the biggest factor in poloitics is what I call the ''pissoff'' factor.The government calculates based on polls, what the effects of any piece of legisalation might be at the polls, and if the benefits outweigh the negatives, they proceed.Morality or practical benefit have little or nothing to do with it.They know the firearms community is a shrinking number and mainly in rural areas, so their votes are by and large expendable.
Wereally don't represent any significant threat to them at all, and conversely, crime is a big issue and the government must be seen as ''doing something''or they face a voter backlash.It's politically correct to be in favour of''gun control'' although very few people who make that claim could define exactly what''gun control'' actually means.They have no idea of what legislation we already have on the books, or what laws govern shooters, or what education programs we have.All they know is they ''don't like guns''and see no reason for anyone actually owning one.
Hunting licences are on the decline as it has fallen out of political favour- the fact that hunting is far less ecologically distruptive than farming or that it is a valuable wildlife management tool has no impact on what the general urban populace thinks.Nor does the fact that some of us prefer to eat naturally grown protein that has not been fed a chemical diet of hormones.
Socially, hunting and fishing has historically involved father son/ daughter relationships and that is an area that has broken down as we moved away from an agrarian society-and to the detrement of family. reationships.
But- the fact remains that the public perception in urban areas differs significantly from that of rural areas , and as the rural populations migrate to unban areas, so does the public perception of firearms change from recreational use to the use of firearms in the hands of criminals.And as long as the non firearms owning community is content to be pacified into thinking registering firearms will have an impact on criminal use, we will continue to see more restrictive legislation on firearms ownership.The only law that criminals are going to respect is a minimum non concurent prison term for the posession of any firearm in the commission of any crime. The word on the street needs to be''use a gun and you're doing serious time''Saddling hunters and target shooters with useless paperwork and multi-billion dollar registration programs may make the non firearms owning community feel good, but it hasn't saved one life-nor impacted the flood of illegally smuggled weapons flooding across our borders.The fact that I cannot import a rifle barrel for a single shot rifle across the border is proof of just how out of touch legislators are
