Letter: Guns and cars

Letter: Guns and cars
Date: Oct 3, 2006 9:05 AM
PUBLICATION: The Province
DATE: 2006.10.03
EDITION: Final
SECTION: Editorial
PAGE: A21
BYLINE: Tom McAuley
SOURCE: The Province
WORD COUNT: 142

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Guns and cars

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Register guns like cars? Please!

Most gun owners would jump at the chance to have their firearms
registered, if they were promised the same treatment as registered car
owners.

Car owners can buy anything they want; there is no such thing as a
restricted, prohibited or banned car. You can own as many as you want,
as powerful as you want.

No licence is required for cars, if they are not driven on public roads,
and no special permits are required to move your car from point A to B.

There are no storage requirements for cars, and you don't need a licence
to purchase gasoline. Further, the police do not charge you with a crime
if somebody steals your car.

Nobody thinks of you as a potential nut-job psycho who only wants to
kill people simply because you own a car, even though they kill 3,500
Canadians a year.

In short, the "register guns like cars" analogy is thoughtless at best,
and contributes nothing to the intelligent analysis of violent crime.

Tom McAuley,
Winnipeg