🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <DJMLFz.7G5@freenet.carleton.ca>,
	ag414@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Colin R. Leech) writes:
>
>The debate over the availability of illegal guns is a common one among gun
>supporters, but it is really a red herring.

Well, I must say that you, of all people, SHOULD know a red herring when you
see one, as there are several in your post, which leads me to believe you
must have been sleeping when you wrote the above statement.

> For starters, people have to
>go to some effort to obtain an illegal weapon, which restricts the number
>of people who will bother to go this route.

Yes, and as always, it is the honest folks who will not try to get
an illegal weapon, while the dishonest ones always have preferred the
illegal weapon, usually because the illegal weapon is superior to the
hunting rifle, for example, and if obtained illegally, leaves NO
paper trail at all. Making legal weapons harder to get only increases
the demand for, and therefor the value of, illegal weapons, while
increasing the chances of the criminal not having to face a gun barrel
when mugging someone or breaking into someone's house.

> Secondly, there are so many
>illegal weapons because the gun control laws in the US are virtually
>non-existant. If the US enacted tougher legislation similar to Canada (a
>person can dream, can't he?), the supply of illegal guns would be cut
>dramatically. It's not too hard to travel to the US, buy a gun, and slip
>it into your suitcase to drive back across the border. 

They are not so easy to get in the US as you seem to think. In fact,
they are about as obtainable in Canada as they are in the US. 

You also bring up the biggest red herring of all in this partagraph.

All one need do is to look at the gun-related crime rate in NY vs
WV. The anti-gunners will point to WV's (relatively) lax gun laws
as the reason for the high NY (total gun ban, for all intents and
purposes) gun-crime rate. Of course, they completely ignore the fact
that WV has a VERY small gun-crime rate.

The problem is a simple one. Guns will ALWAYS b in demand by those
who would use them in the commission of a crime. If they cannot be
obtained in Canada, they will be imported. If they cannot be bought,
they will be stolen (or are you suggesting that we disarm the police
and military?) If they don't come from the US, they will come from
somewhere else, whether it be a mideast, South American, African, or
Asian country. If they cannot be obtained ready-made, they will be
manufactured. Grinding the law-abiding into the dirt for the dubious
benefit of lulling the anti-gunners into a false sense of security
is abhorrent.