AMERICAS V2
(1988 previous messages)
- Aug 23, 2010 6:44 pm (#1989 of 2003)
We used to have a poster here who was married to a Venezuelan or had some kind of family relation to a Venezuelan. I think she was run off by the Chavez fans. I knew a couple of Venezuelans when I lived in Florida. They did not like Chavez but they said he did do some good things.
- Aug 23, 2010 6:44 pm (#1990 of 2003)
But I don't recall what the good things were.
HHW6 - Aug 23, 2010 9:58 pm (#1991 of 2003)
It seems that Chavez is his own worst enemy.
snakesonablog - Aug 27, 2010 1:15 am (#1992 of 2003)
I thought Molly would enjoy this, particularly as it comes from Canada's "conservative" newspaper -
http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/Sabre+rattling+doing+favours/3443699/story.html
Molly
- Aug 30, 2010 12:31 pm (#1993 of 2003)
Well, yes. They are so freaking clumsy and obvious about it....
The thing is, if I wrack my brain to come up with issues over which I agree with this government, the first two I could name would be the elimination of the long gun registry and making "use it or lose it" arctic sovereignty a very high priority.
They doubly annoy me by making an utter kack-up of the things on which they aren't entirely wrong-headed!
At the rate things are going we'll have that registry forever, and plenty of new capacity to fly past the north... but none at all to access it.
Marc-A
- Aug 30, 2010 12:37 pm (#1994 of 2003)
What's wrong with the gun registry as it is now?
It is expected the RCMP report remitted to the Conservative government in February but only to be made public this week will be in favor of retaining the registry, including for long guns. As far as I know, national and provincial police associations have all been in favor of the registry.
Molly
- Aug 30, 2010 1:03 pm (#1995 of 2003)
Interesting to refer to the RCMP- an organization that has done far too much playing at politics recently- in light of that article, and this message:
"More and more, the system is starting to resist," said one senior Conservative, who lamented the aggressive approach taken by the PMO.
Particularly wrt the long gun registry, what is wrong with it today is exactly what was wrong with it at its inception. Any benefits it provides are by far outweighed by the cost of the intrusion.
Believe me, the public is not made one jot safer by it, and the benefits police gain have nothing to do with 'knowing where they might be confronted with a gun.'
Marc-A
- Aug 30, 2010 1:18 pm (#1996 of 2003)
Molly, under the law as it stands, you are allowed to own all the rifles, shotguns and other non-automatic long guns you want, provided you register them with the National Firearm Registry.
Molly
- Aug 30, 2010 1:27 pm (#1997 of 2003)
And?
Marc-A
- Aug 30, 2010 1:32 pm (#1998 of 2003)
...and once in possession of an array of duly-registered long guns, you may then proceed to go hunting or confront all armed intruders, burglars and other miscreants who tresspass on your property.
Molly
- Aug 30, 2010 2:04 pm (#1999 of 2003)
And all it would cost me is the sanctity of my home since such registration = consent to warrantless search.
Police forces find that extremely handy, though they tend not to say so since folks are touchy about such things. They also love the myriad easy-pickings charges they can milk registration legislation for, in order to have very dangerous, difficult-to-fight, throwaway charges to manipulate people with.
Now it's your turn: what does the registry accomplish to justify the extraordinary intrusion it represents?
snakesonablog - Aug 30, 2010 3:01 pm (#2000 of 2003)
Constable Randy Kuntz's did a Canada-wide poll of 2,631 rank and file police officers. His poll found that 92% of respondents though the registry was useless. I've heard from officers that as a tool, it is of little, if any, value. So, while chiefs (whose organization receives a grant from the feds) think the registry is great, those who actually deal with criminals don't exactly sing its praises.
I don't think the registry is a great intrusion. But it doesn't stop crime, and the costs to administer it could be better spent in crime prevention programmes.
Molly
- Aug 30, 2010 3:37 pm (#2001 of 2003)
One of my buddies, Snakes, is a small-town lawyer who occasionally is called upon to act for the crown.
Her attempts to register her guns was such a long-winded (expensive) PITA that, long before the process was complete, she swore she'd never prosecute a registration case.
That absurdity has long-since resolved, but I'm very inclined to believe those who suggest that fewer than half of the long guns out there are registered. It can't be proven one way or the other.
Still, at one time, the official estimate was 16 or 17 million long guns out there- but only 7 million are registered. I don't know and would never ask anyone for their registration status, but I do know an awful lot of folks who used to have a gun or two around.
Point being: if my take is at all accurate, lots of folks do see it as intrusive.
snakesonablog - Aug 30, 2010 3:46 pm (#2002 of 2003)
My father has two guns that he registered. There were a few hiccups along the way, but it was no big deal. Same with all my farm relatives.
Molly
- Aug 31, 2010 4:21 pm (#2003 of 2003)
LOL This is too much fun. Check this out:
http://www.lowe.ca/R...rViolations.htm
Dr. Morton is... not among my usual list of sources, but...
The RCMP’s abandonment of an earlier long-gun registry is further evidence of the marginal utility the new registry. Beginning in the early 1970s, new firearms legislation required that every firearm sold by a dealer be registered to the FAC of the purchaser and a copy of this record be sent to the RCMP in Ottawa. By 1991, the year of the Montreal Massacre, this meant there should have been a registry of every long-gun sold by a dealer over the preceding 20 years—including the Ruger Mini-14 used in the École Polytechnique shootings. But, as recounted by a former Justice Department official when he requested these records, he discovered that “the RCMP had stopped accepting FAC records and had actually destroyed those it already had.” Why? “Because the police thought that it was useless and refused to waste their limited budgets maintaining it. They also wanted to ensure that their political masters could not resurrect it.”[1]13
AMERICAS V2