Canadian Gun Control: Is It Going Too Far - Essay Example

No one in Canada can have a gun below 18 years of age. Above 12000 licenses of the guns were either refused or confiscated by the federal government from 2005 to 2009 because of the people who had “a history of violence, mental illness, the applicant is a potential risk to himself/herself or others, unsafe firearm use and storage, drug offences, and providing false information” (Canada and the World, 2007). In addition to that, every individual that acquires a firearm in Canada is performed extensive background checks upon.

The number of such checks performed to date far exceeds 59132 (About.com, 2011). Gun-control policy is an extremely subjective way of controlling the crime, and Canada’s gun-control has gone too far. Gun control is a waste of taxpayer dollars and it complicates the rights and freedoms of Canadian citizens who own firearms. By extending the gun control strategies and programs, the Canadian government is acting more like an over-concerned parent for whom the son always remains a child no matter how much he ages.

Canadian nation is quite sensible. Restricting the sale of guns is like baby-sitting every individual in the Canadian society. Such measures cause little deprivation to the actual criminals. The true victims of the gun-control policy are the innocent citizens that are hence denied the right to protect themselves as well as their properties. The true criminals are least concerned about the sources of their firearms because they are law-breakers. When a criminal can rob a bank, having a licensed handgun is the least important thing for him.

When some child makes inappropriate use of the gun, people start blaming the government for having given that child the liberty to purchase the gun instead of holding the child accountable for his/her act. But the question is; Is the gun the only weapon that the child can use to cause the violence? Certainly not! There are myriad of tools easily available in the market that can be used to harm others. Such tools include but are not limited to scissors, knives, nail-trimmers, blades, raisers, hammers, saws and nails.

Killing with a knife is much convenient and quicker way than murdering with the gun. Besides, using a gun to kill a person requires a lot of training and experience which is not at all required in killing the person with a knife. Disallowing the sale of gun is not justified unless the sale of any of these tools is not disallowed. Risk can be minimized, but it cannot be altogether avoided. The government is not making Canada any safer place to live in by controlling the sale and purchase of guns.

Besides, the gun-control policy is undoubtedly against the Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedom. “This action is a direct thrust against the corpus of human rights standards and each day that it stands unchallenged is a threat to the entire structure of human rights and thus to democracy itself” (veteransagainstguncontrol.comoj.com, n.d.). We should learn lessons from others. Let’s take the case of the US as an example. Since the time Barack Obama has been elected the President of the US, the sale of gun in the US has reached its apogee.

The frenzy of the gun purchase was primarily fueled by the fears of registries. At that time, the activists with the anti-gun viewpoint caused much hue and cry foreseeing the wave of violence that would ensue with the guns being in the irresponsible hands. Over the years, so