Voting with a Bullet

There has been debate for years in both Canada and the U.S. over the right for citizens to bear arms.  Rest assured, the debate won't go away any time soon.  And while most people pee themselves over the thought of people having the right to own weapons without registration with the government, I thought I would offer my two cents and hope to spread some common sense on the subject, coming from a regular common man.

I have a few issues with our gun registry, some are very practical others more fanciful but all important in my opinion.  

First, it is another government program/intrusion into our lives which has cost a lot of money.  I believe the figure I heard was approximately $5 billion to get the registry going, which tax payers had to pay for out of pocket.

Second, we need to look at the sources of what crime was committed.  In some cases a crime committed for reasons of jealousy, revenge, murder/suicide etc will probably occur whether the gun is registered or not.  People will do evil, heinous things with any weapon they can get there hand on and there isn't much we can do about it.  Gun registry won't deter criminals who shoot out of rage.

Third, the gun registry targets law-abiding citizens more than criminals.  I personally know of one citizen who had some pretty interesting, old, collectible type guns that he had to get rid of once the registry was put in place.  I can't remember the exact reason but I believe it had something to do with the size of the firearm (it was tiny, you could conceal it inside a boot.).  That is just plain wrong. 

Fourth, just as in drug criminalization, when you criminalize something, you create more crimes and criminals.  I have seen multiple bus advertisements telling citizens to get illegal guns off the street.  Most criminals, who plan to do something illegal such as murder, assault, B&E etc will most likely procure a gun illegally.  If they are willing to do illegal acts, chances are they are willing to purchase an illegal weapon, registry or not...
I understand the need and the desire to make citizens safe, but just as in drug criminalization, a gun registry won't reduce crime long term. 

My last reasons are more fantasy than anything but the reality was very real for our ancestors and for other people on this planet right now.  The fact of the matter is, we do not know suffering like others do and for all it's faults, the government does not typically threaten our very existence.  But some governments do, even as we speak, and citizens should have the right to protect their life. 

The U.S. protected the rights of the citizen to bear arms.  We need to remember that at the time, they had just finished fighting a long bloody struggle against a king who was content on reducing their liberty.  If it were not for guns, the Americans could not have won their independence.  This is very important!  The British moved against towns known to hold weapons, and tried to seize them.  Why?  Because the British knew that the Americans would have no way to fight back without those stores of weapons.

Just because we live in a time of personal safety from our government does not mean that at SOME time that can't change.  Just because we aren't fighting off foreign invasions right now doesn't mean that we won't ever have to.  I know, it sounds far fetched but if it ever happened, would we not benefit by having our citizens available to defend themselves?  Should they not have the right do defend their homes and possessions?

So many of our laws affect a huge percentage of the population when it is supposed to be designed to affect less than 1%.  Those are laws that are not worth the paper they are written on.