Law affects ordinary people, touching every aspect of everyone's day-to-day existence--so it is essential for Canadians to challenge the government when it passes bad laws, especially when bad laws are threatening women's lives. I've seen too many cases of women in danger being murdered in the last few years, and it is getting worse. I want real protection, not babbling from Liberal politicians!
I was born in Canada, and I have lived here all my life. Our government tells women to rely on police protection, even though the police do not provide protection before the crime. They come after the crime, and the fact that the police are chasing the criminal is supposed to protect the women by discouraging criminals.
My God, the horror that some women suffer. Look at your daily news reports, ladies! This isn't working! The police arrive after the crime, not before. They arrive in time to sort through and mop up the sickening bloody mess the violent criminal has left behind, and that is too damned late! Canada used to be a very safe place to live, but sadly, that is no longer true, especially for women. We are the preferred targets of violent criminals--abusive males, robbers, rapists, and murderers.
Bad laws are good for armed robbers, black marketeers, gun smugglers, and drug dealers. Some of we women have to deal with the rampant rage of controlling, abusive, and dangerous partners or ex-partners. Others of us have to deal with rapists, muggers, gangs, or murderers. Cases of all these types have become commonplace items in our daily news. The criminals prefer that their chosen victims be unarmed, and disarming us is what our federal government insists upon doing--as a way of discouraging the violent criminals. Does that make any sense to you?
Violent crime is soaring out of control. And worse is coming. We're only in the edge of the storm yet!
The current gun control laws were passed as Bill C-68 by Parliament in 1995. A gun registry was imposed on the people of Canada, intended, the Liberals said, to reduce the amount of violent crime in our country. The concept failed immediately, never had the intended effect, did have the reverse effect, and cost us about $2 billion in tax dollars. Now Canada's violent crime rates are like those of the United States. Looking at all the states that touch our provinces and territories, the rates are about the same on both sides of the border.
All women are vulnerable to violent crime. Violent crimes that the police can't get to until after the fact is what drove our sisters in America to demand permits to carry concealed handguns, which they now have. No one, not women, not the Liberal politicians, not the bureaucrats who refuse us the Type 3 authorizations to carry that we need, knows who the next woman victim will be!
Getting the knowledge and proper training in how to use a firearm safely and well is not a frightening experience for a woman. American women who have been properly trained (like our many sisters in law enforcement) in safe firearm use and the relevant laws are permitted to carry concealed handguns. Those women have proven worthy of the trust given to them. They do nothing wrong or illegal while owning and carrying their handguns. They are normal people who have families, businesses and recreational interests. And in each state (nearly all of them) that allows a woman to carry a concealed firearm, the violent crime rates have dropped considerably and are continuing to drop. If American women can do that for their society, we Canadian women can do it in Canada.
Were the consequences for women of Bill-C-68 even considered before it was passed? Did the federal Liberal Party and its then Justice Minister, Allan Rock have a conscience? Is this the ever-increasing violence the kind of society the Liberal government wants to give to the women of Canada?
As a woman, I find our gun control system grossly offensive and depressing. Not only do Canadian women have to contend with violent crime, we are also handicapped by the firearms control laws. How many female victims would still be alive today if they had had access to firearms for the protection of their lives from criminal violence? That is a question that can't be answered by crime statistics tables. An example: What if you were a retired policewoman, living alone on a small pension in a very bad section of the city? You are known as an ex-cop and not liked. Obviously, your life is in danger. Of course you want permission to carry a concealed handgun for protection, and you have the right to apply for that. But the bureaucrat who receives your application will refuse you. That's guaranteed--no Type 3 authorizations to carry (ATCs) have been issued since the C-68 firearms control system came into effect! He refuses to issue a Type 3 ATC to you, simply because bureaucrats have decided not to issue any. That is outrageous and illegal.
Look at another possibility. Some men think they "own" a woman. In their view, the woman exists for the comfort and convenience of the man. Quite often this type of men abuses "his" woman sexually, physically and mentally. Fortunately, this type of man is fairly rare, but as we all know, they do exist! They are the reason we have shelters for battered women.
The most dangerous time for a woman in an abusive relationship is when she decides to leave it. Restraint orders mean nothing to a violent man in a state of rampant rage. He wants his woman back! If he can't have her, by God, then no one else is going to have her! He's going to threaten her and anyone else who helps her. He's going to stalk her, and he may be going to kill her. She is defenseless and unarmed. If he's suicidal he's probably going to kill anyone who gets in his way before he kills himself. And because the bureaucrat said no, she cannot protect herself or her children from his criminal violence.
In such a case, a woman's life is threatened. Why can't anyone help her? Because the law is not on her side. First she must apply for a firearms license. When she does that, the firearms control bureaucracy will notify the man she is running from that she has done that. But the bureaucrat will not issue her license until the mandatory 28-day waiting period is over. By that time, it may be too late. Until she gets the license, it is a criminal offence for her to be in possession of a firearm.
In effect the government guarantees the safety of each violent and abusive man for at least 28 days. By doing that, it is telling him that it is safe to attack her during this period. And that is disgusting! This government has no respect for the welfare or safety of an abused woman. The law should provide an exception for them, and it does not. It ignores their problems.
Who exactly is it that wishes women to be unarmed? Is it the bureaucrat ? Does he have this kind of power over women? Does this mean a bureaucrat can make the law out of his own prejudiced brain? If he is refusing every application, he is not decision-making. He has made a new law, and is applying it. He has no authority to do that! Do bureaucrats care about the safety of Canadian women? Apparently not!
ENOUGH! The governments gun control system does not stop criminal violence. It increases violence, because the laws disarm the victim instead of the criminal. Canada's violent crime rates are out of control and getting rapidly worse!
Women everywhere have the right to live free of the fear of violent crime, the way we used to, not that many years ago. Women are human beings. We have the right to life, security, and dignity. We shouldn't have to be afraid.
How does any man, especially a bureaucrat or Member of Parliament, dare to advise, expect and force defenseless women to submit to vicious criminal violence, including murder? Not one of them knows who will be the next woman victim until it is too damned late! That is today's danger to a teen-aged girl, a woman, and far too often to the woman's child. TOO DAMNED LATE is just not good enough!
You know that no one can predict the precise time of a crime. It is time for Canadian women in danger to arm themselves, as American women have. No, I am not being unreasonable, I'm being realistic. Our government has disarmed nearly everyone -except violent criminals. They are still armed and dangerous!
If a woman can protect herself , she has a much better chance of survival. More--she has a chance to end her attackers string of violent crimes by arresting him. Or she may simply frighten him away--screaming won't have that effect, but a snub-nosed .38 usually does!
Why did our government outlaw the entire range of Ladysmith handguns that were specifically designed by Smith & Wesson to be used by women protecting human life from criminal violence? These small handguns are ideal for a woman, but now they are all "prohibited firearms" that can't even be imported into Canada. Don't tell me that the law intended to keep small handguns out of the hands of criminals. Media reports tell me that the criminals are having no difficulty in getting as many illegal small handguns as they want. The law isn't controlling the criminals, it's protecting them!
I do not expect that a majority of Canadian women will apply for, and get, a Type 3 ATC, even when they become readily available. But I'll tell you this: if even a very small percentage of women take the training and get those ATC's, the criminals of Canada are going to be afraid of all women. That is what happened in the U.S., because the criminals could not be sure which women could protect themselves, and which women were safe to attack. That small number of armed women will hold their new shield in front of all women!