Have the Canadians gone completely insane? Gun paranoia in full force.

[Kathryn]

I don't think Canadians "hate" Americans, or even just Southerners, or even just Texans. But that fundamental disagreement of values leads to friction. In terms of this story, Canadians, especially urban Canadians (I live in a rural area of Canada), have little tolerance for guns. What you as an American might see as perfectly normal (someone walking down the street with a concealed firearm, for example), a Canadian like me would be scared to death.

I appreciate your magnanimous approach and I do understand that there are fundamental differences between the Canadian mindset and the American one, and magnified the further south one goes, generally speaking.

Was this an overreaction to a drawing? Of course. But what you are seeing is that fundamental difference in culture when it comes to guns and the public's attitude towards them. Sometimes it gets out of hand here, just as down there when you have NRA gun nuts wanting children to carry REAL firearms to school. And just as you think we're crazy for strip searching a father whose daughter drew a picture of him holding a gun, we think you're crazy for wanting kids to have guns in classrooms. (I would post a link, but I can't until I hit 15 posts)

Perhaps we're all crazy.

The NRA does not want children to carry guns in classrooms. The NRA has supported bills that would allow ADULT college students to be licensed to carry a gun on campus - these bills were a direct response to the Va Tech shooting. The argument was presented that the students who were shot were unarmed as were all their peers because it was against the law to have a gun on campus, and if they had been able to legally have a gun, someone could have stopped the shooter sooner.

Most, if not all, of these proposed bills were, pardon the pun, "shot down" by American voters by the way - even Texas voters.

 

[work in progress]

I don't know whether this is what he's talking about or not, but protests for concealed carry on campus have been relatively common. Apparently, they recently won the right to have concealed handguns in their college classrooms in Colorado.

Students for Concealed Carry

I took a quick look at their site; I don't know what their majors are...or even if they are real students, but they sound like idiots. They think that having every college student running around with a gun, will save them when the next student shooting incident happens! Pure luancy.

Back when I was young, the most popular TV show "All In The Family" featured this solution for crime...especially stopping airplane hijackings...at about the 58 sec. point of the video:
[youtube]CLjNJI54GMM[/youtube]
Archie Bunker on Gun Control - YouTube

 

[work in progress]

My Member of Parliament, Bruce Hyer (I kinda gave away my location, there, but oh well), was one of a few NDP MPs to vote with the Conservatives in favour of abolishing the long gun registry.

I'm an NDP supporter myself, but I don't care about the long-gun registry much at all. It's not a huge issue for me either way. But I can tell you one thing, a lot of people in this riding and the adjacent ones are BIG TIME hunters. Most people were in favour of abolishing the long-gun registry, even though we're mostly pro-NDP.

The NDP did not allow a "free vote". Nycole Turmel disciplined our two MPs Bruce Hyer and John Rafferty by restricting their travel privileges and stripping them of their critic roles. These are sanctions that, to this date, have not been removed. A lot of people here are outraged at the sanctions.

Party discipline should be reserved for core issues (gun control is not a core NDP issue), if there must be party discipline at all. If you compare Canadian politics to American politics, American politicians regularly vote against their own parties. I think to have a fair and democratic system, there should be no party discipline. Our MPs should vote the will of their constituents. Personally, I'm hugely disappointed in the NDP for this and were they not going to choose a new leader, I probably would end up supporting the Liberals next election.

You could very well be right here on how it all played out within the Party. It sounds likely, and to be honest, I didn't really check with how the NDP dealt with anti-registry members after the vote. I was going by what Jack Layton said beforehand, when he gave a strong impression that the NDP would leave it up to each individual member, with no future repercussions.

But when it comes to party discipline -- over the years, the NDP has tended to be more uniform and rigid than the Liberals. Traditionally (Before Harper), it was the P.C.'s who were always on the verge of anarchy...but that's all ancient history now, as this Conservative Party is a totally different animal than what we ever had previously in Canada.

 

[Revoltingest]

I don't know whether this is what he's talking about or not, but protests for concealed carry on campus have been relatively common. Apparently, they recently won the right to have concealed handguns in their college classrooms in Colorado.
Students for Concealed Carry

I'd call those students "adults", albeit usually only barely.
I hope Colo gives them some good training first.

 

[Apex]

I took a quick look at their site; I don't know what their majors are...or even if they are real students, but they sound like idiots. They think that having every college student running around with a gun, will save them when the next student shooting incident happens! Pure luancy.

It amazes me when people conflate the argument that "a concealed carry permit should be allowed in all public spaces" with "OMG THEY WANT EVERYONE TO HAVE GUNS IT WILL BE THE WILD WEST OMFG!!!!1!!1".

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

It amazes me when people conflate the argument that "a concealed carry permit should be allowed in all public spaces" with "OMG THEY WANT EVERYONE TO HAVE GUNS IT WILL BE THE WILD WEST OMFG!!!!1!!1".

AFAIK, the whole point of those sorts of proposals is that it will create a deterrent effect because the bad guys would realize that anyone could have a gun, potentially.

The "anyone could have a gun, potentially" part doesn't go away when we're considering the risks of proposals like that.

 

[Kathryn]

I don't believe any of these proposals actually passed (with the possible exception of the one in Colorado). I know that the one proposed in Texas was defeated by a very wide margin.

 

[Vile Atheist]

The NRA does not want children to carry guns in classrooms. The NRA has supported bills that would allow ADULT college students to be licensed to carry a gun on campus - these bills were a direct response to the Va Tech shooting. The argument was presented that the students who were shot were unarmed as were all their peers because it was against the law to have a gun on campus, and if they had been able to legally have a gun, someone could have stopped the shooter sooner.

Most, if not all, of these proposed bills were, pardon the pun, "shot down" by American voters by the way - even Texas voters.

But that's just the thing. Do you think even most Canadians support some guy getting strip searched because his young daughter drew a picture of him holding a gun? From those up here I know who are aware of this story, they are all in the same state of "WTF" as you are.

Just as I realize that the gun nuts who want greater access to guns despite all the tragic school shootings in the United States are a (vocal) minority, those up here who support some guy getting strip searched over a picture his daughter drew are in a very, very small minority.

But had the daughter produced a real weapon or had somehow indicated that the father was improperly using firearms around his daughter, I definitely think police action is required. I might be wrong, but I suspect you and your fellow Texans might think differently. But it all boils back down to that cultural difference.

 

[Vile Atheist]

I'd call those students "adults", albeit usually only barely.
I hope Colo gives them some good training first.

Well, there's that too. But I've seen really, really out-there fringe people advocate for guns not only in high schools, but in ELEMENTARY schools. But again, I cannot post links until 15 posts.

Nonetheless, these people are fringe and I recognize that. Just like the people who support a father getting strip searched because his daughter drew a picture of him holding a gun are pretty fringe too.