Tory gun registry bill will help arm criminals

In their celebratory press release, Canada's premier gun lobby group reveals the fatal flaw in the Harper government's new gun registry bill.

They note that "the bill removes the requirement to call and confirm transfers".

That means that a gun shop doesn't have to check if a buyer's licence is valid before he or she sells a weapon powerful enough to penetrate soft body armour.

As a consequence, criminals with fake firearms licenses and domestic abusers with a firearms licence card they shouldn't have can walk out of a gun shop with a shiny new gun, no questions asked.

I want to thank the National Firearms Association for pointing out this element. Never in a million years did we think the government would enable arming killers.

How wrong we were.

Some say

Some say that a shotgun isn't a threat to public safety.

We respectfully disagree.

More on the Tory internet scam

American photo?

NRA values.

Just another internet scam

Canada's Conservative Party has launched an online petition in support of its long held commitment to repeal the long gun registry.

The Conservative Party says that funding is desperately needed to crack down on Internet fraud.

House of Commons Standing Orders are clear.  Petitions must include original signatures and addresses of the petitioners. Obviously, an electronic form doesn't qualify as a petition to the House of Commons.

Even if we lived in an era of informed e-consultation, the Conservative petition form doesn't even include a mandatory address field.  This is not a petition.

The only mandatory fields are those necessary for the Conservative Party to part a mark respondent from their hard earned cash.

We agree with the need to fight Internet fraud.

We think that fight should start at home.

UPDATE:  If you are looking for a worthwhile online cause...

While the NDP was enabling the gun lobby

The gun lobby was fighting to make it easier to arm criminals, terrorists and child soldiers.

Thanks Nathan.

Who else supports sensible gun laws?

Walmart

97% mandate for for sensible gun laws

Earlier today, members of the European Parliament voted 624-17 to complete the implementation of the United Nations Firearms Protocol, the international standard for firearms regulation.

The results of the vote are telling. 

Sensible gun laws draw broad support from every political grouping, from right to left, in Parliament.  Every mainstream (and some less than mainstream) political party in Europe supports their implementation.

Reading closely, only four parties voted against the agreement:

• UK Independence Party
• British National Party
• Front National (France)
• Freedom Party (Austria)

Feel free to interpret these results in any way that you wish.

Nathan Cullen, self-styled "gun control candidate" for NDP leader, it's your move.

Canada's gun lobby's election failure reveals NDP gun registry fallacy

Reading today's Postmedia story about labour union spending during the 2011 federal election campaign led this blog to wonder about other third party spending.

Reviewing the listing of third parties on the Elections Canada website, two groups familiar to this blog for their long time opposition to sensible gun laws drew our attention.

So how did they do?

The BCWF Political Action Alliance was founded in 1996 by "individuals who had been closely affiliated with the BC Wildlife Federation but who felt that there was a need for an organization that could become active politically, when necessary, an area where the BCWF having charitable status, could not operate with incurring risks to that status." 

The Alliance spent more than $1600 highlighting British Columbia Southern Interior NDP MP Alex Atamanenko's support for the long gun registry.  Atamanenko was re-elected with an even larger share of the popular vote in 2011 than in 2008. 

The Canadian Shooting Sports Association (CSSA) spent more money but was no more successful than their left coast comrades.

CSSA invested almost $2900 targeting NDP MP Malcolm Allen on his long gun registry vote.  Allen was re-elected with a larger share of the popular vote in 2011 than in 2008.

More than $1500 (assuming that the non-existent CSSM radio in the CSSA financial disclosure is CJJM - Espanola) was spent trying to defeat Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing NDP MP Carol Hughes.  Same result.  Hughes 2011 popular vote was higher than her 2008 total.

More than $1000 for radio ads against NDP MP Charlie Angus.  Angus' 2011 popular vote was down from 2008, but he still received more than 50% support at the polls.

Perhaps most curiously, CSSA bought almost $2000 of ads in NDP MP Niki Ashton's Churchill riding even though she had voted with the gun lobby to repeal the long gun registry.  2008 - 47.4% popular vote.  2011 - 51.1% popular vote. 

But you can't really blame the gun lobby for thinking they should focus on New Democrats, smart NDP commentators were also worried that doing anything stronger than endorsing Jack Layton's non-position on protecting the life saving long gun registry "could hand enough rural seats to Mr. Harper to give him his majority".

As the gun lobby's election strike out demonstrates, the NDP gun registry compromise was founded in a bullshit argument. 

Maybe the next NDP leader will put substance before spin.

NDP leadership goes straight to flying pig stage

Gun lobby endorsed NDP leadership candidate Nathan Cullen declares “I am a gun-control candidate.”