Stance on gun control

[MT2008]

I know that this topic has been dead for over 6 years, but in light of recent developments in both the U.S. and Canada (i.e., handgun sales freeze/ban), I found myself reflecting again on this old post that Nyles wrote:

Originally Posted by Nyles

Gonna stir the pot a little here, just keep in mind I'm coming at this from a non-American perspective. I'm 30, I've been in the Canadian army reserve for 10 years (including a tour to Afghanistan), I ran the gun counter at a Cabelas for 5 years, I'm now an investigator for an insurance company (which incidentally involves a lot more contact with organised crime than you'd think). I've been a shooter and gun collector since I was a young teenager and I'd wager that I own more guns than anyone here except the armorers.

I find the older I get, and the more time I spend around "gun people", the more moderate I get. Working 5 years at the gun counter did a lot to open my eyes about how many idiots and yahoos out there own guns, and 9 months in Kandahar showed me what a society that has NO gun control really looks like.

Is there any reason an intelligent, responsible gun owner shouldn't be able to own whatever they want? Not really, no. But the reality is there's no real legal way to distinguish the responsible people for the irresponsible ones - just because you've never been convicted of a criminal offense does not mean you're responsible enough to own a machine gun.

There are plenty of things I don't like about our gun laws, but I'm actually very in favor of licensing firearms owners. Guns aren't the problem, the people who have them can be. I know that it would never fly in the States, but the fact that in Canada you need to have a license to buy or possess a firearm or ammunition is, I think, the main reason we don't have nearly the same problem with mass shootings as you do. If you're unable to pass a 6 hour safety course and unwilling to fill out a background check form, I don't want you to have a gun.

We used to have registration of long guns, which I think was a waste of time and money. It never really bothered me on a personal level, it took 5 minutes on the RCMP website to register a rifle, but I'm glad we got rid of it as a cost-saving measure. We still register handguns, which I'm still pretty indifferent to - it's not that much of a hassle on me personally and the rate of handgun ownership here is low enough that I doubt it costs much.

We don't have handgun carry in Canada, which frankly doesn't bother me. I've carried a gun enough that it doesn't hold much excitement for me anymore. I've spent all of my life living and working downtown in one of our most violent cities and never felt the need for a gun on my person, and sold plenty of guns to people I've very glad AREN'T able to carry one on my bus to work.

I don't like that we can't own .25s, .32s or short barreled handguns, I think that's foolish and arbitrary. I don't like that I can only shoot handguns on a range (or some tactical rifles if I actually owned any), I think it's way safer to be shooting 9mm in the bush than .30-06. Our laws relating to tactical rifles in general are also arbitrary and convoluted to the point of being unenforceable. I'm glad we don't have your destructive devices law - I own a 14.5mm anti-tank rifle that qualifies as such in the States and I think it's the last gun in my collection a criminal would want. We can ship guns across the country without involving a dealer, I never understood the point behind that one.

But mostly I don't like the loud and aggressive gun culture that's becoming more and more prominent here and from what I can see in the States. Guns are my hobby, you might even say my passion, but they're not my identity. I don't like that more and more being a gun owner seems to come packaged with a whole set of unrelated conservative social and political viewpoints. I think the loud "no compromise", "from my cold dead hands" rhetoric is completely unproductive and mostly just scares people who might not care about gun control into thinking we're all a bunch of irrational aggressive rednecks who probably shouldn't have guns.

Not sure if Nyles is still active, but curious to hear his thoughts in 2022, since 2016 was almost another era ago at this point.

(For the record: I also agree with about 80% of what Nyles wrote in this post, though I never weighed in at the time.)

[funkychinaman]

I found myself nodding a lot. Getting older does moderate your views, and now sending kids into schools with lockdown drills sticks in the back in my mind.

I'm also curious, what violent Canadian city is he referring to?

[MT2008]

Originally Posted by funkychinaman

I found myself nodding a lot. Getting older does moderate your views, and now sending kids into schools with lockdown drills sticks in the back in my mind.

I'm also curious, what violent Canadian city is he referring to?

At 37, I don't have kids yet, but that's next on the agenda for me. (I just got engaged - again - last year.) I'm curious to see how parenthood will shape me. Certainly, I expect that it means I'll take gun storage particularly seriously.

I certainly have had my frustrations with many on the pro-RKBA right for many years now, but that's not a new thing (even 20 years ago, I had my annoyances with them, some of which I've expressed on this forum). For almost my entire life, my politics have never been a perfect fit for the community.

I also think Stan raised another good point in 2016: Some of the "gun culture" attitudes in this country do have roots in a siege mindset that comes from treatment by the left. For my part: I do find it disgusting that liberals who will vehemently oppose stereotyping of their favorite "protected classes" (race, gender, sexual orientation, etc.) as the highest evil have precisely zero guilt about doing the same to gun owners.

[Spartan198]

It was unpopular with some here last time I said this, but I still believe trigger locks of some type, even just the bike chain type that you loop through the action, are a reasonable legal requirement. Are they foolproof? No, no security system of any kind is, but they're not priced out the ass like a multi-gun safe and it at least shows a concerted effort to prevent a firearm from being used if taken by an unauthorized party.

Agree about the siege mentality. Plus, the whole "my way or the highway" attitude that both sides have these days is going to get them nowhere fast, regardless of the agenda.