Reflections on December 6
Today is December 6.
I will be writing letters, meeting with my elected representatives and organizing people within my community to work towards deterring violent atrocities. I will be petitioning feverishly despite the many other demands family life and a career present because I confess an absolute solidarity on the notion of ending such violence.
And not just violence against women. Really, a healthy person will stand opposed to violence against any Gender. Most mass murderers are not specifically misogynists anyway. Even infamous killers like Cho Seung-Hui at Vermont Tech or Kimveer Gill at Dawson College are stereotypical 'equal opportunity' killers and their heinous actions lack coherent victim selection.
No, I think that when remembering a day dedicated to the victims of mass violence, inserting the notion that we will specifically target an end to violence against women seems deliberately sexist and unnecessarily dismissive of the victims of other mass killings.
But let's get beyond platitudes to the ugly heart of this thing.
As for a more effective means of deterrence, I enthusiastically support individual rights to self defense. It is my goal to see Libertarian gun rights pass into 2010 with stronger public and government recognition.
This process begins encouraging Canadian Parliament to successfully deliver bill C-391. You don't need to write opinion columns for a government funded media outlet to discover why so many Canadians vocally despise the Long Gun Registry that C-391 focuses on abolishing.
Our collective goodwill was extended to support gun control because the supporting story was a very moving one. It was literally marketed to us on the grave stones of our daughters, and we did not want to intrude on their memory by digging too hard at this legislative mechanisms or that elected representative who was supposed to protect our families' interests. We trusted the Government of the day to diligently examine and then fix the problems. And how did they honor our trust?
They funded Wendy Cukier (amongst others) with her political ties to foreign extremists to directly Lobby the Government with a one dimensional plan to severely limit if not eradicate private gun ownership in Canada. Allan Rock then put a false veneer on the entire process by first talking to the firearms community and then glossing over or ignoring virtually every single cautionary measure suggested by the gun owners. Wow. Just wow. These are the very same people who today express shock at our anger of betrayal.
We expected greater safety for our families. Instead, we fostered a violent offense rate that places us as the 6th worst nation in the world with 935 violent offenses per 100,000 people, and a useless piece of consolation legislation to track the guns of duck hunters while murder after murder continues unabated. According to the UK's ‘Daily Mail' the US has a violent offense rate of only 466 violent offenses per 100,000 people. And this is the pattern Cukier cautions us not to follow?
It has been nearly 20 years since that the registry has tracked, harassed and generally inconvenienced law abiding gun owners on a daily basis. And these are things that we would likely live with if the useless Registry actually addressed any criminal issues. But it does no such thing. Instead, it embarrassingly trundles on at the cost of millions of dollars per year, oblivious to its utter failure to prevent neither a single crime. It could not work, because it targeted the wrong people. The ones that always have been more than willing to comply with law and order.
Once every year on December 6 a colossal media circus is held featuring Wendy Cukier in its starring role. In this bizarre theatre of conceit, Cukier recites her lines extolling the many great virtues of her registry. It's a role she has played with passion. And it's a role she has financially and politically done well at. As Cukier rolls out her hand-selected and screened statistics as the supporting apparatus of the monster, I am reminded of the horror-thriller movie scene where Dr Frankenstein rants madly of the benefits his research will bring to society.
But this year in particular, she has decided to address a shift in public opinion. She is ad-libbing her lines a bit more than usual. This stage play is a bit off-message because it is now less about her or her monster and more about you.
She damns any would-be opponents of her one-sided view for second guessing her abomination. She adds to the clamor of the statistical apparatus by bringing the old bones of Ecole Polytechnique out for public display as ‘evidence' to shame us for ever questioning her Long Gun Registry's relevance despite the many fresh bones created in spite of the less than worthless two billion dollar registry.
Her associates join in this bizarre crescendo to scold us for our hand in somehow impugning the memories of these women as if an insult or ill wish was ever leveled in even their general direction. And they never let an opportunity go amiss to remind us of how small a minority we are. After all, the vast majority of Canadians (or so they tell us) support their ghastly parade.
The effect is shock and awe.
And yet, Wendy Cukier's publicly recorded comments on the results of the second reading of the C-391 free vote expressed less confidence than she roars with on stage. Her 'shocked' surprise suggests to me that Gun Control Canada had been caught with its pants down. This sort of thing can only happen to a political Lobbyist when they have drank their own cool-aid for too long. And it reveals a particular brand of arrogance to believe that Canadians have bough a polemic line of thought hook-line-and-sinker. An astonishing lack of grasp on the Canadian public pulse right there.
Cukier failed Canadian victims in her first approach at this, and she is very nearly the antithesis of the tempered personality necessary to determine a balanced, effective new approach to gun legislation in any second round either. A desperately needed change that will protect victims, cease victimizing citizens and imprison victimizers.
US Effect:
Our neighbors to the south provide a more effective lesson in Legislative effects on crime rates on an arguably similar societal makeup. 24 US States repealed their ‘duty to retreat' laws and another 4 States are well on their way to doing so because of demonstrable crime rate reduction in the original 24. Fully 48 states allow citizens concealed carry with a proper permit (CCW). This measure is so pervasively effective in deterring crime that 39 of these 48 States choose to direct their local officials to treat CCW licensing as ‘shall issue.' The State must provide factual evidence that an owner is unfit for such licensing to justify a refusal. A ‘Shall Issue' gun on even one woman in that classroom might have saved many lives. But even if it would have saved only one life, it would have been worth it.
A particular type of person who has already made up their mind on this issue in spite of factual evidence will take exception to my observations on the effectiveness of these American measures, as if Legislative momentum across 48 States was not sufficient. Some people would call them brainwashed. I think they just need to take an honest look at the numbers. Indeed, we should benefit from examining foreign study sources and correlate their findings with what we already believe.
The Daily Mail in Britain has produced ‘The League of Shame' list. The list ranks the top 10 worst countries in the world for violent crime rates. The UK tops this list by a wide margin with a shocking 2034 violent offenses per 100,000 people. This is a particularly embarrassing figure when you considering their globally leading role in gun control experimentation. It is nothing less than home plate for Rebecca Peters.
Yet, this stark warning of ‘do not tread here' has been largely unheeded here in Canada. Our previous Government chose to almost unilaterally follow the UK's model, and we now rank rather unsurprisingly as #6 amongst the top 10 worst countries in the world with 935 violent offenses per 100,000 people.
Let that figure sink in for a minute before you read even one more line.
There are 935 violent offenses per 100,000 people in Canada. We really need to put a number this big into some context. We have double the violent crime rate of France despite their broadly reported troubles with a vast immigrant Muslim population and controversial Legislative initiatives such as a ban on The Hijab.
935 violent offenses per 100,000 people? We are approaching the epidemic violent crime rate of South Africa. Not even a South African will stick up for their atrocious record, and they are actually preferable to Britain. Yet, how loudly our left wing activists declare that we desperately need more of the same medicine. The US system is chronically maligned by the far left activists in Canada. Recent jabs made by Mohammed Elmasry declared ‘Canada must not adopt US style gun control laws. But these pandering appeals to anti-US sentiment do not even withstand the scrutiny of a foreign newspaper, let alone a national inquiry.
Let's make sure we absorb clearly and without prejudice that the US does not even rank on ‘The League of Shame' list. They have worked very consistently against International pressures and resisted joining in this perilous trend. In return for their forbearance and their resistance to liberal media influence, they have reversed their crime trends. The US now ranks off the scale at the admirably low rate of 466 violent crimes per 100,000 people.
If you have read this and still feel a deep seated reservation against following an American mindset on crime control, you may want to reevaluate your motivations.