Gun Control

[cowman]

Do you ever wonder just how well the Canadian gun control system is working?
The news is full of some kid who got shot at the funeral of some other kid who got shot in Toronto!
Now I wonder were these guns registered? They don't seem to ever mention that?
I also note most of these shootings seem to be gang related? Usually either immigrants or Indian gangs...maybe I'd better not go there? Mustn't state the obvious...after all this is Canada!
But I haven't seen many gangs of middle aged old farmers from Vegreville or Hanna shooting each other up over some drug turf...and yet these are the people who are criminals if they don't register the old .22!
Where do these gangs get their guns? I suspect they don't go to Canadian Tire? What is the sense of registering these old .22s and shotguns when the gangs seem to be able to buy whatever they might possibly desire?

[TOM4CWB]

Likely because the worst 'crime' the old Hanna and Vegreville farmers ever thought of committing was taking the odd swig from a jug on their way to the dance at the local hall !!
The world is changing and not for the best thats for sure. Keeping the old farmers honest by forcing them to register their guns has not changed the crime rate one bit as far as gun crimes go. Edmonton is living proof of that with 35 homicides this year. The weapon of choice seems to be either a knife or a club these days, don't know if that is because of gun control or just that crimes are spur of the moment ones where the nearest weapon is used !!!!!
Asian gangs are the huge problem in Edmonton and that is a well known fact.
Drugs, lack of respect for law and order are a huge problem in our society.

[cowman]

It is pretty widely known that at a certain bar in Calgary you can buy just about whatever you might want in the way of firepower. From 9mm pistols to machine guns!...no registration required!
I've seen a really beautiful little Italian machine gun bought right out of that bar!
I assume if Calgary has an illegal gun trade, then practically every big city in Canada does? Maybe the day will come when the old farmers will have to buy their guns on the open market just like the gangsters do?

[cowman]

GEEZ Cowman, you have got to stop hanging around those bars !!!!!!!!

[dalek]

Stay out of the bars cowman. One of my friends married a nice Mohawk girl. The night of his bachelor party his future brother-in-law and his cousins took him on a tour of several old sugar shacks on the reserve to show him stockpiles that would make the Canadian military weep with envy.

[cowman]

Well I wasn't in the bar, but the kid who bought the gun was, and he needed a place to try it out! Pretty little thing, all chrome, shot .22 long rifles, 30 shot clip. He let me try it out. Very impractical for anything but hey boys will be boys with their toys!
I find it scary that the federal government has created a virtual army on some Indian reserves! It seems those Mohawks have got a lot of the organized crime economy all sown up. Once they make those big dollars it is unlikely they'll ever go back to living like dogs on the dole? Pretty scary.

[cowman]

Lots of scary things happening in our country. There are many days when I feel that its best to live out on the farm and not watch the news !!!! Mind you, there are nasty things happening in rural areas too, people having their homes vandalized etc.

And here I am with no guns, registered or otherwise !!!!

[cowman]

Hey emerald....do you want the name of the bar?

[dannytoro]

........Boy, what a nice inflammatory subject, complete with daring racial ephipets-lol. Well I'll wade in as an American returning home to Canada, where I happen to be of all things, a Labrador inuit, who incidently loves his firearms to guard his poultry farm and the odd hunt. Regulating guns is never going to solve the problem. In fact it's really just an excuse to avoid directly confronting the issue at hand. That being gang violence, saddly many times by minority groups. Let's face it, gang crime is an endemic cry for help. Gone un-answered usually. It pains me to read about some of the thing my Inuit breathern face, but even then that's nothing compared to what I hear and read of our Innu neighbors. Some of the crimes committed there just reak of youth left to go awry. It's terrible,the kid's need help and fast. For alot of them it's already to late. Anyway, I've said enough to put me in deep waters. Don't get me wrong, it's not every native who has a problem, it's the folks getting ignored, working well below their means, fighting to keep their children out of those elements. That's the way to cut the head off this violence problem, give them the help to save those kids.....

[cowman]

Well without a doubt drug money is big money and it just isn't the minorities that are involved? The Hells Angels are exclusively white!
As long as there are huge profits to be made...someone is going to go for it?
And hey if all you have to look forward to is poverty, why not?
In Alberta some of our native bands are extremely wealthy. When you turn eighteen, you get your lump sum of oil royalties...right around $100,000 today! Lots of money looking for a home?
A group of organized gangsters moved in from Manitoba to take advantage of the wealth and have caused all sorts of problems on this reserve.
And of course all natives aren't gangsters, just like all Asians aren't. Many natives are doing very well in the oil patch and certainly aren't looked on as second class citizens.
I don't know what the solution is but I do know gun control isn't working.

[dannytoro]

..........Well I can certainly empathize with the RCMP. It's a pretty thankless task to be going after these well financed drug gangs. I've read in Labrador that the meth labs have been causing big headaches there. They have space, money and ruthless simplicity on their side. Maybe it's time to resurect the posse to help them stamp them out-lol........

[dannytoro]

NOPE cowman, I don't need the name of the bar, thanks for asking !!!
I do have a highly illegal knife here at the farm, bought it up in the North one year, handle made out of whalebone or some other illegal material so maybe I can protect my humble home with it if the need arises !!!! ( GEEZ, and here the neighbours think I am such a meek, mild lady !).

The meth problem sure isn't unique to native kids, my community does not have a native or asian population and meth use is an epidemic.
I honestly feel that so much of the problems in society are the result of the combination of peer pressure and in many cases the lack of role models for these young people. Many of them come from broken homes or homes where drug and alcohol abuse was commonplace .
Before anyone gets on my case, I a fully aware that there are a lot of kids from very good homes with wonderful parents that are involved in using meth and other drugs. This is where the peer pressure comes in in my opinion.

I recently spoke to some young people and all but one in the group had been invited to try meth by friends, thankfully they were well informed young folks who realized that trying the stuff once could lead to addiction.
It is a horrible drug, and I do applaud our premier for taking steps to do what the province can to eradicate it.

[cowman]

It's a dirty business for sure, but wherever there is money to be made...someone is going to do it?
I'm not up on all the ins and outs of how it is made, but one solution might be to make it extremely difficult to get the ingredients? You can't even buy the fertilizer to make bombs anymore!
Obviously the war on drugs is not working? Maybe we need a new strategy?