7 May 20
No one is surprised when told that politicians talk out of both sides of their mouths. In the matter of the Trudeau gun-grab, the facial twitching is exceeds alarming. Keep in mind the arrogant boasts, “follow the science” and “evidence-based policy-making.”
The most egregious examples of doubletalk concern the treatment of aboriginals. A special carve-out for aboriginal use of these newly prohibited firearms is made in the amnesty portion of the regulations. The regulations complain of the “inherent deadliness” of these assault-style firearms and the danger they pose to public safety. Yet the carve-out for aboriginals exists because they use these firearms to hunt seal. In addition, the regulations observe that indigenous persons are victims of homicide involving firearms at a much higher rate than the Canadian population, and their proportion appears to be increasing from 10.4 % of all homicides in 2014 to 13.5 % in 2016. So the people who are far more likely to get killed are the ones who are permitted the continued use of these inherently deadly firearms! The government apparently can’t decide which of their therapeutic prescriptions to take more seriously.
The Governor-in-Council did not say how many of those indigenous victims of homicide were killed by these assault-style firearms, however; or say if the proportion increased because of a drop in homicides by all causes among the Canadian population. It made no mention of the microscopic number of people actually murdered each year by assault-style firearms. The facts would be embarrassing.
In justifying the gun-grab, the G-i-C declared that mass shootings were commonly perpetrated by (not with) assault-style firearms, and referred to Nova Scotia, Montreal, and Toronto. The problem is that none of these mass shootings took place with assault-style firearms, and that these occur once every thirty years or so. The Nova Scotia killings were not done by an assault-style firearm, and nine of the twenty-two victims were burned to death in a fire. The Montreal massacre of 1989 was done with a Mini-14, not considered an assault-style firearm until this gun-grab was announced. The Toronto killings must refer to various gang-violence killings over a span of time, but no single mass shooting incident occurred. In short, there is no Canadian experience to justify the gun-grab. Nova Scotia isn’t it, and banning the Montreal massacre rifle after, lo, these thirty years without any other incident since then seems strange and belated.
The G-i-C claims that the inherent deadliness of assault-style firearms make them unsuitable for civilian use and a serious threat to public safety. Yet these firearms have been in Canada since the middle 1970s, and only now it’s discovered that they represent a serious threat to public safety? They are unsuitable for public use, they exceed safe civilian use, yet the Mini-14 is commonly used for hunting seals and for varmint control on farms and ranches. And the government contemplates a grandfathering regime to follow the amnesty period!
The G-i-C refers to the modularity of the AR-15 platform, and mentions the ability of the lower receiver to accept a different kind of upper receiver “according to the needs of the occasion.” But what could those unmentioned needs and occasions be? They surely are not to make the rife more “inherently deadly?” In point of fact, entire recreational events of sport shooting have grown-up around the AR-15 platform; but to make mention of this would undercut the claim of the “inherent deadliness.” the “threat to public safety,” and the “exceeding safe civilian use “ claims. It simply cannot be admitted how kinetic these sporting events are and how many people are involved or the “exceeding safe civilian use” claim gets laughed out of court.
It is universally believed in the gun-owing community that the Trudeau gun-grab is founded on a pile of lies. It is political gesturing gone wild. It is not based on “science” or “evidence.” The evidence is adverse, the science non-existent. The gun-grab is a payment to a political prejudice.
The Trudeau gun-grab is yet another of his attacks upon respect for the rule of law. He is violating the civil rights of scores of thousands of law-abiding Canadians directly, and the manner of implementation is a violation of the norms of law-making in Canada. Expect the foul and unjust gun-grab will be resisted commensurately.
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