There was an interesting social dynamic when the federal government introduced long gun registration in Canada. Many did not register their guns. I registered some and not others, with the expectation of reason prevailing over time.

Federal teams infiltrated every part of the country to assist gun owners to register. They made out the form, took a picture for the PAL Possession and Acquisition License and did everything but lick the stamp to send it off.

I think many citizens went along with the charade for the same reasons as mine: it was the law but more importantly it allowed me to buy ammunition and buy and sell guns and go afield without fear of carrying an unregistered gun.

For all the bravado of "from these cold hands" it was easier to go with the law, to have the pleasure of the shooting sports without being the criminal that registration had made us, and I think most Americans would, too.

I have never seen a conservation officer in the woods, near water-fowling or on rivers, lakes or streams. The same may be said for the wild open spaces of the US. But for most hunting I suspect they're there. And there's the Patriot Act.

That Act deferred to unwarranted fear and subordinated every sacred human value to it. The US debate of gun control is another dissolving phantasmagoria that has the appearance of going the same way.






Last edited by King Brown; 02/27/13 09:03 AM.