blackaeronaut Wrote:Sorry Dartz. Wish this could be changed, but Pandora's Box got opened before the outset of the American Revolution. In the Colonies, it was critical that firearms be in ready supply on the off-hand chance the Natives got pissed. Sad, but true. And the Colonists knew from what the natives told them that there was a helluva lotta land out there to be explored, surveyed, and colonized. Because of this, the Founding Fathers figured that it would be best to allow people to defend themselves, simply because 1) it would be impossible to field an army big enough and fast enough to protect everyone, and 2) when people feel their lives are at risk they generally tend to feel better when they have a dependable weapon at the ready. It would be evil to deprive people of such a thing.Sorry, BA, but that doesn't quite add up. We had even more to worry about than that in Canada: the French and Indian Wars before the British took over (with the British allying with the natives in order to take over more easily, then ignoring many of the treaties), armed invasion from the rebellious Thirteen Colonies in 1812 and 1839, the Metis "Rebellion" when the North West Territory was just beginning to be opened up, natives being displaced [size=smaller](Canadian natives really got the dirty end of the stick)[/size] and taking matters into their own hands throughout the 19th Century, and thieves and rapists throughout all of that and into the modern day.
Fast forward to the Westward Expansion. The saying is quickly coined: "God made man but Sam Colt made them equal." This is because Colt made inexpensive revolvers that were accurate and easy to care for. It was a dangerous place at the time. Native Americans outraged at being displaced by the settlers stalked the horizon, as did thieves, claim jumpers, and rapists. They preyed upon anyone that seemed the least bit weak. Even women carried guns at times - no shit, it was that bad.
And so, this is why guns are in ready supply in America, even after there is no more wilderness left to explore and the Natives have long since been pacified. Though we still have, and always will have thieves and rapists to worry about.
But Canada doesn't have anywhere near the same number of firearms fatalities and injuries, per capita, that the US does, despite Canadians having even more historical justification to carry weapons. There's some other factor that needs to be listed to explain the discrepancy. I'm tempted to say it's because of the police in Canada defending the peace rather than punishing the guilty - as another point of comparison, look at the differences between the levels of violence around the gold rushes in San Francisco (California) and the Klondike (Yukon).
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Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012