mariomike said:
But, when it comes real advice on any personal safety issues, I give the last word to our police and emergency services professionals.
I think if you look at it that way, we wouldn't be allowed to do anything period. From a police officers shoes, he's going to be safer if all firearms were illegal and we had to use plastic cutlery. The reason we have police is so that we don't have our rights and safety tread upon, and the whole point is to be able to do that efficiently (and yes, safely for the police officer) with as few restrictions (laws) as is possible / reasonable.
Contrary to popular belief, no police force has supported the LGR (I know that the LGR is not the topic, but its relevant). That would be just as much of a conflict of interest as the CF saying "we don't support the mission in Afghanistan." Only various related
associations have made those statements, and they happened to receive donations some companies that hold a financial interest in seeing the LGR continue.
Now, I had with an RCMP officer, a self-declared pencil pusher (now, because he's been in for a long time) about registering Restricted weapons. He thought the LGR was stupid, but didn't think registering Restricted weapons was... ???
His explanation was 1. If they go to a house and run a check and see they have Restricted weapons, it does raise a flag and give us that extra sense of good intel and 2. It prevents people that are only casual about owning restricted firearms from obtaining them. His example was the man sitting across the table from me, a law-abiding retired teacher who is now mayor of the town, who had previously said "I'd like to own a pistol but I couldn't be arsed to go through all the BS."
It's not a bold prediction to say that if Canada had CCWs, the police would certainly be able to search that up when going on a call to the persons house or pulling them over for speeding. Or that argument #2 would apply, because God knows you would have to go through an awful lot to get one (and rightfully so).
So my return questions for this RCMP officer to his points were
1. Why on earth does a law abiding citizen who has gone through all the proper channels that YOU decided deemed him "safe" with a firearm, suddenly raise red flags as if he is "unsafe." He has done EVERYTHING that YOU asked of him, and yet you are still discriminating against him. And they wonder why firearm owners and police have reached a divide in this country.
2. WHY is stopping "a law-abiding retired teacher who is now mayor of the town" from buying a pistol considered a success? Please explain to me how you have prevented a crime?
These two arguments from an RCMP officer to me, show a lot about where Canada stands with guns. A law-abiding citizen who legally owns a Restricted weapon is literally viewed the same as a criminal with a history of violent crime, and keeping firearms out of a good person's hands is considered successfully preventing a crime, as if the minute his hand got a hold of it he would suddenly become "a criminal with a history of violent crime."
To me, it's the anti-Americanism brought on by an inferiority complex that runs so deep in Canada that has driven us to this point. The US, IMO, is at the extreme end of the "lack of gun control policies" spectrum. So naturally we, as Canadians, had to do the Canadian thing and go right to the other extreme of the spectrum, and I really wonder if we'll ever get back to somewhere that makes any sense whatsoever. A CCW-type thing in Canada is a friggin' pipe dream.