Canada’s new gun laws nothing more than fine tuning

KAMLOOPS — Can you hear it — the exasperation from gun owners at Tuesday’s unveiling of new federal firearms legislation?

The new rules will do nothing to increase public safety, while targeting law-abiding gun owners, says Canada’s National Firearms Association. It’s a first step to bringing back the long-gun registry, they say.

Add quite a few weak-kneed Liberal backbenchers scared out of their pants at the thought of losing the so-called “rural” gun vote, and the anti-gun types who say the bill doesn’t go far enough, and the gun-control debate is once again at full volume.

It’s all a lot of noise about a little tinkering.

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Bill C-71 will boost background checks and make sure people who purchase guns have proven they’ve had proper training.

Why shouldn’t t buying and using restricted firearms be closely scrutinized? Why not tighten up the definitions of what’s restricted and what’s prohibited? Why not dig deeper on background checks?

But cut through the woe-is-me-rhetoric and the new rules aren’t much more than some fine tuning.

Take, for example, bringing back sales tracking. Most, or many gun retailers already record Possession and Acquisition Licence details when they sell firearms — at least the store where I bought mine sure does.

The new legislation will make the keeping of such records mandatory, for 20 years.

Tracking sales isn’t the same thing as a gun registry. It just isn’t.

But how about this for an idea?

What if the gun folks stopped trashing anti-gun folks as ignorant, and the anti-gun folks stopped assuming gun people are all trigger-happy rednecks?

The new laws make life a little more inconvenient for gun owners, but not much. They simply aim at making it harder for crooks to get guns, and to help the police solve more cases. They don’t paint gun owners as bad guys.

That’s a good thing. So why don’t we all just turn down the volume?

I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.