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Gun ownership is a net benefit to society
The Hamilton Spectator ^ | Oct 19, 2006 | Bruce Mills

Posted on 10/20/2006 9:59:30 AM PDT by neverdem

The Firearms Act is an onerous and draconian law which was built on a foundation of lies and which serves only to harass and criminalize law- abiding gun owners. It was foisted upon a largely uninformed populace, based on false promises of crime control and public safety.

The whole purpose of the Firearms Act was to create a "culture of safety" and to "reduce crime," neither of which it has accomplished.

There are several things that could have been done with the more than $1 billion and 10 years of effort that have been wasted on implementing this boondoggle.

First would be focusing the justice system on the real problem -- criminals.

Next would be allowing responsible law-abiding citizens to exercise their right to carry arms on their person for their own defence.

Last would be mandatory, age-appropriate firearms safety and shooting training in our schools.

All so-called gun control laws do is serve to harass and criminalize the law-abiding gun owner.

What we should be doing is focusing on a concerted program of effective criminal control, not useless and placebo gun control. This would include implementing a Firearms Prohibition Registry of the 176,000 Canadians who have a court-ordered firearms prohibition and the more than 37,000 who have had restraining orders imposed by the courts.

These people have been shown, by their actions and through due process, to be too dangerous to be allowed to own guns.

And yet they are not required to advise the police when they move, nor are they forced to submit to periodic inspections of their abode to ensure compliance unlike the two million law-abiding gun owners of Canada.

If public safety was really the goal, then it only makes sense to provide mandatory, age-appropriate safe firearms handling and shooting training in our schools.

A study in Scotland showed that playing with toy guns was actually beneficial for young boys, acting as a release for aggressive feelings while in a safe and structured environment.

A U.S. Department of Justice study of 4,000 at-risk delinquent kids showed children who receive real guns legitimately from their parents engage in no future gun crimes at all and are less likely to engage in any type of criminal activity than those kids who received no gun at all.

Firearms safety is a life skill that everyone can benefit from and transfer to other forms of safety training.

Responsible citizens must be allowed to exercise their right to self-defence and must be permitted access to the most effective means to secure that right. Guns are used in Canada between 60,000 and 80,000 times a year for defence of self or property from both two- and four-legged predators. For every life lost to guns, 40 are saved.

In the 37 U.S. states that have passed "shall issue" concealed carry laws (which essentially require authorities to issue permits for carrying a concealed weapon unless there is good reason not to), confrontational crimes drop on average by 24 per cent. Even those who disagree with such laws accrue the benefit. There are no shootouts and no "blood running in the streets" as the anti-gun extremists always screech will happen whenever one of these laws is up for passage.

This is the effect of the real gun culture. The gun culture of the legitimate, law-abiding, gun-owning citizen is a culture of safety, respect and responsibility. The real gun culture teaches respect for firearms, the user, and others. It teaches safety and responsibility in the use of firearms. It fosters independence, self-reliance, self-esteem and confidence in the individual. It helps to reduce crime and protect others in society.

Gun ownership is a right, not a crime. Gun ownership is a net benefit to society.

Bruce Mills lives in Dundas and writes regularly on gun control issues.


TOPICS: Canada; Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Editorial
KEYWORDS: banglist
FWIW, there's a pdf version on their webpage.
1 posted on 10/20/2006 9:59:31 AM PDT by neverdem
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To: neverdem

This is just a fabulous article. Please forward it to everyone you can. May Diane Feinstein, Rosy O'Donnell, Hillary Clinton and all other politico-celebrity types who work so sanctimoniously to disarm the average American, while they themselves maintain their armed guards, one day find themselves permanently ensconced in that special place in hell reserved for the hypocritical, self-serving elitists who denigrate personal
self-defense while they hire others to do their wet work for them.



http://www.guntruths.com/Houck/just_another_day_with_gun_contro.htm

Just another day with Gun Control, January 16, 2000
by Jim Houck

The movie I went to see today, at the request of my film managers, was Hurricane starring Denzel Washington. I write feature films. I write TV ads for the largest advertising agencies on earth for clients like Toyota, Ford, Sony and Coke. I am the "Hollywood crowd" that the liberal press lies about so often.

I arrived early at the Torrance, California AMC 20 Theaters, so I bought my ticket and sat on a bench just outside the front lobby under a palm tree for about half an hour, enjoying the many different faces, the playing kids, the adults.

A flood of Californians streamed out suddenly. A young girl had been attacked by a criminal who had just shot her.

"Is the shooter stopped?" I asked, reaching for my Heckler & Koch USP .45, running for the lobby with the intent to kill the criminal before he could injure or kill more of We the People.

"No, nobody can do anything! He's just walking around like he owns the place!" a California woman cried, trembling like a mouse before the lion. And indeed, the criminal did.

I ripped up my leather jacket and found my holster missing. I didn't have my .45 with me today. I'd opted not to take it just this one time at the advice of the local Californians, avoid the hassle of the California cops if they discover it, I thought, save the massive court costs of exercising my right. "Don't get caught, the street officers will hook you and book you and let the judges sort it out," a friend and local California police officer had told me repeatedly. Besides, it was three in the afternoon next door to Palos Verdes Estates, one of the most affluent and lowest crime areas in the United States.

My decision to leave my self defense at home very likely cost the young man who would be shot next his life. I have extensive, combat firearms training. I've been in three gun battles with criminals in New Orleans and Miami in the defense of myself twice and a Miami police officer once, and I've never missed nor have I lost. The criminals did.

Of course the criminal didn't know these things. He didn't know he was in a "low crime" area and he didn't seem to care that it was three in the afternoon on a Sunday. All he knew was that he was operating in Senator Diane Feinstein¹s wet dream, a theater of perfect Gun Control. Not one citizen in the large crowd of moms, dads, young men or young women had a firearm with which to defend themselves. So they ran. But the funny thing is, they didn't run very fast and the certainly didn't run very far, in fact, many basically hurried and stood around and complained about not being able to finish their show. You see, criminals being in full control is nothing new in California. It's not news. It didn't excite these folks.

I stopped outside the lobby doors. No gun. No way to fight this criminal, I thought.

The shooter fired again, dropping a young man next. Well, the California people voted this idiocy through, they repeatedly elect servants like Diane Feinstein and Barbara Boxer as state senators, people who take away their rights to self defense and the defense of their families, I thought, let them deal with the consequences of their decisions. Of course the criminal walked out the back of the AMC 20 Theaters and vanished long before the local police could wade through the Sunday traffic and do the paperwork. At least they were nice enough to come. They didn't have to. They responded as a "courtesy" according to the Supreme Court. They have no legal duty to protect the individual from criminal assault or murder. Something surprisingly few people know, especially in California.

I looked at the downed young man. He would die, judging from my own personal
experiences as a shooter of over 20 years and where the criminal had injured him. The girl, barring very unusual circumstances, she would live, judging from where the criminal had injured her and her loss of blood.

The police put pressure on the injuries to try and reduce the bleeding from the criminal attack. Another courtesy service.

I sat back down on the bench and watched the Californians as they angrily demanded their ticket money be refunded, the victims of the criminal lying ten yards from them, moaning, dying.

A man with his wife in the line of angry movie patrons turned to me and growled, "I'm surprised Feinstein isn't here already. And the liberal mainstream press. You know, we carry our guns anyway and we didn't bring them today because it's such a hassle to have to hide them all the time from the local cops. What a bunch of shit. Just look at that guy. He's probably going to die."

Thanks, Senator Feinstein. As a resident of Florida, in Los Angeles working on feature film scripts with my L.A. based managers, it's interesting to see how your Prohibition on self defense, "Gun Control" works. Of course, had you been there to see The Hurricane, your armed bodyguards would have used their semi-automatic, high capacity "assault weapons" to stop the criminal dead in his tracks, which is what the bastard richly deserved. Funny, Diane, with all your SB 23s and SB 15s and Prohibition on self defense, the criminal still badly hurt and perhaps killed two young kids who just went to see a movie on a quiet Sunday afternoon. Why call it "gun control?" Why not rename it "defenseless sheep" or the "citizen massacre laws?" Or maybe just simple "bullshit."

Wish you could have been there Diane to see how your idiotic laws work in real life. It was memorable.

Jim Houck is the Creative Director of Citizens of America



2 posted on 10/20/2006 10:13:40 AM PDT by Dick Bachert
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To: neverdem

Fine and dandy but tell me again why Muslims should be able to get guns legally...


3 posted on 10/20/2006 10:45:24 AM PDT by eleni121 ("Show me just what Mohammed brought:: evil and inhumanity")
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To: Temple Owl

ping


4 posted on 10/20/2006 10:46:53 AM PDT by Tribune7
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To: eleni121
Fine and dandy but tell me again why Muslims should be able to get guns legally...

Why are we letting them proselytize in our prisons and immigrate to this country?

5 posted on 10/20/2006 10:52:47 AM PDT by neverdem (May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows that you're dead.)
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To: eleni121
Fine and dandy but tell me again why Muslims should be able to get guns legally...

Ummmm...can you point out the part of the 2nd Amendment that makes exceptions due to religion?

6 posted on 10/20/2006 12:05:05 PM PDT by jmc813 (.)(.)
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To: eleni121

Canada has a real problem with its statist politicians and no 2nd amendment to slow them down.


7 posted on 10/20/2006 12:14:45 PM PDT by from occupied ga (Your most dangerous enemy is your own government)
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To: neverdem; jmc813

"Why are we letting them proselytize in our prisons and immigrate to this country?"



Good question. We should not be. But adding insult to injury is not the answer.


"can you point out the part of the 2nd Amendment that makes exceptions due to religion?"



I do not accept that islam is a religion...it's an ideology that believes the world should submit to the moon god...and will exploit every trick and device to achieve this...even our own freedoms.



8 posted on 10/20/2006 1:22:52 PM PDT by eleni121 ("Show me just what Mohammed brought:: evil and inhumanity")
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To: eleni121
Fine and dandy but tell me again why Muslims should be able to get guns legally...

If they were armed, it might give them enough courage to say "no" to the recruiter who asks them to strap on a suicide bomb.

9 posted on 10/20/2006 1:29:20 PM PDT by Dan Evans
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To: Dan Evans

How comforting...


10 posted on 10/20/2006 1:55:27 PM PDT by eleni121 ("Show me just what Mohammed brought:: evil and inhumanity")
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To: neverdem

I'd say this is a day late and a dollar short.


11 posted on 10/20/2006 1:58:39 PM PDT by Poser (Willing to fight for oil)
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To: eleni121
How comforting...

Okay. Maybe not. I'd rather they were somewhere else.

12 posted on 10/20/2006 2:27:58 PM PDT by Dan Evans
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To: Dan Evans

I agree. That is why in time of war, I think controls on who can purchase weapons should be considered. But the NRA is not responding to my queries. And I know I'm not the only one.

This incident in which Muslim Albanians shipped huge loads of weapons legally bought here to their jihadi buddies in Europe started me thinking about this issue:


http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2005/thebrooklynconnection/about.html


13 posted on 10/20/2006 2:34:05 PM PDT by eleni121 ("Show me just what Mohammed brought:: evil and inhumanity")
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To: eleni121
That is why in time of war, I think controls on who can purchase weapons should be considered.

But if we can't trust them with weapons, we shouldn't trust them as citizens. It would be nice if they weren't immigrating here but they seem to have infiltrated or subverted the immigration authorities. I don't know if there is a solution that isn't pretty radical.

14 posted on 10/20/2006 2:50:10 PM PDT by Dan Evans
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To: neverdem
Every man, woman, and responsible child has an unalienable individual, civil, Constitutional, and human right to obtain, own, and carry, openly or concealed, any weapon -- rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- any time, any place, without asking anyone's permission. - L. Neil Smith. The Atlanta Declaration

Yes... even the Muzzies. I'd rather be fully armed and able to defend myself against their minority than to be unable to fight back. 9-11 wouldn't have happened the way it did if even a small fraction of those people on those planes had been armed.

Don't be a victim. Arm yourself.

15 posted on 10/20/2006 2:53:09 PM PDT by Dead Corpse (Well, my days of not taking your seriously are certainly coming to a middle)
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To: Dan Evans

Muslims have been coming here for decades and longer. Most keep coming in legally. As long as they are a clear minority, I do not see a problem, but a determined armed minority can do lots of damage.


16 posted on 10/20/2006 2:56:06 PM PDT by eleni121 ("Show me just what Mohammed brought:: evil and inhumanity")
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To: eleni121
Muslims have been coming here for decades and longer. Most keep coming in legally. As long as they are a clear minority, I do not see a problem, but a determined armed minority can do lots of damage.

I doubt if we can eliminate the danger by denying them firearms. They will find a way if they are intent on doing harm. Look what 19 guys did with box cutters. And you are right, like most toxins it doesn't take a lot to kill you.

It seems the same process in all countries. First open the gates and jam them open, get sympathy from the media, education and other opinion making organizations and then start changing the legal structure to their favor.

Fear is the component in all these steps. Anyone who resists is branded as a bigot and risks career suicide or death.

17 posted on 10/20/2006 3:15:11 PM PDT by Dan Evans
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To: eleni121; Wolfie; Dead Corpse
That is why in time of war, I think controls on who can purchase weapons should be considered.

Not surprising given your stances on Federal War on Drugs threads.

18 posted on 10/23/2006 10:25:35 AM PDT by jmc813 (.)(.)
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To: jmc813

Amazing to me how people like me - who merely question whether selling weapons to Islamofascists is wise - are catalogued over time on their "stances"--and that somehow being anti drug indicates anti gun.

Foolish assumptions.

The control freaks are people like you who keep track of people like me who they disagree with!


19 posted on 10/23/2006 11:00:54 AM PDT by eleni121 ("Show me just what Mohammed brought:: evil and inhumanity")
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