The Long-Gun Registry: Because Criminals Register Their Firearms

When the Long-Gun Registry (or LGR for the purpose of this post) was brought into effect by Parliament in 1995, the goal was to license all gun owners and register all firearms.
But lately there’s been some beef in Ottawa regarding the LGR. What’s the issue?
Well Conservative MP Candice Hoeppner is all for giving the long-gun registry the boot.
Why the tough love for our gun registry? Hoeppner, along with many Canadians, feel as though the program is not a valuable way to be spending taxpayer cheddar.

The LGR has cost roughly $2-billion dollars.

There’s no denying that’s a lot of moo-lah, but seeing as it’s going to a crime prevention program we should be happy. Right?
Well yes.
And no.

Crime prevention is key. (Obviously.)
But chances are, those who are going out of their way to register their firearms aren’t hardcore criminals. While thugs, gang members and other such felons most likely aren’t registering their smuggled weapons with the LGR.
So what’s the point?
Why spend $2-billion dollars tracking hunters and farmers?
No offense hunters and farmers, but I don’t care what kind of rifle you have or what kind of duck you shoot with it. And I certainly wouldn’t spend $2-billy on it.

That’s not to say there would be no gun control in Canada without the long-gun registry. There still exist gun licensing for hunters, and long-gun users to prevent criminals from accessing them and to help promote firearm education.

So if it’s that straightforward why are we debating whether or not to keep the long-gun registry? Let’s just scrap it and move on!

Well like most stories, this one has 2 sides.

Some folks like the LGR, and would like to see it keep on keeping on.

Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair is a fan of the gun registry, saying it is an ‘invaluable’ tool and that it is utilized up to 11,000 times a day.

Blair is not alone. Police chiefs across Canada are praising the program.

In fact, according to a lovely article on NationalPost.com, in criminal cases 40% of guns traced back to an owner in 2009 were registered.

(Please note the painful flaws in the above statement – Firstly, sure 40% of the guns were registered, but it does not say the gun registry was used to trace that owner. Was it even the registrar of the firearm that used it? Who knows? All it says is that 40% were registered. Secondly, what about the other 60%? They were traced back to an owner without having been registered. So really, how invaluable is it?

Still, the RCMP also commends the registry.
Director General of the Canadian Firearms Program, Chief Superintendent Marty Cheliak, says "The program does serve a very real purpose and contributes to police officer safety and the safety of all Canadians."

However, lower ranked police officers, those on the streets day-to-day, have a different opinion.

Edmonton Constable Randy Kuntz posted an online survey on a police oriented website – Blue Line Magazine. He asked how officers felt about the long-gun registry and out of the 2,631 replies received, 92% of the respondents felt the registry was a ‘useless crime fighting tool’.

The Ontario Federation of Anglers & Hunters doesn’t love the long-gun registry either. In fact, upon researching I stumbled upon a website for the OFAH petitioning against the LGR. It had 44,499 online signatures.
(I didn’t like that number. So I made it an even 44,500)

Some facts I found interesting:

- There are nearly 7 million registered long-guns in Canada. Yet of 2,441 homicides recorded in Canada since mandatory long-gun registration was introduced in 2003, fewer than 2 percent (47) were committed with rifles and shotguns known to have been registered. (Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics).
- Illegal smuggling by organized crime is by far the principal source of firearms on our streets. Indeed, the Vancouver police report that 97 percent of firearms seized in 2003 were illegal guns smuggled in from the United States, usually by organized crime (Vancouver Police, Strategic Plan 2004-08).

So, if you were a criminal, which of course you aren’t, but just pretend, and you wanted to do something against the law, would you, upon receiving your hot new illegal weapons, turn to your criminal buddies and say “Hey guys, let’s go get these guns registered!”? No.
And of course that’s just a silly example, but the idea of spending $2 billion to track legal-owned firearms is silly too.

Money is not limitless people! (Trust me, I’m a uni student. I do broke like it’s the latest fashion.) So let’s make sure it’s put to good use.

Think social programs, economic stimulation, environmental work, health care improvements… I don’t know… those all sound legit.

$2 billion can go a long way.

The Truth About AM Radio

I have a confession.

We all know, or maybe you didn't but now you will, that I despise AM radio. Or should I say despised. As in past tense. Yes, that's right. I have been converted.

It was a surprisingly quick and painless transformation. One day I was listening to KISS 92.5, jamming to the latest club hits and chart toppers (as well as enduring what sometimes felt like an endless stream of horrid radio commercials and advertisements), and now? Well let's just say News Talk 1010 has its new biggest fan!

Of course, even though my co-worker strongly suggested (or demanded, whichever wording you prefer) that I begin listening to AM radio so that I might benefit from the commute to work I did resist as much as any America's Top 40 lover would.
However, a time came when I found myself stuck in traffic, in the middle of one of the endless streams of horrid commercials, and i did it.
I pressed the AM/FM button to switch from my nice music station over to The Dark Side.

I tuned until I reached 1010 and immediately found myself in the middle of some intelligent conversation. It was a bit of shock I'll admit to go from songs with lyrics like "Applebottom jeans, Boots with the fur" to hearing "Rob Ford's been accused of a DUI and marijuana possession".

My first reaction - who's Rob Ford? This guy just sounds like the average teenager.

But what I liked, and still do, was that within a couple seconds of wondering who this random dude was, the broadcaster went over everything and explained that he is running in the mayoral election for Toronto. It was nice. I learned something, spent only a couple seconds wondering what was going on, and now have something I can talk about with adults to make myself look smart.

Another plus - it's actually not boring. There's no time wasted with the dull filler information that you get from school or "educational articles". It's just the facts. Everything is in regular terms, none of this "I'm so smart I'll use barely English words to discuss this topic". No. It's great! Everything is easy to follow, makes sense, pertains to your life, and is, dare I say it, interesting.

One might wonder, if I don't care about the mayoral election, or why it might be bad for a foreign investor to own the Canadian potash business, why listen to 1010?

Well I will tell you!

Another great feature of News Talk is that they let people call in and voice their opinions about the topics being discussed. And every once and a while a crazy person calls in. Not often. But sometimes, if you're lucky, someone will call in who's opinion is just SO far from the average civilians and it's just like "Whoa, where did they find this guy?".
What adds to the entertainment you can get at this nutty person's expense is that the show host from 1010 often tears apart whatever the caller is saying. And I mean TEARS APART. No mercy.
It's awesome!

So next time your favorite hit music station is taking a commercial break considering switching over to The Dark Side of things. AM's not that far away. You might only stay for a couple minutes,.. but who knows...

MUAHAHAHA

Parliament Hill: 101

The following is like any 101 course, the most basic, rudimentary version of a topic. Today's topic?
Well in case you missed the title, it’s… Parliament!
WOO WHOO! Nothing spells fun quite like the idea of studying government and Canadian politics!
(Pick up on the sarcasm here people.)
For most this is standard knowledge, after all you watch CBC every night at 6:00pm, how could you NOT know Stephen Harper is the leader of a minority conservative government.
But for those who have never caught the evening news, don't get the National Post delivered, or prefer to listen to music during their commute instead of 1010, it is quite possible you do not know what Canadian politics looks like.

Allow me to illustrate.
Literally.

After going over Canadian politics for a couple hours and researching parties and their platforms and how our current government is divided up, I - with the help of a more politically-familiar coworker - decided the best (and simplest ) way to explain was with a diagram, hence the above image.

Let's briefly go over the "Seats In Parliament" bit.

The way our Prime Minister (PM) is elected is actually indirect. We never submitted a ballot saying "Stephen Harper lead my country".

Each province is broken up into electoral regions (or constituencies/ridings) and one member of  parliament (MP) is elected for each of these regions.

From there, which ever party has the most members elected becomes the governing party, and their leader becomes the PM.

So the Conservatives had the most MPs elected - filling 144 seats. This makes them the governing party, but with a minority government. (Minority gov is when the total of all the other parties seats is greater than that of the governing party.)

Minority Government - Good or Bad?

Bad because it makes it more difficult to get things done. If there was a majority government the governing party would always have the most seats, therefore the most votes, and could pass the legislation they wanted. Because they do not have the most seats/votes they need to convince other seat holders to vote with them or nothing will get passed.

Good because in order to convince people who are otherwise against you to vote with you, you need to come up with genuinely good ideas.

Politics in My Social Life

(A tangent)

So the evening after I'd studied this, in my excitement with my new-found knowledge, I was talking to a friend about where I think I'd place myself on the political spectrum. I figured I'd be somewhere between Liberal and Conservative.

Well no no no. My friend assured me that made no sense seeing as they were at complete opposite ends of the spectrum.

This, ladies and gentlemen, was the moment I realized learning about boring stuff actually does pay off.

See my friend is the type who knows a lot, and enjoys correcting poor, uniformed people, when they make silly mistakes, like I had.

But I hadn't! And the gratification of saying "Oh, actually, you're wrong." well let's just say it felt very good to really know and understand what I was talking about.

Of course I wasn't yelling from a mountain "HA HA I AM SMARTER!" but it made me feel like I had accomplished something that might have some value and application in everyday life.

Knowledge is power - or at least a good feeling.

I then politely, and delicately so as not to harm the very fragile complex of a know-it-all, explained what I had learned. (And suggested they take a look at my blog - self promo, yea!)

In truth, thinking Liberals and Conservatives are complete opposites is pretty common. I'll admit if you would have asked me to guess where I thought each party was on the political spectrum 2 weeks ago it would have looked something like this...

As you can see, my former understanding of Canadian politics was quite disastrous when compared to what it should really look like. 

But now I know. And so do you. (Or maybe this was all review.)

So congratulations. You've successfully passed Parliament Hill: 101. (Not saying it's an A+, but at least the understanding is there.)

Why bother becoming socially aware?

As a typical teenage party lover- cell phone addict- MTV watcher- shopaholic, I've enjoyed a fun and simple life thus far. Like most university students, I'm enjoying the transitional period between when your parents tell you what to do and when you actually have to decided what you will do. I'm neither lazy nor unintelligent, but I am not an over-achiever by any means.
It has recently been brought to my attention that I know basically nothing about world issues, politics, global news or any current events other than what happened on Jersey Shore last night. This realization is thanks to the women I work with who are all ridiculously intelligent and even more ridiculously socially conscious. My lack of global knowledge became alarming when one lady was telling a story of how her young daughter sketched a picture of Michael Ignatieff and I asked who that was. (If you are reading this and don't know who that is either do not feel bad. A- you are not alone. B - it is not your fault you have not read a newspaper in the past few months and this is nothing a simple Google search can't fix.)
So my task - to watch the news, read the articles, listen to AM radio stations (I think I'm already starting to doze off), and search for global knowledge!
For those out there who think it sounds easy and even enjoyable perhaps - that's great. For those out there like me who would only read a newspaper if you'd already gone through a stack of outdated magazines and still had nothing to do - you understand.
I will watch, read, listen, etc., absorb social awareness like a sponge, then translate my findings into interesting retells, reviews and reflections for the common being.

There's got to be a non-boring way to learn about politics, and I WILL find it.