A Canadian Liberal's Case for Guns - a pseudo e-torial
Hello, I'm a voting Liberal, I believe in peace, healthcare, maintaining a good environment, education and social programs as a long term solution to crime problems, rainbows, and also, butterflies.
I'm also very firmly "pro-firearms", by which I support that it is right, even though it's not a right guaranteed in the constitution and I don't believe it needs to be, for firearms to be kept by the civilian populace.
I believe that there should and must be reasonable regulations in place that will keep guns out of the hands of those who are unfit to own them, the mentally unstable, the criminal, and those with a restraining order against them or one that is pending. By reasonable, the regulations must actually be effective in that it do good, without unduly costing trouble for the gun-owner or voiding the purpose for why the government (and gangs) shouldn't have a monopoly on guns.
I oppose the federal gun registry, for practical reasons and in the principle of precaution. A centralized system to regulate such a local thing is too costly, time-consuming, and inefficient to maintain. When we have general elections, votes are counted up by first at the local polls, then totalled per ridings as opposed to totalled over the entire country...and even then, being an irregular thing, that costs a lot of money. People buy guns in cites, towns, and cabins all over our country, change their places of residence, at any given time. A centralized system, doesn't make sense.
On principal, I'm against our central government having direct access to the information of whom every law-abiding gun-owner in this country is, how much they have, and where they live. I believe in "peace, order, and good government", but I also believe in balance and Plan B. Depending on how you view it, 'Liberals in general' tend to be on the side of privacy as oppose to security. Some would say, 'well if you have done nothing wrong you'll have nothing to fear from being watched', but in addition to the rights of privacy itself, it is also a matter of balance, for knowledge is power and unchecked surveillance of the individual by the government or other authority puts our freedom in danger.
We are very fortunate that for the moment, 'enough is well' with our country, our democratic situation stable. Remember however, viewing the world as whole, firearms-enforced dictatorships is the current norm and democracy, even when established, is a fragile thing. Chile had been a democracy for over a century before it was toppled by wayward military leaders working with a tyrannical party, Ancient Rome for a period of time was also a democracy of sorts. A sitting government could decide to turn tyrannical, and then, there are outside forces. During WWII, after governments surrendered it was up to the civilians to look after their own. In the case where governments are defeated, the victors will have access to all the government's resource, this includes all records our officials didn't get to or didn't think to destroy. We will then be very, very, DOOMED.
It is for the reasons above, that I am "pro-firearms", against federal gun registry the same way I'm against unchecked government surveillance, and believes deeply in the division and balance of power through jurisdiction and protection of individual rights.
I believe that if there has to be a gun registry, it must be local, and the information not accessible to the central government, not without a fight during which the gun owner in question must be informed of. In this case, the local police stations will have a record of who own guns in their town, records which must be kept in confident (not everyone in the station will have access to it, just to chief perhaps). When the gun owner moves, the gun owner informs a police station, who will then transfer the records to the police station in the new town the way doctors transfers health records.
Mostly, I believe that guns should be regulated at local level, through selling laws. As mentioned earlier, Only those licensed to do so, gun shops, should be allowed to sell guns. If gun owners don't want the guns they have anymore they will have to sell it back to a licensed gun shop, the penalty for just abandoning gun or selling when you are not licensed to do so should be severe.
Gun shops and all under their employ should have very strict background checks done. The gun shop in question must check the backgrounds of those who want to purchase guns and heed the results or face legal consequences when shit happens if they were negligent in the screening. Gun shops should have access to criminal and court records in order to do the background check, and the gun owner must sign over his/her psychiatric records, if any.
Crossposted to canpolitik with some notes, the 'observations' regarding the recent Montreal school rampage:
1) While tragic, there are some small mercies in that unlike the shootings at Montreal's École Polytechnique a decade ago, in which 14 female students were killed, the gunman had only managed to kill one student this time, though critically injuring 6 people. This time, the gunman's rampage was stopped, by the police, with guns:
The suspect reportedly walked into Dawson College around 12:41 p.m. ET and began firing at students in the cafeteria. Police arrived three minutes later.
"They saw a suspect shooting inside the walls of Dawson," Delorme told a news conference. "So the first policeman took charge of the situation, and shot in the direction of the suspect, and the suspect died."
2) "The 25-year-old man used legally registered guns for the rampage at Dawson College."
- ANDRÉ PICARD, Carnage at Montreal campus, Globe and Mail Update, POSTED AT 7:27 AM EDT ON 14/09/06
...and, note to flist: If you haven't watched Tremors (1990), totally go look it up. Burt and Heather Gummer are totally awesome and the reason why I think Texans are cool, even though those two are fictional, lol. The Gummers are survialists but they aren't "teh ebil red necks" at all...as ranted about by the subbie-yuppie pop band "Green Day"... Both Burt and Heather are very intelligent and friendly. Epecially keeping in mind that this movie was made in the late 80s, it's awesome that Heather knows how to use a gun, and that she's in a relationship of equals where her husband respects jer and they work together in the time of crisis. They also wouldn't let the kid touch the guns, haha!
I'm also very firmly "pro-firearms", by which I support that it is right, even though it's not a right guaranteed in the constitution and I don't believe it needs to be, for firearms to be kept by the civilian populace.
I believe that there should and must be reasonable regulations in place that will keep guns out of the hands of those who are unfit to own them, the mentally unstable, the criminal, and those with a restraining order against them or one that is pending. By reasonable, the regulations must actually be effective in that it do good, without unduly costing trouble for the gun-owner or voiding the purpose for why the government (and gangs) shouldn't have a monopoly on guns.
I oppose the federal gun registry, for practical reasons and in the principle of precaution. A centralized system to regulate such a local thing is too costly, time-consuming, and inefficient to maintain. When we have general elections, votes are counted up by first at the local polls, then totalled per ridings as opposed to totalled over the entire country...and even then, being an irregular thing, that costs a lot of money. People buy guns in cites, towns, and cabins all over our country, change their places of residence, at any given time. A centralized system, doesn't make sense.
On principal, I'm against our central government having direct access to the information of whom every law-abiding gun-owner in this country is, how much they have, and where they live. I believe in "peace, order, and good government", but I also believe in balance and Plan B. Depending on how you view it, 'Liberals in general' tend to be on the side of privacy as oppose to security. Some would say, 'well if you have done nothing wrong you'll have nothing to fear from being watched', but in addition to the rights of privacy itself, it is also a matter of balance, for knowledge is power and unchecked surveillance of the individual by the government or other authority puts our freedom in danger.
We are very fortunate that for the moment, 'enough is well' with our country, our democratic situation stable. Remember however, viewing the world as whole, firearms-enforced dictatorships is the current norm and democracy, even when established, is a fragile thing. Chile had been a democracy for over a century before it was toppled by wayward military leaders working with a tyrannical party, Ancient Rome for a period of time was also a democracy of sorts. A sitting government could decide to turn tyrannical, and then, there are outside forces. During WWII, after governments surrendered it was up to the civilians to look after their own. In the case where governments are defeated, the victors will have access to all the government's resource, this includes all records our officials didn't get to or didn't think to destroy. We will then be very, very, DOOMED.
It is for the reasons above, that I am "pro-firearms", against federal gun registry the same way I'm against unchecked government surveillance, and believes deeply in the division and balance of power through jurisdiction and protection of individual rights.
I believe that if there has to be a gun registry, it must be local, and the information not accessible to the central government, not without a fight during which the gun owner in question must be informed of. In this case, the local police stations will have a record of who own guns in their town, records which must be kept in confident (not everyone in the station will have access to it, just to chief perhaps). When the gun owner moves, the gun owner informs a police station, who will then transfer the records to the police station in the new town the way doctors transfers health records.
Mostly, I believe that guns should be regulated at local level, through selling laws. As mentioned earlier, Only those licensed to do so, gun shops, should be allowed to sell guns. If gun owners don't want the guns they have anymore they will have to sell it back to a licensed gun shop, the penalty for just abandoning gun or selling when you are not licensed to do so should be severe.
Gun shops and all under their employ should have very strict background checks done. The gun shop in question must check the backgrounds of those who want to purchase guns and heed the results or face legal consequences when shit happens if they were negligent in the screening. Gun shops should have access to criminal and court records in order to do the background check, and the gun owner must sign over his/her psychiatric records, if any.
Crossposted to canpolitik with some notes, the 'observations' regarding the recent Montreal school rampage:
1) While tragic, there are some small mercies in that unlike the shootings at Montreal's École Polytechnique a decade ago, in which 14 female students were killed, the gunman had only managed to kill one student this time, though critically injuring 6 people. This time, the gunman's rampage was stopped, by the police, with guns:
The suspect reportedly walked into Dawson College around 12:41 p.m. ET and began firing at students in the cafeteria. Police arrived three minutes later.
"They saw a suspect shooting inside the walls of Dawson," Delorme told a news conference. "So the first policeman took charge of the situation, and shot in the direction of the suspect, and the suspect died."
2) "The 25-year-old man used legally registered guns for the rampage at Dawson College."
- ANDRÉ PICARD, Carnage at Montreal campus, Globe and Mail Update, POSTED AT 7:27 AM EDT ON 14/09/06
...and, note to flist: If you haven't watched Tremors (1990), totally go look it up. Burt and Heather Gummer are totally awesome and the reason why I think Texans are cool, even though those two are fictional, lol. The Gummers are survialists but they aren't "teh ebil red necks" at all...as ranted about by the subbie-yuppie pop band "Green Day"... Both Burt and Heather are very intelligent and friendly. Epecially keeping in mind that this movie was made in the late 80s, it's awesome that Heather knows how to use a gun, and that she's in a relationship of equals where her husband respects jer and they work together in the time of crisis. They also wouldn't let the kid touch the guns, haha!