{"id":600,"date":"2005-12-08T03:34:00","date_gmt":"2005-12-08T08:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/?p=600"},"modified":"2005-12-08T03:34:00","modified_gmt":"2005-12-08T08:34:00","slug":"just-shoot-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/?p=600","title":{"rendered":"Just Shoot Me"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>(Warning: I know this is going to generate 50 comments from angry right wingers)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m in shock. Paul Martin has come out with a policy that is:<br \/>a) bold<br \/>b) smart<br \/>c) politically savvy<\/p>\n<p>I was beginning to worry that the entire Liberal platform would consist of extending current policies to 2030 and re-announcing projects which had already been re-announced in various Ralph Goodale budgets. But it looks like Martin actually has something new to say &#8211; he&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/servlet\/story\/RTGAM.20051208.whandguns08\/BNStory\/National\/\">proposing a complete ban on handguns<\/a>. This one really caught me off guard, especially since Grant Mitchell had floated the idea about weakening the gun registry at one of his &#8220;made in Alberta&#8221; policy sessions last month.<\/p>\n<p>Gun control has always been one of the issues that drove me towards the Liberal Party. I <a href=\"http:\/\/calgarygrit.blogspot.com\/2004\/12\/fiery-debate-well-it-seems-liberal-mp.html\">support the gun registry <\/a>and would probably support a complete ban on all guns within major city limits if anyone ever proposed that. So this is a policy I can really get behind and I think a lot of Canadians in big cities, especially Toronto, will strongly support it.<\/p>\n<p>The fact of the mater is, there is no reason for anyone to own a handgun that won&#8217;t be covered by an exception to this law (ie. police officers and target shooters). There&#8217;s a reason that I&#8217;m not allowed to own a collection of antique grenade launchers. There&#8217;s a reason I can&#8217;t own an assault riffle to hunt rabbits in my backyard. And the same principle should apply to hand guns.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, I&#8217;m aware this won&#8217;t affect a ton of people. And I&#8217;m aware this won&#8217;t stop gun violence in Toronto. But it&#8217;s a good start and, unlike most of the policies announced so far this campaign, I really don&#8217;t see a downside to it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Warning: I know this is going to generate 50 comments from angry right wingers) I&#8217;m in shock. Paul Martin has come out with a policy that is:a) boldb) smartc) politically savvy I was beginning to worry that the entire Liberal platform would consist of extending current policies to 2030 and re-announcing projects which had already [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}