🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <DKE834.K3L@freenet.carleton.ca>, ag414@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Colin R. Leech) writes:
|> 
|> Rosco (Roger_Walker@CUEHere.bohica.net) writes:
|> > In article <DK6pw3.5p4@freenet.carleton.ca> Colin R. Leech 
|> > (ag414@FreeNet.Carleton.CA) wrote:
|> >> Do you have any better ideas? If so, we'd love to hear them.
|> > 
|> > For dealing with the firearm issue:
|> > 
|> > The NFA has presented a licensing scheme (apparently when C-17 was brought
|> > into being by Kim), as well as during the C-68 garbage. It was fairly
|> > simple, requiring anyone who owned/used firearms (including police and
|> > military) to show proficiency in various categories (ie: Proficiency with a
|> > shotgun, for shotguns; proficiency with pistols, for pistols; etc.), as well
|> > as the usual background check. You don't have the particular license
|> > category, you don't own/use that type of firearm. There is no need to limit
|> > the number of firearms (of a particular category owned) or even have
|> > knowledge of how many are owned by an individual, since he has already been
|> > certified as proficient and responsible by the authorities.
|> 
|> Uh huh. All you want to do iis make sure that somebody who owns a gun
|> knows how to use it. A lot of good this is going to do.
 
God forbid that someone who owns a car know how to use it either, I guess.
Statistics prove that accidental deaths dropped off dramatically as
the various provinces instituted mandatory firearms safety courses.
One can only assume that more specific training based on the category
of firearm owned would be even more beneficial. 
That you think this is of no consequence belies your feigned concern 
for human life.


|> 
|> > For dealing with criminals (after the fact):
|> 
|> I'll stop it right there. There may be problems with our justice system in
|> terms of precedures and sentencing. But that's a totally different issue.
|> (Feel free to start a separate thread in can.legal if you wish.)


OK.  We'll just slough it off and focus on the guns, right ?


|> 
|> > For dealing with crime (before the fact):
|> > 
|> > Research the causes of crime (poverty, drug abuse, marital strife, etc.) and
|> > institute programs to educate people and deal with the root causes.
|> 
|> Ditto.

Ditto (as above).

 
|> Now, how about some useful suggestions that deal directly with the issues
|> of dangerous lethal weapons being allowed among us?

We won't get them from you because you insist on ignoring the simple fact
that we do not ALLOW lethal weapons among us for those individuals who
are known to be a problem.  They just do it anyway and you would also
like to ignore that part of our society which allows this abberant
behaviour to continue and flourish.

You keep telling us that registration is the key to preventing all this
mayhem but have never managed to explain how handgun registration has
kept them from being used in 1/3 of gun murders  (not much more than 1%  
of these are legally registered).

In short,  you are fooling yourself.

Barry

P.S.   One suggestion  (if you are seriously entertaining them)
       make the sentencing for all offences using violence or
       threat of violence (especially with weapons)
       contiguous rather than concurrent.


   A 1988 study revealed that between January 1st, 1987 and 
   June 30th, 1988, 124 people were arrested in the greater
   Montreal area for armed robbery. Of that group, 65% were
   still under sentence for a previous crime and 36% were
   either on full parole, day parole, temporary absence,
   mandatory supervision or probation.
   Of 133 person arrested for armed robbery in Toronto
   between January 1st, 1986 and March 1st, 1988,
   50% were still under sentence and 92% had previous 
   criminal records.
   "D. Owen Carrigan: Crime and Punishment in Canada..." p.396

   It has been estimated that career convicted felons out of
   prison commit an average of 187 crimes per year,
   costing society over 17 times their yearly cost of
   imprisonment.
   Surveys of incarcerated violent offenders reveal:        
   - the majority are substance abusers with a long history 
     of alcoholism and/or drug addiction.
   - a criminal can obtain a firearm illegally within 24 hours
     of their release from jail.
   - theft from individual gun owners is exaggerated as 
     a problem in the illegal commerce in firearms as most 
     are stolen from stores, shippers, manufacturers, the
     even the police and armed forces.
    (note: a lucrative trade in smuggled firearms is seen as 
     the single, most significant source of illegal handguns)
   - criminals would rather encounter the police than an armed 
     homeowner. 
   - criminals do not purchase their firearms from well
     regulated sources such as licensed gun dealers.
   - criminals prefer handguns as their primary weapon and
     in their absence will "saw-off" shotguns or rifles to
     a concealable length.

   - FEAR OF A MANDATORY JAIL SENTENCE IS IDENTIFIED AS THE
     PRINCIPAL DETERRENT TO THE CRIMINAL USE OF A FIREARM.

       "James D. Wright and Peter H. Rossi:
        The Armed Criminal in America:
        A Survey of Incarcerated Felons - 1985.
        and
        Armed and Considered Dangerous - 1986