Something seems strange about the  way people are looking at Stephen Harper’s avowed intention of giving stiffer sentences for serious criminal offenses.

I’m not arguing one way or the other about fine-tuning the Criminal Code; in many ways I feel that the punishment should fit the crime —  always barring  capital punishment. Then  we must consider the other — and sociological  side of the argument — but that as I said isn’t my purpose here.

Right now we have our police forces across Canada understandably applauding the idea of stiffer sentences and at the same time understandably urging tighter gun control. Now haven’t Harper’s Tories many times over voiced their  wish  to scrap the gun control registry.

To my mind, what should be written into the criminal code is that possession  or sale of handguns and automatic weapons  should be regarded as a  criminal offense punishable — not by a fine —  by imprisonment and confiscation and destruction of the weapons.  Collectors, too often vulnerable to theft would have to give up their toys.

Arms manufacturers, too, should be placed under tight scrutiny to determine to whom their products are being distributed– and how.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 1st, 2006 at 1:17 am and is filed under TV Commentaries. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.