Do You Think Defeating the Bill Will Shut Them Up

Well the bill to scrap the gun registry is almost dead. Finally.

It has been a long infuriating summer's debate. E-mails, call-in shows, newspaper ads, commentary, chest thumping election style speeches - we had it all.  Perhaps the NRA wasn't involved but their spirit was ever present. Again and again the gun owners claimed, "The next thing is the police will take my guns away." Farmers talked about "The right to brae arms." What bull.

Those Conservative MP's claim the Liberals and the NDP are out to get hunters and farmers. What a crock.

Very few Canadians have any problem with hunters bagging the add deer or farmers shooting gophers but I must tell you that some of the pro-gun bumper stickers out here in Western Canada make me nervous. Who are my neighbours anyway?

We have to ask ourselves, who benefited from all this rhetoric.  No one really except perhaps the spin doctors, the big advertising firms, the pollsters and newspaper industry.  The ad on the right is a prime example. It ran, full page in Ottawa's Hill Times. Two days before the vote that, it has already been determined, will fail.

The ad says that ordinary citizens were not consulted and implies that if they were listened to, the gun registry would be on its was out.

I agree that many, many Canadian citizens were not listened to. I agree, but not in the same way the ad implies. My MP, Ton "A Team' Lukewski didn't listen to my support for the gun registry nor did any of the other Conservative MP's I wrote to.

What the ad really does is threaten. "WE WILL REMEMBER" it says. And, it implies, "If you don't vote to support the bill, we'll take you out next election.

Conservative style wedge politics at it's best.

Lets not go half way here. Let's just get it over with and call an election.

Gun Law Stupidity

OK, let me be up front. I don't like guns!

So, I cannot find words to express how disappointed I was in the fact that several NDP members voted in favour of abolishing the long gun registry. The Liberals, I expected to go both ways on the issue but the NDP. No excuse.

The private member's bill to abolish to long gun registry was put forward by Conservative member Candice Hoeppner, from of all places, Morden Manitoba. That was after years of budget cuts to the department responsible for the registry to assure they couldn't do their job efficiently.

Let's be clear what we are talking about here. The legislation didn't ban long guns. It didn't restrict long guns. It only said that if you were going to own one, you had to register it. We are told that rural Canada was up in arms - ok perhaps a bad choice of words - about the issue and were refusing to comply. That was when Harper and his gang did away with the penalties for non compliance with the registry. When they did comply anyway they were really pissed off about it.

As an urban Canadian, I confess, I cannot, for the life of me, understand why this is an issue;

• If I own a car, I have to register it with the province where I live.
  
• I have to pass a test and buy a driver's license if I want to drive it.
• We register our marriage and the birth of our children
• If I want to build a garage on my property, I have to buy a building permit
• Fishermen need to buy a license before putting a line in the water

So what is it about guns? I know that the Conservatives rely on the rural voters to get elected but how hard can it be to comply?

It make me a bit nervous when I wonder what it is they are trying to hide. Here in Saskatchewan, bumper stickers with the slogan "You can have my gun when you pry it from my cold dead fingers" are a bit too common here for my liking.

The registry is accessed by police departments in Canada 9000 times a day. Frankly, if I was a cop, as a starting point, I'd like to be able to look up, on line somewhere, if that guy who is having a bad day and is holed up with a gun taking pot shots at his neighbors, has a bunch of weapons in his closet.

I support the gun registry and tougher gun laws 100%. Guns only really serve one purpose and that is to kill things and to be honest killing things isn't part of my cultural experience.

Oh yeah, if you in the NDP are paying attention. I will remember your role in all this election day.