Quote:
Originally Posted by zombiejesus
Good luck with the club!
I don't have anything against rifles and shotguns, but the world would be a much better place without the private ownership of handguns. There is no legitimate reason to own a handgun beyond killing another human being.
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Well, I have to say, I wholeheartedly and respectfully have to disagree on this one. There are
many thousands of Canadians who are avid pistol shooters, and who enjoy the sport safely every day. There are many different disciplines, from the olympic and common wealth games variety, to cowboy action shooting with period appropriate handguns, to IPSC/IDPA/PPC action style shooting.
Canadian laws are designed to prohibit conceal carry style guns (e.g. Super compacts or 'mouse guns'), which aren't terribly accurate and some people feel they have limited sporting use.
Lets say you wanted to have a handgun and take it to a club to have some fun or practice for a competition, you would have to do the following:
1) Take the restricted and non-restricted safety courses ($240 and an entire weekend)
2) Wait three weeks for the OPP to return your test results
3) Send your paperwork to the RCMP with $80
4) Wait 28 days (minimum), have the RCMP interview two references and your spouse/GF
5) Go to gun store, choose a gun, pay for gun($!!!!!!!).
6) Wait for the transfer to be completed. Wait for a temporary permit to take it home to be issued.
7) Take gun home. Trigger locked and in a locked case.
8) Join a gun club (full membership clubs run about $300-600 in ontario, also many require many months to be a full member)
9) Take a club level safety course ($80-100, about 5 hours and 5 separate observation shoots)
10) Wait for club / OPP to process your transport permit
11) Go make holes in paper.
The average time from course to being able to go to a club on your own with your own gun seems to be about 6 months. The thousands of people who are responsible, legal handgun shooters clearly are some pretty responsible and patient people if you ask me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by zombiejesus
As for legal gun ownership vs violent crimes... look at Switzerland! A large % of their population has a fully automatic rifle and a sealed pack of ammo in their home as part of their reserve forces yet they have a miniscule murder rate.
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This right here is the
BIG point:
Controlling objects instead of people does NOT work, because it CANNOT work
Do you think a criminal who is about to commit a murder cares about having a valid gun license? Nope.
How about a criminal using an illegal switch-blade style knife to mug a little old lady cares that the knife is illegal? Not so much.
Criminals commiting crimes?
thats crazy talk!
How do you control people? With appropriate laws and meaningful sentences.
And to ZombieJesus: I would like to extend a personal invitation to get you out shooting handguns. I will even provide the ammunition on my own dime. I think you should totally give it a shot (Pun 100% intended).
