Canadian politicians call for handgun ban

[mudesi]

This is the difference between having politicians who actually care about their constituents and those who are nothing more than shills for corporations and lobbyists.

Here is the link.

After a "school shooting" (which, in Canada, really means a "shooting that happened near a school" as opposed to a mentally disturbed individual randomly murdering people), the politicians are actually calling for some kind of action, instead of spouting the usual conservative talking point sound bite nonsense.

What I like especially is that they recognize the need for a national ban, which is the only way it would work. Bans like the one in Washington D.C. obviously failed because you can't just ban them in one city, or one state. It has to be national for it to work.

In addition to that, they recognize that a ban is not the sole solution, but rather, just one part of a larger tackling of the problem - Tougher sentences for gun crime, yes, but also money invested in social programs (after school programs, early education), to prevent youth from turning to crime in the first place. A ban on handguns, sure, but also tougher border inspections to prevent guns from entering from the United States (50% of the guns used in gun crimes come from the States).

My point here is not so much the gun crime, but the way the politicians in a liberal country actually at least attempt to deal with it in a real, thoughtful, nuanced way. This from a country where any shooting makes the news every night because a shooting is so rare, where 30 to 40 gun murders a year in a city of over 5 million is described as gun violence "plaguing the city".

Unfortunately, Canada is currently stuck with a typical conservative troglodyte for Prime Minister. He's attempting to win a majority government by cynically having called the election before Obama could win the presidency and potentially energize liberals in Canada. You would expect the following typical discredited idiocy to come out of his mouth:

Tuesday, the question was put to Prime Minister Stephen Harper but he was reluctant to comment because he didn't have many details about the Toronto school shooting.

Hand guns are banned, the Tories said - without a special licence, they're illegal.

"The people we're dealing with do not register their weapons. They're criminals," said spokesman Kory Teneycke.

"They don't comply with government registration. If you're willing to commit murder, you're willing to violate the provisions of a firearm registry."

Really? He "didn't have many details"? How typical. Or could it be that he's a liar? What am I saying. Of course he's a liar. He's a conservative. That, and the usual "criminals are going to use them anyway" "argument". What an absolute bore. How many times must a conservative repeat this discredited garbage?

I'm so sick of conservatives. Their policies have been spectacularly discredited around the globe. From gun control to capital punishment to women's rights to gay rights to progressive taxation to the environment to everything in between. They have been proven wrong so many times in so many countries in so many ways that the only thing they can do is repeat the same old lines and hope enough low information voters fall for it.

Maybe this latest financial crisis on Wall Street will put that final nail in the coffin. Yet another conservative policy ends in spectacular failure. How shocking.

I really hope it's coming to an end for them in America.

[blue sky at night]

1. this can never happen here........

in one hundred million billion trillion years. those words have absolutely no meaning in america today....guns are good and we should all have them, even in Church.