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Monday, March 10, 2008
Lemieux: Creating 150,000 paper criminals
In his latest, entitled "Creating 150,000 paper criminals", Pierre Lemieux takes aim at the gun registry which is busy making regular Canadians into criminals--at least on paper. And the numbers are shocking: 150,000 of our neighbours, teachers, doctors, local business owners, and others are now "criminals."
An excerpt:
"Before the licencing requirement came into force, the government ran a big information campaign. At least one company involved in the campaign was Groupaction, which was also implicated in the sponsorship scandal--a fact that is not immaterial as we must remember that these controls are imposed by the corruptible state, not by sinless angels from heaven. In the Summer of 1999, the government even hired students to lure gun owners into applying for a licence so they would be sucked into the system. The cool and misleading propaganda avoided mentioning the criminal implications of non-compliance: it was like a new service brought to you by your loving government.
"Since then, the state has shown its teeth. The regulatory impact statements in the Canada Gazette
are more explicit: "potential consequences for non-compliant long-gun
owners," "criminal prosecution," "having... their firearms seized,"
"Criminal Code illegal possession offences," "enforcement measures..."
In point of fact, all this started several years ago.
"Why does the state want these 150,000 paper criminals to come and beg
for their "privileges"? One reason, of course, is that it would be a
tall order to arrest, try and jail all of them--"criminalizing large
numbers of otherwise law-abiding firearms owners," as one of the impact
statements puts it. Moreover, other Canadians might then realize what
gun control is all about." Read More...
Posted by Western Standard on March 10, 2008 | Permalink
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Comments
The only real power any government has over its population is the power of law enforcement. Which is why we have so many laws that have absolutely nothing to do with justice or peace. If we look to history we will see that gun registration is a tool of confiscation. It is sold as something to make us safer which it most certainly does not.
I ask, would you put a sign in front of your home telling the world that your house is a gun free zone? Probably not. But gun control and gun restrictions ask us all to do basically that very thing. And lets not forget the approximately 56 million people exterminated in the 20th centiry under regimes that first registered and the confiscated all the guns they could find. Hard to believe? I thought so too. Check, Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein....and you'll start to get the picture. Of course that could never happen here, could it?
Posted by: JC | 10-Mar-08 7:33:01 AM
JC,you are right. I like to think of this power as coercive, physical. If anyone doubts this, think about how long you could resisit the government on any issue. And think about what the outcome will be. At some point, you will physically be forced to jail for a time out, courtesy of your benevolent government.
Posted by: TM | 10-Mar-08 8:12:09 AM
People can rarely be convinced to turn on themselves or people they see as similar to themselves. In all the cases mentioned in JC's post, the group to be eliminated was first labled, marginalized and dehumanized in the eyes of the rest of society. Notice the references to "GunNuts" in blogs all over the internet refering to law abiding gun owners? The process has already begun.
Posted by: DDS | 10-Mar-08 8:17:24 AM
"Why does the state want these 150,000 paper criminals to come and beg for their "privileges"? One reason, of course, is that it would be a tall order to arrest, try and jail all of them--"criminalizing large numbers of otherwise law-abiding firearms owners," as one of the impact statements puts it."
I just had a thought. What if this was tangentially intentional? Of course, gaining political power for personal glory was their primary goal.
Knowing that people would fail to comply accidentally and/or intentionally, what if the secondary impact was to let them become criminals.
So in some future date, whenever leverage was needed over a particular individual, this act of criminality could be used to apply the appropriate pressure against said individual to comply with the intended effect by the gov't or powers that be?
Hmmm! I wonder.
Posted by: h2o273kk9 | 10-Mar-08 8:41:21 AM
"There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible to live without breaking laws."
- Ayn Rand, "Atlas Shrugged"
Posted by: Nimrod45 | 10-Mar-08 10:44:04 AM
JC is bang-on. Harper's government must know there is a potential million or so potential criminals thanks to Alan Rock. Lust for power (pandering to the urbans) has prevented them from acting seriously on this file and their promise to "scrap the Registry". The sad irony is that the vast majority of these (otherwise law abiding) potential criminals supported them and will likely continue to do so. Is this another one of their files that, when they get their majority government, they will do the right thing or are they just messing with their supporters. I fear this is just another one way ratchet click of leviathan.
On a less related subject, has anyone noticed that Eco-terrorist Minister Baird seems to want to put the boots to any future oil sands projects or do WS posters just seem to be stuck on silly-smoke related topics?
Posted by: John Chittick | 10-Mar-08 10:55:41 AM
JC and DDS are absolutely correct. Anyone recall the Liberal responsible for this bragging how only the police and military should be armed? One could not find a better eye-opener, yet so many remained complaisant.
Posted by: Alain | 10-Mar-08 1:26:17 PM
Isn`t it ironic that the Nazi`s, the communists and other totalitarian states have embraced gun control? Today on the CBC, they said that the Chinese governmentt often uses security as an excuse to crack down on their citizens. Sound familiar? No matter what excuse a government uses, there is never an excuse to take away peoples freedom. We must realize that any laws we pass that are so controlling, can also be used against us if the wrong people get into power. England has cameras everywhere, monitoring citizens. What a wonderful tool that would have been for the Nazi`s and what a great tool it would be for a corrupt and evil government today.It is hard to believe that are Liberal governemnt has done this to our citizens. The very word liberal is suppose to stand for liberty. They stand for everything but.
Posted by: Mark G. | 10-Mar-08 7:31:48 PM
I'm against all prohibitions (on guns, abortion, drugs, school choice, etc. ) because they give the state, with its monopoly on the use of force, control over the individual, who has every right to bear arms peacefully as much as he has a natural right to take drugs (and possess them and buy them).
My problem is that most guns in Canada are owned in the majority by Conservative Party supporting rural Canadians, who have gladly pitched in to support the War on Drugs.
When I was convicted of passing one joint in Saskatoon in 2004, I lost my right to bear arms or own them for 10 years. I went to jail for 67 days.
And remember, thats real. Everyday people go to jail for their drug choices. Gun owners are "up in arms" about "potential" as no gun owner has gone to jail yet for failing to fill out a few forms. And lets face it, the gov't is only demanding to register your gun no differently than your car, so its about the right to privacy, not about gun ownership, which the registry law does not fundamentally change (except if you are, like me, barred from legally owning a gun because of drugs, like 300,000 other adult Canadians currently.)
If these gun owners put pressure on Harper & his rural redneck MP's that are, as I said, elected by these rural gun owners, to end the War on Drugs, we could accomplish alot more liberty and alot less government control and seizure. But you can't have it both ways, rural gun people, liberty is not some movable feast, good for you (and your guns) but not good for me (and my drugs).
Posted by: Marc Scott Emery | 10-Mar-08 8:06:35 PM
>"If these gun owners put pressure on Harper & his rural redneck MP's that are, as I said, elected by these rural gun owners, to end the War on Drugs, we could accomplish alot more liberty and alot less government control and seizure." Marc Scott Emery | 10-Mar-08 8:06:35 PM
Is it really neccessary, Mr. Emery, to use inflamatory slurs like "rural redneck MP"?
Don't you think it would further your cause if people didn't call marijuana smokers dirty hippy potheads?
Do you know, Mr. Emery, that marijuana was made illegal in Canada by Liberals and in the U.S. by Democrats, both of whom are leading the anti-gun lobby?
Posted by: Speller | 10-Mar-08 8:18:15 PM
It's time you Canadians overthrew your Fascist Government. Your revolution against tyranny is 200+ years overdue.
Marcus James,
Los Angeles, Kalifornia
Posted by: Mark Feit | 10-Mar-08 8:55:45 PM
>"Marcus James,
Los Angeles, Kalifornia
Mark Feit | 10-Mar-08 8:55:45 PM
So how is the land of the "Free and the Brave" doing since that Coup d'état you had back in 1963?
Still think you live in a Democratic Republic do you?
Posted by: Speller | 10-Mar-08 9:01:10 PM
In rural BC (very rural)where I live the long gun registry is more a joke than a reality.Most people I know, that registered at all own 4 or 5 rifles/shotguns but only registered one. When the registration warnings first came down the pipe everyone bought enough ammo to finish a small war.Any statistics the government has on long gun ownership must be so far out of whack as to be completely useless.
Posted by: peterj | 10-Mar-08 11:55:15 PM
The FORCED licencing of gunowners and registration of their guns is nothing like the system for automobiles. that "drug" guy needs to get his facts straight,maybe even himself.Right now, Canadians ARE being criminalized for 'paper crimes" and firearms ownership. I for one have seen close up the damage of drug abuse,addiction, the related chaos. I see the futility in prohibition movements, but if anybody thinks of Canada as a open-drug use utopia, they are deluded. FOLLOW THE MONEY, pot smokey. You finance criminals and gangs that perpetuate violence,prostitution,murder,mental illness,dereliction. Heads always want to try to convince all of the medical/societal benefit of drugs.It aint medicine,you aint the doctor,but hey,keep on tokin' till you wind up in jail,institutions,or dead. and for sure,blame everone else for the misery that your choices bring into your life.
Posted by: Phil Hewkin | 11-Mar-08 3:58:09 PM
If guns cause crime, then mine are defective. But for some reason they're still remarkably effective on deer.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 13-Mar-08 8:56:30 AM
So what you're saying, Emery, is not that firearms are bad, or that private ownership of firearms is bad, but that those who own them are more likely to disagree with you? Since rural folk are also more likely to own a house than city folk, and rural folk are more likely to disagree with you, does that mean you have a problem with owning houses as well?
Honestly, how is it possible to suspend disbelief the extent of holding a substance that destroys the mind morally equivalent with a tool that provides recreational enjoyment and meat for the table? How did you ever garner such a massive cult following with such blatantly defective reasoning skills? Oh, wait, they're all liberals. Never mind.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 13-Mar-08 9:01:45 AM
I take great pride in being one of these criminals. :-)
Posted by: Tom | 28-Mar-08 1:05:11 PM
Sorry about the multiple posts, my puter is stuttering...
a friend of mine went futher than just ignoring the law. He told me he must have filled out hundreds and hundreds of applications for registration of firearms that did not exist for people who were either dead or were made up. I guess they are now part of this non compliance problem eh? Lets see the government arrest them.
Posted by: Tom | 28-Mar-08 1:13:59 PM
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