Yet another Arizona gun story

Why did the felon go to the gun show?

The story doesn't say but it did lead to his arrest for illegal firearms possession offences.

Harper Tories tough ...

... on things that fight crime.

Today's NDP gun registry confusion

BC NDP MP and gun registry opponent Nathan Cullen told the BC Wildlife Federation that he has a blank cheque from Jack Layton on outreach to dedicated gun registry opponents.

When asked about the gun registry, Jack Layton told an audience in Cranbrook that the NDP has "suggested some changes after consultation with people" and Layton thinks that this approach is "gradually winning some support".

So who really speaks for the NDP on the long gun registry?

And what exactly is their policy?

On blank cheques and empty talking points

Turns out that the federal NDP is still hung up on the gun registry.

Didn't these same New Democrats tell us that Charlie Angus' gun registry bill would bridge the rural-urban divide?

Why then did Jack Layton give NDP MP and gun registry opponent Nathan Cullen a blank check to rewrite the NDP's gun registry policy?

And has anybody told Martin Cauchon?

Pretend to be surprised: Gun lobby, Globe and Mail wrong again

The gun lobby wants you to believe that criminals don't use registered firearms.

Turns out that some do.

In this case, the gun registry led police to an armed robbery suspect.

Despite repeated call from police to keep it, the Harper Tories still wants to scrap the long gun registry.

Globe and Mail headline writers want you to believe that the Tory approach to guns is not radical.

Gun crime victims think otherwise.

Tough on crime?

It turns out that the Tory promise to hire 2500 cops didn't actually come with a commitment to pay to keep them even though the press release described the program as the "first step to help build on the Province’s strategies".

Uncorrected, that Tory chicanery will cost Ontario more than 300 police officers at a time when police budgets are under real pressure.

But it shouldn't really be a surprise.

George W. Bush had no interest in supporting local police either.

Going off message

Which Conservative MP is bragging about Tory cuts to investments in Public Safety?

This one.

They're just not that into you (or me)

In a country the size of Canada, the Harper Tory red tape reduction committee is holding just 14 meetings.

The first meeting is in Kamloops, BC, tomorrow (January 19).

Even thought the committee's website promises that the "schedule and location of the round tables will be posted on this site when it becomes available" there is no mention of the Kamloops session the night before it takes place.

But from a communications point of view that's OK, nobody needs to know.

They don't really want to hear from Canadians.

The Commission's meetings are invitation-only.

Harper Tories: They're only in it for themselves.

It's not about you unless you see yourself in the images

Tony Bernardo, a spokesman for Canada's professional gun lobby and Harper Tory government gun policy advisor, is upset with Aislin.

Bernardo is terribly upset about two Aislin cartoons published in the Montreal Gazette after the tragic shootings in Tuscon.

In a letter to the editor of the offending publication, he desperately tries to link Aislin's efforts to negative public portrayals of the "gun-culture"

But Bernardo's simply wrong in assuming that the cartoons are about those reasonable, law abiding folks who happen to own guns to hunt or target shoot.

These cartoons are about the extremists who think that it's necessary to take a semi-automatic rifle to an anti-Obama rally, those who feel that it is now time to water the tree of liberty, and the gun lobby and their house politicians who have never seen a gun law they would support.

On one thing, Bernardo's right.  Most gun owners aren't criminals.

Equally importantly, they're not extremists either.

And they will wonder why the hell Canada's professional gun lobby is defending American extremists.

A pattern of behaviour

Something goes wrong.

The Harper government blames someone else.

Typical.

Sadly typical.

Every thing John Snobelen knows in slightly more than 140 characters

I'm guessing that John Snobelen doesn't know that Ian Tyson played at the Calgary convention that elected Jean Chrétien as Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.

It makes me wonder what else he doesn't know.

When men were men and road signs were nervous

Harper Tory MP Larry Miller is unrepentant.

Caught in an earlier call for sworn law enforcement officers to ignore the law, Miller is pretending to backpedal.

Miller now claims that he's "not here to endorse or promote breaking the law".

But it's hard to view Miller's desire to see Ministry of Natural Resources enforcement officers stop enforcing the gun registry as anything other than endorsing illegal firearm possession and use:

Miller said he knows for certain that some, but not all, MNR officers ask for a hunter's gun registration certificate.

"I've had it happen to me," he said. "As far as I'm concerned, it shouldn't be part of their role to check for that."

Miller says his newly framed ignore the law position is about "treating everybody the same".

We agree. MNR should treat everybody the same. They should take every necessary step to ensure that only law abiding firearms owners are out in the bush. They should enforce the law.

The McGuinty government should take note.

Rapid response

Two days after Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff highlighted the importance of meaningful gun control, the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters responded.

They seem to think that Ignatieff has his head up his ass.

Clearly someone has their head up their ass.

I'm pretty sure its not Ignatieff.

Aislin calls out the NRA

I imagine that the Montreal Gazette has already received lots of reasoned discourse about this one.

Another firearm, another tragedy

Following the tragic shooting of an elementary school student by her grade one classmate, Detroit Free Press columnist Mitch Albom wrote this in his column:

Guns are protected. As for your children? The good news is, this time it was not yours who was shot.

The scary news is, next time, it might be.

Ten years later, things just don't seem to make any more sense.

In fact, they make no sense at all.

Worth noting

Swissinfo
January 9, 2011

"As we learn from observations in England, Scotland, Australia and Canada we can conclude that there is a correlation between stricter gun laws and fewer suicide cases with firearms. There is a lower suicide rate altogether," says de Haller.