One gets the impression that the folks that rule us from faraway Ottawa have nothing better to do than to fight old battles and wallow in contrived scandals. You would think that the stability of the country and our economy would be the number one concerns of our illustrious members of parliament, but no, why deal in real issues when you can have so much fun with the nonsensical and trivial.
So we see the resuscitation of the gun control/registry issue once again, this time by government MPs. Apparently, the only reason for doing so was to try and force a political wedge into the opposition parties just for mischief sake. The opposition are no slouches, either, when it comes to mischief as they try to revive the abortion issue as part of a foreign aid initiative. The idea being to embarrass the government. How either of these issues have anything to do with helping people make a better life escapes me.
Most folks thought that the gun registry issue had just faded away - the present government just wasn’t enforcing it, which was just fine with unregistered long gun owners. Those folks that thought otherwise were probably unaware that the registry wasn’t being enforced. That was a win-win scenario at least politically.
Millions of words have been written about the whole gun registry issue (so I will add some more) but for people who owned long guns, it was always such a waste of time and money. The bottom line was that gun crime was not going to disappear if all long guns were registered. But that’s not what city folks and lobby groups actually believe. To them the word firearms, whether it be handgun or long - gun, are one and the same. When a gun crime is committed, to city folks it’s a firearm crime and the simplistic resolution is to first register and then seize all firearms and then presto no gun crime.
Those opposed to the long -gun registry cite that there has been a handgun registry in place with rigid controls since the 1930s and gun crime still happens. They cite that all crime is carried out by stolen, smuggled or unregistered weapons. That’s a hopeless exercise in common sense as the anti-gun zealots and most regular folks just don’t want to understand that - it’s much easier to support first a registry and then a total ban.
For politicians from urban ridings, it’s a golden opportunity to engage in cheap politics at some one else’s expense. It’s a classic political ploy - you appear to be supporting something without actually having to do anything - now those are easy votes to harvest.
But politicians can’t leave the issue alone in their zeal to score political points. There has been a begrudging acceptance of the registry process as time has gone by. Folks accept that they have to get a license to buy a gun, no different than having to get a drivers licence to drive, so be it. New firearms are registered when you buy them now, same with buying a car and the dealer usually does it for you. Over time most guns will have become registered.
The problem is always with old guns that require the owner to make the effort to have it registered. It’s not that big a deal - a few years ago I registered two old rifles - I believe I did it online to see how the process worked. I was disappointed though, I didn’t receive as much as a thank you note. The least they could have done is send me a window sticker that said registered guns on the premises - after all, we get license plates when we register cars.
Probably the easiest and quickest way to encourage citizens to register their old guns is to put the onus on insurance companies. That’s right, have them require that all home owner and liability policies will be cancelled unless all firearms on the premises are registered. I have no idea why insurance companies never insisted on that provision, after all, when a firearm accident or death occurs, they usually end up making a pay out for damages or losses.
In the end, it all doesn’t matter, registering long guns won’t end crime. But the registry issue does keep our federal politicians looking busy and relieves them of the work of doing anything of real consequence.