The recent rumour that there was a move afoot to ban semi-autos seems to have fizzled out. At least for the time being, Prime Minister Harper has publicly stated that there will be no bans and we are told that it was never discussed in caucus. We don’t know if it was pushed by anyone in the bureaucracy and we will never know if there were discussions at that level. But at least as far as the government is concerned, apparently it isn’t an issue.
That doesn’t mean that it’s not still fermenting out there in the brains of many anti-gunners. One of the Liberal Party of Canada’s policy resolutions (page 58) to be debated and voted upon at the Liberal Leadership and Biennial Convention being held from November 28th to December 2nd in Montréal states:
WHEREAS the cancellation of the gun registry is part of the Conservative Party’s program;
and
WHEREAS the Conservative government has started to slash into the registry by ending
requirements to register long guns; and
WHEREAS police forces have continually supported the gun registry and spoken out
against efforts by the Conservative government to weaken or end it; and
WHEREAS the continued support of police forces for a total gun registry is a strong
indication of the capacity of the current system to reduce the harm caused by guns; and
WHEREAS certain dangerous weapons are not found on the current list of illegal
weapons; and
WHEREAS it is necessary to continue to effectively control the possession and use of
guns;
BE IT RESOLVED that the Liberal Party of Canada take the necessary steps:
1. to counter the efforts by the Conservative government to end or reduce the scope
of the current gun registry that was enacted by parliament several years ago;
2. to review the classification of guns so that semi-automatic weapons be classified
as an illegal weapons; and
3. to enact more severe laws to better control the possession and use of guns.
Liberal Party of Canada ( Quebec)
That’s pretty clear in its’ intent.
On a more local level, after an apparently targeted shooting in the District of North Vancouver, Darrel Mussatto, the Mayor of North Vancouver (the shooting took place outside of his jurisdiction) said “there is no room for any type of firearms at all, except for police”. (Vancouver Province, November 26, 2006). Does that mean we would have to disarm the military as well? So much for an effective military in Canada.
The point being that even though you may write those remarks off as being merely stupid, the speakers are serious and any firearm owner who gets complacent or doesn’t believe that anyone would ever actually ban his or her firearms needs to get a grip on reality.
Just remember: “Even paranoids have enemies”. I think that applies here.
