The Canadian proponents of Fortress North America want you to think about the prospect of speedier passage across the Canada-U.S. border for goods and people. They propose that we "thin" the border between the two countries and "fatten" it around Canada and the U.S. against the rest of the world.
The proponents are fond of calling up images of the ease of passage for motorists travelling between EU countries such as France and Germany. There, drivers are not required to stop at customs posts when crossing the border.
What the Fortress fanciers don't tell you is that the governments of European countries that removed border controls spent years assuring themselves in negotiations that they all had similar regulations for hazardous products before they opened their frontiers to one another. They weren't prepared to open the gates if one country had a more lax regime for hazardous products than the others.
The problem for Canadians is that we live next door to the gun capital of the world. In the U.S., home of the cherished Second Amendment, that gives Americans the right to bear arms, a wide range of handguns and high-powered, rapid-fire weapons, are legal products. Americans possess more than two hundred million guns. In some states such as Virginia, high-powered weapons, that are not legal in Canada, can be purchased with ease at gun shows.
Some U.S. states such as Massachusetts have much tougher gun laws than Virginia and other states from the old Confederacy. But those laws are of little use. Gun owners can just drive into Massachusetts with their weapons in tow. A high proportion of the gun crimes in New York City are committed with weapons brought into the city from Virginia.
Once, to observe the American gun culture up close, I enrolled in a gun-training course offered by Smith and Wesson in Springfield, Massachusetts. Many of the participants in the course were from out of state and they brought their firearms with them.
On the other hand, I've seen Canadian Customs officials seize the guns of Americans crossing into Canada. On one occasion at the crossing from Calais, Maine to St. Stephen, New Brunswick, I watched a Canadian official explain to the members of an American family that they'd have to leave their weapon with Customs and then pick it up on their return trip home.
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Canada already has a serious gun problem. Over half the guns used in the commission of crimes in Canada have been illegally smuggled into the country from the United States. Most of the weapons smuggled from the U.S. are high-quality, semi-automatic handguns. Smugglers commonly place the guns in hidden compartments in their vehicles when they cross the border. Some duct-tape them to their bodies.
"Thinning" the border would be an invitation to criminals to import many more guns into Canada. Opening the border to the free passage of motorists with no customs stops -- EU style -- would effectively mean that Virginia's guns laws would apply in Canada. Today's Canadian gun problem would become a gun epidemic.
Presumably the attraction of Fortress North America is that crossing the border will be easier and quicker. But easier and quicker border crossings mean more U.S. illegal guns in Canada, the easier the crossing the greater the flow of weapons. That's axiomatic.
Of course, we could always try to convince Americans to abrogate the Second Amendment and join the civilized world on the matter of guns....
I suppose Laxer wants the U.S. to get with the program, abolish the Second Amendment, and join those nice countries like North Korea, Cuba, and the Peoples' Republic of China, who prohibit civilians from owning guns. While they're at it, why not chuck out the First amendment, too? Laxer's beloved authoritarian Workers' Paradises have no use for it, either.
The PRC is an interesting example of how the Laxerites have their blinders on, when it comes to gun-running. The bulk of the weapons now being used by gangs in Canada, including native rez gangs (Mohawks, Indian Posse) are supplied courtesy of China's Norinco Industries. These include fully-automatic weapons and <105mm barrelled handguns, which have been absolutely illegal for civilians in Canada to own (since 1977 and 1991, respectively), along with AK-47 and Mac knockoffs, which are illegal (under Federal law) to import into the U.S. These enter our gang-ridden ports in containers. You can thank Jean 'Adscam' Chretien for this, since he disbanded the Ports Police, for cost reasons. Chretien also refused to arm border guards for--you guessed it--cost reasons. However, the Liberals blew nearly $2B on the Firearms Act...
Maybe it's time for Laxer to consider moving to the Peoples' Republic of China, where he can live in the comfort of knowing that his neighbors are prohibited from owning firepower heavier than .177 pellet guns, and no pesky things like the First, Second and Fourth Amendments. China's Communist Party is thus able to maintain an iron grip, without fear of dissent, even while it supplies the world's gangs with guns.
It seems like every time I see footage of an international conflict both sides are firing AK47's (made in Russia), not M16's. "America is the gun capital of the world" statement needs to be challenged.
Regardless of the 'feelings' of gun enthusiasts, spreading our cheeks even wider for the Americans at this point in our respective histories can only be seen as foolish (or whorish) in the extreme.
@RDP, a lot of AK-47 knockoffs are also cranked out with hand tools in places like Waziristan, by illiterate guys in rags and sandals, squatting on mud floors. This also goes for ammunition: you can make nitrocellulose and lead styphnate without even taking highschool chemistry. Modern CNG equipment and people capable of, oh, cooking meth make this even easier. This is something the effete Laxers and Laytons can't wrap their heads around--that it isn't just Firearms Fairies and Gun Gnomes in magical U.S. arms factories making guns.
@Pope Teddywang, perhaps you prefer getting it up the butt from the PRC, which not only supply our gangs with full-auto weapons for their public shootouts, but have also flooded our country with Triad members (including associates of billionaire Li Ka-Shing, who owns a fifth of downtown Vancouver), dangerous products, anti-Tibetan and Falun Gong spies, and has decimated our manufacturing sector with a combination of low-cost (including slave) labour and an artificially-devalued currency. This is something to ask Jack Layton and Olivia Chow--with their very dubious connections to PRC-based business lobbies--as they try to make Canadians think Canada-Columbia free trade is a real job killer and human rights issue. It seems metaphoric butt-rape is acceptable, when the perp has the phrase 'People's Republic' before its name.
You are assuming that civilian gun ownership causes crime or other problems, which is certainly plausible but is not supported by scientific analysis. Both the National Academy of Sciences and the CDC have reviewed the relevant science and found no credible evidence that private guns cause violent crime or suicide and no evidence that any kind of gun control works. This was published in 2004 and 2005.
The rest of the world should join America in having a firearms policy that is based on modern scientific fact.