Short ‘n’ Stubby: Ms. Manx takes aim for gun control

Ms. Manx is, of course, all in favor of gun control; she remembers the Montréal Massacre only too well. She wants to see the long-gun registry stay; it may have something to do with the fact that long guns are the overwhelming heavyweights when it comes to gunshot deaths in Canada. So it heartens her up to read a few things that seem to indicate a balance tipping in Law-Law Land, and which may just be the magic bullets that kill the SupposiTory attempt to scrap the long-gun registry:

The Toronto Star‘s Thomas Walkom, a long-time “skeptic” of gun control, has read the RCMP report and changed his mind. Seems that pro-gun talking points are simply no match for facts and figures, especially ones endorsed by police chiefs nationwide. Blam!

Another Star columnist, Heather Mallick, has let her frustration with the pro-gun, anti-registry rural New Democrat MPs boil over. She points out that the NDP, once the party of feminist progress, has become mired in cushiness and nicey-nicey bullshit. Why is it suddenly so important for MPs to curry favor with Con-deluded rural voters? Why can’t they educated them as to why the gun registry is actually good for gun owners? Among other things, it can help get a stolen gun back to its rightful owner, just as motor-vehicle registration can do with cars. Ah, but such talking points would mean stepping out of their comfort zone and actually risking a debate with those voters, instead of just going the easy route of kissing ass. Mallick concludes, on a pessimistic note: “The corpses of the Montreal Massacre are silent and the yapping gun-freedom brigade is so very loud.”

But if the corpses of the Massacre are silent, their living relatives are not. At the top of the Globe‘s letters-to-the-editor section today, there’s a beautiful message from Suzanne Edward, who lost her daughter that day, urging NDP leader Jack Layton to stand by the promises he made when he founded the White Ribbon Campaign against violence. There’s also a letter from Ward M. Eagen, of Toronto, who points out that Tommy Douglas, the founder of the NDP, was an early gun-control advocate, disappointed in half measures and compromises, who said, “Some day, we will have the techniques to register all firearms.” Those techniques are in effect now. Eagen also points out that the NDP was a rural party from its inception. If being strongly pro-control didn’t hurt Tommy Douglas’s popularity with his rural Saskatchewan base, shouldn’t that tell Jack Layton and his fellow NDP MPs something?

Well, some of those rural MPs are listening–if not to pro-control voices from the base, then certainly to those of their enemies. And one of them, Charlie Angus, is now so incensed with the Tories that he’s changing his stance–he’s now likely to vote in favor of keeping the long-gun registry. Angus is an influential voice among rural and northern Ontario New Democrats, so his backlash against the Tories is very heartening to this little red-haired wild-rose girl from up North.

Montreal Simon seems to share Ms. Manx’s hopeful view of Charlie’s change of heart, and he serves it up with plenty of amusement on the side.

And if you’re wondering what might have changed Charlie’s mind, here’s a video full of clues. It features a horse with two asses, one of which is facing the camera:

That’s James Bezan, a Tory, getting nasty toward the NDP–the party that holds the hammer when it comes to whether the long-gun registry stays or goes. The horse’s name is Woody. Doesn’t Woody look like he can’t wait to buck that buffoon and drop a load on him?

And finally, for those who want to help the NDP get its act together on this one, here’s a Facebook group you’ll want to join, and some e-mail addresses you’ll want to use.