Resistance is futile
By Scott Carpenter
web
posted April 10, 2000
"We are the Borg. Your uniqueness shall be added to the collective. You shall become one with the hive. Resistance is futile..."
OK. I admit that's not exactly how the Canadian government's newest round of anti-firearms propaganda is worded but it's pretty close nonetheless. If you live in a more rural part of the Canadian frontier you may know what I'm talking about. It seems that of late, whenever I turn on the radio, I am bombarded with "blessings from the state" in the form of public service announcements regarding the next phase of our new firearms law; the licensing of all gun owners for the purposes of registering all firearms and the tracking of ammunition purchases.
To the average Canuck this may seem innocuous enough. It's just the government making sure that everyone is well informed about this new law, yes? We wouldn't want anyone getting caught with their proverbial pants down, would we?
Maybe, but as I always say: if you scratch a good intention (or for that matter a public service announcement) you're bound to find some statist rhetoric. I mean for crying out loud, "consider the source!"
The first thing that bothers me about this announcement is its frequency. Every bloody hour on the hour this thing comes blaring across the speakers of every radio in the country side. Actually, that's not exactly true... they don't blare so much as they creep up on you and try to pretend that they're there to help you. They remind me of some guy you've just met who is a little over friendly - and then - you find out he's an Amway salesman.
And that's what bothers me the most (other than the fact that my own money is being used to socially engineer me) is that the messages are so damned matter of fact and friendly. It's almost like listening to Bill Dance on TNN talk about kids and water safety or which jerk bait is best for bass during a full moon in August. If you've ever been on a long bus trip and had to sit next to someone who smelled bad (but the bus was full and you couldn't move) you know the feeling I'm talking about. You don't want to be rude to the smelly bugger (after all he's friendly enough and the other passengers would chastise you) but good god... the stench is enough to drive you nuts! So how do you tell the government and those Canadians who think they're doing us redneck, backwards gun owners a favour by playing this thing repeatedly, day in and day out, to bugger off? I mean, for land's sake, I'm starting to feel like I'm being conditioned.
Let's face it, the fact of the matter is the vast majority of rural Canadians and gun owners know about this law and its basic requirements (I say basic because the code on this baby is a few hundred pages long). The fact that most will not comply but would rather hide their guns and stock pile ammo is a sign that the message is pointless. Even the RCMP predict that there will only be a 10 per cent compliance rate. If this is true then one has to wonder why the government would bother spending all the bucks on a pointless add campaign?
Simple actually. They plan on enforcing this stupid law and they don't want to be held responsible for any impending (and high) levels of non compliance and thus arrest. They want to be able to say "We told them. We ran messages on the radio, the TV and every other place we could buy space. It's not our fault all these guys are being thrown in jail and having their property confiscated. It's there own fault for not complying. We warned them."
This, of course, is the crux of the issue. The government does not want to be painted as the bad guys when the feces hits the fan (and the feces will fly). The responsibility for jailing 5 per cent to 10 per cent of the population and the failure of this law in general must be shouldered by gun owners and not the politicians, bureaucrats and special interest groups who spawned it.
In fact it's not gun owners who are being conditioned at all. Most have already made up their minds one way or the other on this issue. It's the general public in these places that is being toyed with... those who have no interest or connection to firearms. Why? Because these are the people who will make a stink and sink this law for good if they see and feel that the government is exercising to much authority over their fellow citizens (or themselves). The Liberals and the bureaucrats who benefit in one way, shape or form from this boondoggle can stand to lose the votes of a few firearms owners, they cannot however, afford to have general public opinion turned against them: thus the "We warned them!" strategy.
I mean - who can argue with that? Plenty of warning equals plenty of justice right? Yeah, right! Can we say "Blaming the victim." boys and girls?
Maybe it's time to start reminding Canadians that the government legislated these people into criminals when it passed this law almost 6 or 7 years ago. In short, the Liberals and their cronies were the initiators of force. Blaming gun owners for their impending prosecution is like blaming the battered wife for her latest beating because she knew that she wasn't supposed to breath while her husband was watching the game; that was the rule and she broke it. By the governments logic her beating is then justified.
The non compliance of gun owners is a form of passive and non violent resistance towards a tyrannical and unjust law. In that sense I guess gun owners are a lot smarter than our elected (and nonelected) officials have given them credit for. They know that once their guns are gone there is nothing left to stand between them and a state gone mad with power. I hope the rest of the population has the wisdom and foresight to see it the same way.
As for me. Well... resistance is necessary. 
Scott Carpenter is the editor of Liberty Free Press and a regular contributor to Enter Stage Right.