often than guns.
Of the 29% to 33% of gun homicides per year, some 45% of them were by gangs, drug dealers or other organized criminals.
The "long guns" under debate are shotguns and sporting rifles, .22s, 30.30s, .303s, .306s and such. Bolt action or single shot. Assault-type weapons, or those with machinegun capabilities of rapid continuous fire, should not be viewed as "long guns."
Police might be uneasy with relaxing registration laws that might result in a boom in gun ownership.
Maybe, but so what? It's been estimated that whatever the accepted, or approved estimate of guns registered in Canada is, there are likely a third to a half more guns in the country than are registered -- most of them long guns owned by people in rural settings who don't trust the government and haven't reported their guns.
These people, too, are not likely to use guns illegally. By rescinding registration for long guns, Parliament may actually help people become law abiding again.
That seems a more worthy cause than making people paranoid. As one columnist has pointed out, gun registration is a triumph of symbolism over substance.
An MRI in every hospital is a worthy aim By PETER WORTHINGTON http://www.edmontonsun.com/Comment/2009/04/08/9048351-sun.html
If the money spent on Canada's long gun registry had been otherwise spent, it could have put an MRI in every hospital in Canada, and advanced the elimination of those 3 a.m. MRI appointments in six months' time. It should be a no-brainer.
The registry of long guns in Canada that has cost the country over $2 billion with little or no effect on shootings - accidental or otherwise - should never have been implemented.
Why no federal government until now has moved to disband the whole thing stands as testimony to the hesitancy, if not cowardice, of politicians.
A noisy minority might protest - belay that, certainly will protest - if a vote is taken to revoke the registry of long guns as Prime Minister Stephen Harper hopes, when Conservative MP Gary Breitkreuz's private member's bill comes before the House of Commons.
While Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff clearly isn't enamoured with the long gun registry - which became law when he was a professor at Harvard and was probably mildly contemptuous of politicians - he's adopted a wait-and-see attitude but isn't hostile to rescinding the law.
Jack Layton probably favours the registry, but a lot of his rural NDP supporters thinks it's nuts, so he'd likely allow his MPs to vote their consciences.
When asked his opinion, Ignatieff was cautious but acknowledged there's a difference between farmers with shotguns, target shooters, hunters, and such, and those who use guns to murder or rob people.
Toronto Mayor David Miller resists this distinction, and wants a bylaw to prohibit shooting ranges and gun clubs in Toronto, including one at Union Station. His rationale seems to be that while people who belong to gun clubs or use ranges are not criminals, such clubs might be robbed by bad guys who'll use these guns to commit crimes.
Many criminals get their guns from the U.S., and as yet there is no foolproof way to prevent that. Of all homicides, 2.3% are committed with registered guns.
Handguns are the weapon of choice for criminals. And they've been registered in Canada since 1934, with legal ownership further restricted since 1968.
Yet the percentage of their use in crimes hasn't varied much over the years.
There's no pressure to rescind hand gun registration, simply because most people realize they are a threat. Even at that, knives are used in violent crimes three times more often than guns.
Of the 29% to 33% of gun homicides per year, some 45% of them were by gangs, drug dealers or other organized criminals.
The "long guns" under debate are shotguns and sporting rifles, .22s, 30.30s, .303s, .306s and such. Bolt action or single shot. Assault-type weapons, or those with machinegun capabilities of rapid continuous fire, should not be viewed as "long guns."
Police might be uneasy with relaxing registration laws that might result in a boom in gun ownership.
Maybe, but so what? It's been estimated that whatever the accepted, or approved estimate of guns registered in Canada is, there are likely a third to a half more guns in the country than are registered -- most of them long guns owned by people in rural settings who don't trust the government and haven't reported their guns.
These people, too, are not likely to use guns illegally. By rescinding registration for long guns, Parliament may actually help people become law abiding again.
That seems a more worthy cause than making people paranoid. As one columnist has pointed out, gun registration is a triumph of symbolism over substance.