It’s sort of baffling to me how so many Americans want to reshape this country to look like other countries. I mean, if those countries are so great, why not just go there?
It’s not just about one thing, either. Taking an idea that another nation has implemented that you think is good is normal. I’m talking about how some want to reshape so many aspects of our country to mimic Europe or other Western nations that clearly lack a lot of our fundamental freedoms.
Like gun rights.
But it’s not unique to the US.
Recently, a piece showed up in my feed about how New Zealand and Canada can learn from one another on guns.
Canada and New Zealand share an important approach to gun control: both countries view firearms as a privilege, not a right.
The similarities don’t end there, either. Both have strong and legitimate firearms-owning communities, and both have problems with self-harm and rapidly changing technologies.
They also face similar threats, including young people and violent extremism, and rising firearm violence in general. Both have a tragic history of mass shootings.
But both can learn from each other. Canada’s recent Mass Casualty Commission, which followed an armed rampage in Nova Scotia in 2020 that left 22 people dead, highlighted the dangers of ignoring warning signs of gender-based violence and the need for better community policing.
Similarly, New Zealand’s royal commission inquiry into the 2019 Christchurch terror attacks has lessons for Canada around the challenges of identity-based extremism.
With amendments to New Zealand’s firearms control laws before parliament now, here are five broad aspects of the Canadian experience New Zealand policymakers should consider.
These suggestions are, frankly, awful from a rights perspective.
One is mandatory reporting, where gun store or range workers are required to report anyone who does anything that might even hint that they’re going to harm themselves or someone else. On the surface, this sounds fine, but with my dark sense of humor, I’m sure I’d be on first-name basis with the entire local police department within a week, all without any good reason.
Other suggestions include “ghost gun” regulation, which is idiotic on the surface because you’re never going to stop people from making their own firearms no matter what laws you put in place, and deep restrictions on handguns.
Of course, we know that the handgun restrictions in Canada haven’t actually worked out particularly well. Neither did one other suggestion, a gun registry.
And here’s where you know you shouldn’t take the author seriously.
A robust gun registry
One thing made clear to me from visits to multiple Canadian police agencies was the need for New Zealand’s gun registration system to rise above politics.
Anytime someone is talking about something inherently political and says people need to “rise above politics,” what they really mean is for you to shut up and do as you’re told.
Forget your rights. Forget whether or not any of this will work. Forget all the ways it will screw over law-abiding folks and do nothing to criminals. Forget all of that.
Instead, just do what we demand because we demand it.
Look, these things that the author thinks Canada and New Zealand can learn from one another are all things that are failures where they’ve been implemented. That’s the legacy of gun control in general: Abject failure.
Read the full article here
