TOMBITS: If NRA is wrong to lobby, then so are Canadians

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/09/2010 (5527 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Although the American actor Charlton Heston appeared in well over 100 movies, he was also what many Canadians, and some Americans, like to call a “gun-nut.” Even though his films included such biblical classics as Ben Hur and The Ten Commandments, as well as — and, yes I might as well say it before you do — Planet of the Apes, his most famous line probably came when he was representing the National Rifle Association: “You can take my rifle … when you pry it from my cold dead hands!” he said in a documentary film by Michael Moore.

Heston’s quote has been paraphrased and bowdlerized beyond estimate and it helped elevate the NRA — although it never really needed much help — to the position of being the fiercest defender of Second Amendment rights in the United States. To more weak-livered North Americans, it symbolizes just about everything that is wrong with the gun-nut movement. To others it gives voice to a right that every citizen should have.

The Second Amendment allows Americans to keep and bear arms. It has been challenged many times in courts as governments on every level have tried to pass gun-control laws, but those challenges have always been defeated.

Canadians are currently greatly concerned about guns as well. A private member’s bill abolishing the long-gun registry is due for a vote in Parliament next week and the vote seems likely to be close. It’s a passionate debate and it was made a little hotter this week when a scandalized CBC TV reported that the NRA was trying to influence the way MPs may vote. This led to cries from opposition MPs to keep the “extremist” NRA out of the long-gun registry debate and accusations that the federal Tories and the NRA were in bed with each other, involved in “a nudge-nudge, wink-wink relationship,” and we all know what they mean by that.

The NRA is accused of accepting Tory invitations to speak in Canada, and has provided what the CBC calls “logistical and tactical” support for the anti-gun registry movement. The NRA’s greatest offence, however, appears to be that it has broadcast an infomercial in the U.S. using Canada as an example of how easy it is to begin the process towards the slippery slope of long-gun confiscation.

And that’s all true, which is why the NRA has every right to say it, in Canada or at home in the U.S. Canadian organizations often lobby foreign nations to adhere to what Canadians regard as basic rights and freedoms. We can’t do that ourselves and deny other foreign organizations the same right. Well, actually, we can. It’s called hypocrisy, and as the gun-registry debate has proven over the years, it’s as Canadian as maple syrup.