So here’s the deal.
A bunch of years ago, some shortsighted city-folk decided it’d be a Good Use of our money to create a massive database that served as a repository of information about law-abiding citizens. No, I don’t mean all that crap that McCarthy got up to. I mean Canada’s gun registry laws.
They’ve been around a long time, you know. Since sometime in the 1800s. Canada has always restricted firearms use, but usually it’s the sort of “you need a permit to have this and special permits to carry it around on your person…or to buy one of these” thing. But then in the latter part of the following century, it became more of an “I don’t really trust you with this, permit or no, not to shoot someone in the face, so I’m going to make it MORE illegal for you to have illegal weapons” kind of thing.
And then there were a bunch of people who were all, “screw you, government.”
Which it’s okay to say in Canada, which is a nice thing.
Anyway, there was an exception made to the super intense firearms registration and licensing regulations, that made it less mind-numbingly bureaucratic to own and operate a shotgun or rifle. That exception ends this coming spring. Which is, coincidentally enough, an election year.
Now, there are some people…probably about as many people in all of Canada as there are in two Canadian cities…who are Really Upset that the government of Canada is asking them to register their shotguns and rifles. There are a number of arguments against the whole thing, from the claim that the legislation doesn’t prevent crime and doubles up on existing legislation to the argument that the new laws are more or less unenforceable. I don’t think any of that matters.
For once in my life, and possibly for the *only* time in my life, I agree with this dingbat. He’s basically saying that Stephen Harper is pulling another typical Stephen Harper and is throwing something out for the plebes to tussle over while quietly going about his lever- and button-pushing behind the big curtain. Harper wants people to get all riled up over this long gun registry thing so that he can divide and conquer. With domestic politics, the guy’s pretty clever.
He’s a dick, but he’s pretty clever.
So yeah, I kind of agree with the dingbat here. Screw the long-gun registry debate. The fact that it’s being made a big deal of right now means there’s something else Harper’s trying to bury. Also, please don’t tell my mother that I agreed with the dingbat. They’d bet terrible disappointed.
Huh. ‘Disappointed’ is a strange word. It appears to mean “having had your socio=political station removed”. Oh! Look at that. It *does* mean that. I love etymology.
A door, in other words, is not a door when it is ajar. Check behind the door, youse guys who want to participate in the election. There’s something back there.
i make squee noises when you tell me stuff.