The mass shooting in Las Vegas was terrible and now the one that has happened in Texas is also tragic.
The Onion News, being a satirical media outlet, published an article with an interesting title in response to the Vegas shooting. It was titled “This isn’t about gun control we refuse to pass or health care we are continuing to gut.”
The Onion article brings up an interesting question about the differences between the United States and Canada’s attitude towards access to mental heath care and access to firearms ownership.
The truth is easy and unvetted access to firearms and difficult access to mental health care will create a gun violenceproblem.
The United States is different than Canada when it comes to guns. One thing that is true throughout human history is that governments have a tendency to turn into dictatorships and peaceful societies are finite.
The people who founded the United States knew this and they also needed every colonist to have a gun to stop the British from taking over again.
Thus came into existence the Second Amendment. The American tradition of making a government subordinate to the preservation of individual liberty and giving its citizens the right to protect their individual liberty goes back to ancient Greece and the writings of Aristotle.
Between the requirements of the American revolutionary period and the philosophy that the American constitution is based upon it shouldn’t be surprising to anyone why the Americans have the Second Amendment and why some aim to preserve it.
In Canada we don’t have such a passionate and controversial premise that allows Canadians to own guns. In Canada our gun issues are more logistical then anything.
Currently the Canadian mental healthcare system is government owned. It can take months to see a psychiatrist and if you are one, the incentive of much higher pay attracts many professionals to the United States.
Psychiatrists are the only ones legally allowed to prescribe medication while also having the competence and knowledge to treat, cure and identify mental illness.
Therapists can not prescribe any medication and their level of qualifications vary greatly.
General practitioners can also prescribe medication but they are not qualified to treat, cure and identify mental illness. Access to mental health care is a problem and privatization is the answer. Canada needs more good doctors back and rationing mental health care is not a good idea in the times we live in now.
When it comes to guns in Canada we do have a problem of Canadians being unjustly jailed for not agreeing with the Canadian government. For example if a gun owner wants to own a CZ-58 with Molon Labe inscribed on their gunthey receive a mandatory minimum jail sentence. If a gun owner wants to bring a handgun into dangerous and remote areas of Canada to have some sort of backup bear protection they get a mandatory minimum jail sentence.
The idea that shooting an AR-15 on a farm instead of at a restricted range results in jail time; while shooting any other military grade assault rifle on a farm may result in the police sharing a beer with you is ridiculous.
A right to bear arms law adapted to the British tradition of peace, order and good government would benefit Canada.
Firearms laws in Canada currently blur the line between the executive and judicial branches of government while giving a lot of power to people who are not required to possess a degree or experience in law. The executive branch is not impartial and the RCMP who deals with firearms law should not be part of the judicial branch. They should only enforce laws not create them.
Canada’s problem with gun laws is The Rule Of Law is not recognized. The confusing part is politicizing gun laws that leads to innocent people being thrown in jail actually does nothing to prevent gun crime or gun deaths. In Canada if you’re mentally ill, have a criminal record or committed assault you don’t get to have a gun. Why all the politicized and arbitrary gun laws?
If Canadians had easier access to psychiatrists and if our gun laws were depoliticized and stopped being arbitrary this country could celebrate finally cracking the code of balancing firearm ownership with public safety.
