After months of being blamed for Mexico's surge in drug related violence, the United States is now being blamed for the illegal gun trade in Canada as well.
Many anti-gun idealists are still trying to perpetuate the myth that guns are bought legally in the U.S. and are then sold to Mexican gangs despite the fact that their "90% of all illegal guns in Mexico come from the U.S." claim has been thoroughly debunked.
Sensing a chance to snowball the issue, a "study" conducted in Canada claims "that the best available data suggests that about two-thirds of crime guns seized in Canada have their origin south of the border." Spearheading the study was Wendy Cukier of Ryerson University, a prominent gun control activist, who feels the blame should be extended for all violent crime on the planet.
Canada seldom points to the obvious fact that lax U.S. gun laws not only result in high numbers of Americans being killed with guns, but fuel the illegal gun trade and handgun homicide in Canada, in Mexico, in the Caribbean and indeed around the world.
There are, however, a few problems with that accusation.
First of all, the study itself showed that the majority of rifles and shotguns used in crime actually came from Canadian sources. And even for handguns, they admit that it is very difficult to trace guns originating from countries other than the U.S. Using their logic, if they traced 100 guns and 1 was found to be from Canada, 3 from the United States, and 96 from unknown sources, then the majority of the guns able to be traced came from the U.S.
Another problem is that when the paper trail of gun sales is impossible to follow, they simply look at the manufacturer. If the gun was manufactured by a U.S. company, then the claim that the gun "originated" in the U.S. is true even if the facts are that a legally manufactured handgun was sold to a Canadian police department and was later sold on the black market by a corrupt official.
Another major source of illegal guns in Canada, and in many other countries is "leakage" from state stockpiles (police and military) through theft, corruption or other means. For instance, 'insiders' illegally sold over 3000 firearms recovered in crime or surrendered in amnesties to the Metropolitan Toronto Police Service.
This statement is backed up by a Federation of American Scientists (FAS) study conducted in 2008 which noted that:
Hundreds of thousands of small arms in leaky government arsenals are vulnerable to theft, loss and diversion. Once acquired by traffickers, these weapons are smuggled across national borders in every conceivable way. They are hidden under sacks of vegetables in the back of pick up trucks, packed into household appliances that are then loaded onto cargo ships, even air-dropped out of old Soviet military transport planes.
The end result is that these claims are like blaming Ford Motor Company for a carjacking. Despite the false blame leveled by biased studies conducted by anti-gun advocates, the FAS study noted that "the United States leads the world in efforts to secure and destroy surplus and obsolete small arms and light weapons and eliminate terrorist access to man-portable air defense systems."
Gun grabbers have an agenda, and they will grasp at any straw to try to justify it. Their latest strategy of falsifying and skewing data to apply international pressure in an effort to enact their gun control schemes will undoubtedly stir up some controversy, but it doesn't stand up to scrutiny.
Comments
Wendy Cukier is a well-known gun control hack here in Canada. This "study" is just a tool they will use to lobby Ottawa to ratify the UN Firearms Protocol to supposedly curb the illegal small arms trade. What it will *actually* do, with its firearms and ammo marking requirements, is increase the retail price of all guns a few hundred dollars (plus the extra cost will be for their plan for marking ammo) and decimate the already strained Canadian gun market.
They can't yet simply ban all guns so they attempt to continue to make it harder and more expensive to continue the hobby. Canada has trouble attracting younger hobbyists because, frankly, the amount of regulation and expense is ludicrous (bordering on insane in the eastern provinces of Ontario and Quebec which each have their own additional provincial regulations). And all this has a negligible effect on actual crime.
I am very familiar with Canadian gun law. They're not about crime control: it's all about social engineer
The story of the drunk searching for his car keys under a street light comes to mind. He lost them in a nearby alley but the light over there is too dim to see. The gun controllers feel an almost pathological need to "do something" about the problem of crime with firearms, but they can't bring themselves to control the criminals or their access to guns. But they can do both to the law abiding. So, like the drunk under the light, they do what they can, rather than confront the problem head on. Folks, you need to focus on the bad guys. As a hint, it's very difficult for them to prey on society from inside of a prison cell.
Mr White, I don't know if you were born stupid or if you have a bullet lodged in your brain. Of course the illegal guns in Canada come from the US. Nearly ALL of of our guns, illegal or legal come from the US. We don't manufacture guns in Canada as there is no profit in it. Only the US, where people are dumb enough to promote widespread gun ownership, are guns manufactured expressly for home use and at a cost low enough for wide distibution.
Unfortunately we Canadians live right next door to the most wacked country on earth. Your vile culture spills over into ours and leads impressionable imbeciles to take up a gun habit. Your country IS to blame not only for gun-crime but for selling arms all over the world to every wack-job who wants one.
Alec, we aren't too happy about your country's marxism spilling over the border, either. Anyway, although I'm sure you'd like to think you've chased away anyone who would even consider making a gun in Canada, there are still a number of gun manufacturers and dealers there. See www.firearmscanada.com for example. When you do manage to chase the remainder out, then you truly will be dependent on the US and our "gun culture" to supply your police and military with guns. You know, the people you hope will keep you and your family safe, since you won't be doing it yourself (if attacked, I imagine you could always just curl up into a ball on the floor and hope the police respond much faster than average).
And you may be right that you yourself could not be trusted with a gun, but don't assume that everyone in the world (including Canada) is like you. Some people, even without a magic badge, do trust themselves enough to have the tools to protect their own family.
Alec, I am surprised at your comments, I think a little research would open your eyes. Like why did our country fear government? Because the Kings in England wanted to control our every move. Guns are the tool that allowed the US to make decisions on our own and be free from the control of others, and create a better society. Not to mention we might need them again. Some of the safest country's and states in the US are plauged with guns. Look at the Brits, Austraila, or Germany, Hitler wanted a gun free country so only the powerful had them. Look up Kennasaw GA, they have a town ordinace stating that every household have a firearm, and this town is one of the safest towns to live in.
To Alec> The only WACK-JOB I see in your'e story is YOU, some how you seem to think that just because we AMERICANS have the right to
defend our self, that wer'e some kind of freaks. No wer'e not freaks we just don't want to become SUBJECTS like you folks up there in canidah, ay. My gun gives me FREEDOM, from my government, your'e lack of a gun makes you a subject to yours. So I see now why you feel about guns the way you do, it's because your'e master tells you to think that way. And that's
your'e so addament about the subject. you just beleive what ever your'e government tells you to beleive, you have no thought of your'e own
so you do what your'e master says, and he/she says it's AMERICAS fault their the ones to blame, don't blame us for leaving you defence-less against the criminal we feel sorry for and won't put in prison becuase they had a tough child hood. Canidah aint their french-
canadians. And didn't we SAVE their ass's more than once, ah the gratitude.
When something is wrong it is someone else’s fault, when something goes well and right they take credit and it make little or no difference about the facts then too if you have children then you can understand what I am saying.
Well it's apparent that FOX has made a great impression on Scaramouche, Andy B and Ron2112. It seems to me that Ron2112 is every stereotype rolled into one. You people have the wierd idea that everyone in the world must think as you do. Sorry guys, the rest of world has not been subjected to the level of brainwashing common in the US. You people have no idea about what happens outside of your narrow little world. You have no idea about political situations, government forms or even rational thought. Every rational thought is described in your media as leftist, ungodly and anti-American.
I stand by what I said because your comments prove my point. You are wack-jobs. Keep your eyes on Ron2112 because he's not only poorly educated but nuts as well.
Alec just proves his arrogance and stupidity
Alec, they were much nicer to you than I will be. The other respondents to your false statements tried to educate you and show you where to find proof what you said was wrong.
Unlike them, I simply call you a liar. You already know you lied. You don't care. You have no respect for life and you wish to be able to exercise that disrespect by taking life and property not rightfully yours or enable agents to do it for you. I suspect the latte as I also doubt you have the actual courage needed to do your own marauding.
I suggest you move to Rwanda, Darfur, England, Australia or any number of places that practice what you preach. Or you could just stay in Canada and help other Canadians achieved that exalted status of victim of the sociopaths who infest every government, yours, mine, Rwanda's, Darfur's, England's, Australia's, China's and the list goes on.
I suspect that you think you are somehow special and will be the last to be eaten if you just appear slavish and subservient.
[cont] if you were not so evil, you would be a pathetic creature,indeed! However, I have no sympathy for the enablers of tyranny. Nor do I have any sympathy for those who rail against their betters, rather than become full human free men themselves.
Now go lock yourself in your bathroom and go blind.
I should have said "blinder".
The difference between our nation and all the rest of the world you pointed to, is that even though we have our own sociopaths in government, as do all governments, it is not in our sociopaths interests to foment genocide and slavery at this point in time. That is why they want us disarmed. Then it would be in their interests to take what they want, no matter what "it" might be.
You advocate for those conditions. You are the one who knows nothing of "political situations, government forms or even rational thought."
All of history of the world is against you.
I too am from Canada and I assure you that this fool Alex speaks only for himself and is not the opinion of most Canadians. I am a proud owner of many frearms and am involved in sport shooting a well as hunting. Obviously we have the same problem with the anti's and are fighting hard to keep the rights we hav left. We will never give up. This Wendy Cukier is obviously a thorn in her side. She talks out of both sies of her mouth and both sides do a lot of lying.
Next eek she will be whining to anyone who will listen that most of the guns used in crime here are stolen from ligitimate gun owners. She will say anything that she thinks will help her cause.
Alex, you need to get back on those meds!
"Unfortunately we Canadians live right next door to the most wacked country on earth. Your vile culture spills over into ours and leads impressionable imbeciles to take up a gun habit. Your country IS to blame not only for gun-crime but for selling arms all over the world to every wack-job who wants one."
Not the words of a rational person.
How about looking at the flow of migration between our nations for a start?
Alec, I purchased handgun from Para-Ordnance Mfg. 980 Tapscott Rd. Toronto, On. M1X 1C3 Canada, recently. You sir are the idiot.
Daniel White asserts in his essay that the majority of illegal guns being imported into Canada do not originate in the US. To prove this he references articles published on-line by another member of his own organization. This is hardly an objective source and does not “thoroughly debunk” the charge. In fact, the GOA report concerning US guns in Mexico says implicitly that the problem exists. The “debunking” is merely a revision of statistics to attack another writer’s opinion.
He goes on to say that:
“If the gun was manufactured by a U.S. company, then the claim that the gun "originated" in the U.S. is true even if the facts are that a legally manufactured handgun was sold to a Canadian police department and was later sold on the black market by a corrupt official.”
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He backs that up with two quotations that are taken completely out of context. Both of his quoted sources are referring to “leakage” within the US that results in illegal trafficking within the US as well as exports to other countries. On the one hand he’s correct. Small arms and handguns used by Canadian police and military are manufactured in the US. But to claim that the miniscule number of weapons purchased every year by these legitimate sources can turn into the numbers of illegal handguns being seized in Canada is preposterous and only an utter fool would take it seriously. Considering the numbers of people commenting on this, there are indeed many utter fools.
What I find the most weird about the comments is the level of hysterical paranoia expressed. Every comment is laced with fear and false bravado. Most are prepared to use their guns to avenge insults and to ward off the boogey-men coming to haunt them.
cont
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There is an assumption that the paranoia that grips US gun-nuts is rampant in the rest of the world as well. People outside of the US are well aware that governments can and do err. They are also aware that sociopaths infest not only government but industry, social work, and every other organization including gun-clubs. Where we differ in approach to dealing with this is that we do not assume that such sociopaths are armed.
I call you people wack-jobs and your country wacked. You have elevated a well-meaning Constitutional passage to the status of national religion. The document was written to deal with the times as they were and is not prescient or infallible. Let’s never mind for now that most Americans are utterly ignorant of the facts behind your Glorious People’s Revolution. The document is over 200 years old, sadly out of date, and only reflects your society because of your blind commitment to it.
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Yeah let's talk about that 200 year old document. There was a time when our southern states had very strict gun control, they were intended for and used as a tool of state sanctioned terrorism. Blacks and poor whites were forced to follow the laws, but not the Klan and their police allies. First we and France embraced the enlightenment that each individual has inalienable rights as outlined by John Mill and Thomas Paine. Yes many right wing Americans are clueless about a lot of our founders' writing and would call Jefferson and Paine Marxists. That said, Canadians still adhere to Ed Burke who feels that the wealthy elites, like the Americans that left for Canada to preserve their inherited wealth, know better than the rabble, and the individual is property of the Crown. The Montreal shooter in 1989, the shooter asked a roomful of guys to leave the room and they obediently left the room just before he shot the women. Everyone who left the room shares some moral responsibility for those deaths because they did nothing. The Crown's message to women and other civilized Canadians, just as well lay back and enjoy being raped or robbed, because if you resist we will prosecute you. We both know the Crown does just that. Self defense is not a right in Commonwealth, nor is defense of another. Parliament can repeal your bill of rights and the Charter at anytime. You have a great health care system, but when I think of Canada, I am also forced to think of that also.
cont-
Yours is the only country that actively promotes gun ownership not for hunting but to kill your fellow citizens. I have no problem with owning guns for hunting purposes. I do have a problem with hand-guns and the myriad automatic weapons that have no other purpose than to kill people. Idiots use the argument that knives kill people too. Most knives however are tools not specifically designed to kill people. The knives that are designed to kill people can be found at your local gun-shop along side the people-killing firearms. You maintain a weapons industry that dwarfs the rest of the world’s arms production. When you go to war you fight against people armed with US weaponry. While it is true that Russia, Britain, France and China also export weapons to every crack-pot country and terrorist organization, the US still exports far more.
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I see that a fellow Canuck has replied. He is incorrect in saying that most Canadians are not of my opinion. Only in Alberta is that even close. I have met many handgun owners in Canada and every one of them is either nuts or a little man trying to be a big man. No sig, I speak on behalf of the thinking world who regard what we see happening in the US as wacked.
Rich: Yes, there is gun-manufacturing in Canada. Para does export legally to the US market where they compete with Smith & Wesson, Springfield Armory, Inc., and Kimber Manufacturing. Just because we manufacture for your market does not mean that there is a wide-spread consumer base in Canada. When you check the company stats you find that most of what they produce is illegal in our country. They are not illegal in the US however and are exported under US law. We can blame free trade for this trickle from Canada.
I guess it would be asking too much for the earth to simply swallow Alec.
I repeat Alec, you are a liar. Nothing more needs be said. Provide the quote where anybody here threatened anybody just because they disagreed.
Can't. I will grant you this much. I believe in violence. It exists. It is practiced most by governments, next by criminals. When that violence is visited upon a peaceful man, only violence will stop it.
Why do you think police are armed. Moron.
Alec said: "Yours is the only country that actively promotes gun ownership not for hunting but to kill your fellow citizens."
Last time I checked, we actively promote arms ownership (does not necessarily have to be guns) to prevent tyranny. Tyranny by criminals, tyranny by government (although those two are pretty much the same), it matters not.
Also, someone committing a serious act of violence against me without provocation is not my fellow. If in the course of defending my life, an action that by being a free man simply by existing cannot be restricted, if my assailant dies, so be it. They were foolish enough to believe I would roll over and play feeble victim as they were expecting.
The only problem with our Bill of Rights is there is no enforcement clause for those who violate it. A lot of the problems this country experienced in its history would never have existed if such a provision had been in place. Just in case you were wondering, freedom never is out of date.
Like Canada can defend itself from anything.
Oh yea and then you have "French" Canada...that says a lot
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