Der Brucer,
I’m going to have to counter some of that post you just made (it IS my job after all!)
First off, note that the article came from Alberta. There is a very vocal segment of the population in this province, with its traditional independent streak and history as the wild wild west, which has ALWAYS been against the Firearms Act and indeed, against gun control of any kind. So... taking an argument from the Edmonton Journal isn't exactly the most unbiased way to go about this because they are simply trying to appeal to their readership which is made of a large chunk of people who feel that the ownership of any firearm - military assault, handgun or otherwise - is a right. It may be one in the United States, but Canada has NEVER considered gun ownership a right, but rather sees it as a privilege that can and indeed HAS to be regulated.
Secondly, Canada's Firearms Act is anything but Draconian. It is simple common sense legislation that the LARGE MAJORITY of Canadians support. Highlights of the FA are:
- It prohibits the ownership of fully automatic military assault weapons, semi-automatics which can be converted to automatics, along with a few other selected models not suitable for hunting or target shooting, short-barreled handguns, sawed-off shotguns and large capacity magazines
- It requires all firearm owners to receive a license to possess or acquire firearms (renewable every five years)
- Standard safety checks are performed to ensure that the individual does not pose a risk to public safety. Spouses and previous spouses with whom the applicant has lived within the last two years are notified of the individuals’ application. If someone with a license becomes violent or commits a crime that would make them illegible to own firearms, the Chief Firearms Officer will be able to revoke the license
- All firearms must be registered. New firearms will be registered at their point of sale and imported firearms will be registered at their point of entry. Every registration certificate will have a Firearms Identification Number (FIN)
- Firearms must be stored unloaded, with the ammunition separate. For handguns and other restricted weapons, the firearms must be stored in a locked container, unloaded and made inoperable (trigger locked), with the ammunition stored separately
- All license applicants must take the Canadian Firearms Safety Course and/or pass the test for the course, or show by some other approved means that they know about firearms laws and safety practices
- It ensures that mandatory penalties are applied for crimes which use firearms including 4 years for serious offenses with a firearm and 1 year for a stolen weapon
Now, I don't know about that... but Canada's gun control laws seem fairly straight-forward and based on common-sense to me...
Oh an about the Firearms Act being under attack from the population at large. Last year, Canada’s Auditor General came out with a blistering report against the Liberal Government then under Prime Minister Jean Chrétien for the ballooning costs of the gun registry (note… not the entire ACT just the registry part of it). Her argument was that cost overruns since 1995 had forced the registry to go 14000% over budget, from costing an original $2 million to a blistering $1 billion. None of this had been reported to Parliament which the government was required to do.
The media immediately picked up on this story and Canadians everywhere were shocked. However, most outlets failed to give the context of the price estimate quoted by the Auditor General:
- The money was spent over 10 years. Going forward the costs will be $70 million per year. The old, flawed system cost $30 million per year.
- Costs are high in part because the government has refused to make users pay. It has
waived fees as an incentive for gun owners to comply.
- People who were against the implementation of the registry made frequent attempts to increase the cost of the program – including sending the Canadian Firearms Centre phone books with postage due, making repeated fake phone calls to help lines in order to force the government to hire more workers, asking many times for the CFC to send them expensive copies of the Firearms Act and even, upon occasion, forcing the CFC to close down its offices when envelopes with white powder were sent via the mail shortly after the 9/11 attacks in the United States
- The annual cost of a license to own as many guns as one wishes is $12 per year ($60
renewed every 5 years). This is half the annual cost paid in Toronto or Montreal for a license to own a single dog or cat.
- No one even knows how much we spend to keep highways safe. In New Brunswick, the federal Government is investing $400 million to widen a stretch of highway where 43 lives were lost over 5 years. In the same period, guns killed 5,000 people.
- Prevention is not cheap, it is an investment in our future, for example, the meningitis
inoculation program initiated in Quebec last fall, which came in response to 85 cases
reported in 2001, and cost the province $125 million.
- As the Government of Ontario learned from the Walkerton tragedy, inappropriately cutting costs of water testing proved very expensive. The former Ontario Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Richard Schabas, has warned the federal government not to make the same mistake by cutting the gun control program.
- Lots of government programs are much more costly: for example, snow removal in Montreal costs $130 million each year.
- Canada’s passport office costs $125 million per year to run.
Shortly after the Auditor General’s report, the Environics Polling Group (Canada’s largest public opinion research organization) did a poll on Canadians and their support of the Firearms Act.
The results demonstrate, that even with the hullabaloo surrounding the costs of the program, most Canadians in every province – including Alberta – continue to show huge support for the law.
So that ends my rant. I MUST get back to school work now… sheesh (and yes… Moon River is STILL in my head)