I'm gettin' right sick 'n' tired of this...

I was just perusing The High Road, and a friend of a Canadian member wrote the office of Toronto mayor David Miller, who lately has been advocating a ban on handguns. (h/t Yuri Orlov) Part of the response:

...the Mayor's gun violence strategy includes:
* A handgun ban
* Tougher crime legislation for illegal gun use
* Increased anti-gun smuggling security at the Canada-U.S. border
* Stronger U.S. gun controls

And regarding the problems with crime south of the border, one ivory-tower columnist had this to say in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

Only lightly noted on this side of the border, our neighbor Mexico is engulfed in bloody, violent combat with and between death-dealing drug cartels....

And is the problem really Mexico — or our demand for drugs?
There are three much smarter steps that a rational United States would take.
First, face up to where the Mexican cartels get their weapons of death. Virtually all, including pistols, grenades, high-powered ammunition and assault weapons such as the AK-47, are smuggled from U.S. territory, across the border into Mexico, where the gangster elements pay premium prices for them.
The weapons are often purchased legally at gun shows in Arizona and other states where loopholes permit criminals to buy guns without background checks.
Our obvious answer: Seal all gun show sales loopholes, requiring checks on every purchaser. And reinstate the U.S. ban on assault-gun purchases that Congress, under gun-lobby pressure, let expire in 2004.

Riiight. Because other countries can't get a handle on their criminals, OUR rights should be infringed upon. One more time, if you wonder why we get to saying things like "they can have my gun when they pry it from my cold, dead fingers," this is why. No one, NO ONE will leave well enough alone. What kinds of controls are going to be pushed through after the elections it's hard to tell, but if the American Socialist Party (aka the Democratic Party) candidate ends up in the White House I'd almost guarantee he'll be pushing stronger gun controls as part of "being a good neighbor" or "good citizen of the global community" precisely due to pressure from asshats like Toronto mayor David Miller. And lest you think I'm just being catty, click here. (As for Mexican meddling, click here.) When I read that bit about Miller advocating stronger gun controls in the U.S., that produced a bona-fide RCOB moment. Now, I realize very well that Barack Obama's crack about Red America's "antipathy to people who aren't like them" was by and large a load of Chicago elitist bullshit, but I won't be so foolish as to deny that antipathy toward those in foreign lands exists. But to the extent it exists, that existence owes itself to crap just like this. And don't think that son of a bitch Miller is going to stop at banning personal defensive arms in Canada. Because I guarantee you, the next thing you know, after it's been shown the chosen weapon of the Canadian criminals remains STOLEN American weapons, the only next step Miller is logically going to be able to take is to call and lobby for yet another ban. In the United States. For teh childrenses, you know. (If, of course, that's not already on his agenda.) I would say just what I'd like to do to Miller and his sorry ilk for not minding their own business, but then again I think it's probably best that I don't...