Re: Spring general election?
 

The suspicious thing about that case was that the gun safe was in a project in Scarborough, Malvern iirc, but he lived in the west end. It was a very odd story all around.

Here:

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Con...d=968332188492

Re: Spring general election?
 

Was that registered? ;)

Re: Spring general election?
 

Thats the one. Safe was on the 17th floor, not in the basement. They had to take the 500lb door off it to get it up there in the first place in the elevator. Anyway, something aint right with that situation in so many way.

Re: Spring general election?
 

Right. It was a public housing complex and yet they allowed him to tear up the floor and install a safe. It was a rent geared to income apartment which he got because he had a low income and yet he could afford the safe and all those guns. The rules are that the gun safe must be at home or in a club; somewhere with people, but the apartment was unoccupied. A dodgy business all around.

Re: Spring general election?
 

May I just jump in for a sec and suggest a (probably) crazy idea?

Why not make it illegal to buy/sell or own semi-automatics or automatic guns? If hunters and "gun club" fanatics can't get their kicks having to reload between shots, then they're probably not that interested in the "sport" of it in the first place.

Also wanted to mention that it is now illegal in England to go on the "traditional" fox hunts... a few of the more elite population raised their upper lips at it & it had been difficult to enforce, but the occurence of fox hunts has dramatically gone down in the past year or so since it was made illegal.

I don't think that shooting racoons on your property is a justifiable method of pest control for non-farmers... wildlife coming onto your property is largely based on avaidability of food (ie: garbage left exposed) perhaps the public needs to be educated on proper storage and disposal of rubbish? :p

Re: Spring general election?
 

Fortunately the fox hunt is not illegal here and there's no need to trouble with carrying birds of prey. One hopes that good sense will prevail and that it will be reinstated in the UK.

How do you suggest controlling the raccoon population given that is to mandatory to keep buckets of food scraps for weekly collection ?

Re: Spring general election?
 

Feel free, but semis and autos are already heavily legislated against with strong controls in law. But if you dont bother to follow through and actually check up on people when they apply then it makes no difference.

Make them all illegal, and what do you think will happen to all those legitimate guns out there? Some people will try and recover there considerable expense any way they can.

And as for the racoons, its just part of life here. The destruction is caused while they look for food, not while they eat it. Perhaps if everyone left their garbage out, then although it would be a mess, who knows, maybe there would be less actual property damage. I dont think too many people are seriously shooting racoons in built up areas, dont believe everything you read on the internet eh!

Re: Spring general election?
 

Note that I have tried the following methods:

- poisoning them with anti-freeze

- beating them to a pulp with a shovel

- poisoning them with proprietary solutions

- gassing them with the car exhaust

- turning the dog on them

- running them down with the car

Each of these has its problems, primarily the risk to children and domestic animals and the need to get out of bed to take action. Shooting them appeals as one need not get out of bed and, at night, there's very little risk of hitting anything else.

Re: Spring general election?
 

My neighbour shot one in his attic! Crazy behaviour even by my standards.

Re: Spring general election?
 

Do you not have basements in your houses or sealed garages? As far as I know, racoons don't unlock doors and let themselves in.

Re: Spring general election?
 

LOL!! True, I am too gullible in many respects... wouldn't Animal Cruelty groups be demonstrating or putting sad commercials on TV about the plight of the racoon if everyone was doing as DB suggests ;)

Hey I loved the wind-up I got from the Brits here after the uproar a year or so ago about clubbing baby seals on the news!! You wouldn't believe the imagination they use in coming up with new and interesting ribbing *lol*

Re: Spring general election?
 

1. No one keeps the green bin indoors as it stinks to high heaven.

2. Raccoons do open doors, they're remarkably ingenious.

3. They're not just tempted by a known food source, they get into sheds, garages and, very commonly, attics looking for food and/or shelter regardless of there actually being food.

Do you have any suggestions for practical methods of raccoon control other than those listed so far ?

Re: Spring general election?
 

Surely the idea of sleeping with a gun under your pillow (as I am now sure you do) is an anathema to an imperial unit flouting, union jack boxer short wearing, , fullers drinking, unreformed man of empire such as yourself :D

Your attempts put me in mind of those "humaine" mouse traps...you know, the ones where the last instruction is to drown the little captives in a bucket of water :)

Just leave some cracked corn in a neighbours yard (preferable one you dont like), and they will soon leave you alone ;)

Re: Spring general election?
 

I don't think you understand. Apart from a few tourists on killing tours, people club seals for economic advantage rather than for pleasure, whereas people kill raccoons in a spirit of hatred and vengeance. The Toronto public is indifferent to the fate of the seal but a driver who hits a raccoon is congratulated and applauded.

Re: Spring general election?
 

Automatic guns are banned already, and banning semi-automatics wouldn't make Canada a safer place. I can reload a pump action or even a bolt action nearly as quick as most people can accurately fire a semi-auto.... so there is no benefit to be had by banning that action.

Look, the gun registation issue really wasn't about public safety to start with.... it was all about politics and getting elected.... there has never been any evidence to show that registration will make Canada a safer place.

Re: Spring general election?
 

Ha! I've adapted. Enjoying guns, horses and grits are my concessions to life outside the circle line.

I've tried dumping the green bin and the content of the portaloo into the basement of the unfinished house next door, it was only good for a day or so. I've also tried pepper, chemical repellants, barbed wire around the drain pipes and, before we had a cat, an electric fence strand in the gutter. None of it worked well. You have to kill the ****ers.

Re: Spring general election?
 

I once shot a squirrel with a pellet gun in our basement.... there was nothing else we could do after trying to catch it in a net for two days.

Re: Spring general election?
 

The neighbour who shot the raccoon in the attic also tried Bo, the removal guy. What a scam that is, Bo dropped the raccoon a few blocks away and, on the same trip, dropped his "Humane Removal" flyers. I rather admire Bo.

Re: Spring general election?
 

LOL.

Re: Spring general election?
 

Sounds about the same as the fate of pigeons and seagulls... their boom in population is due to them being scavengers and as much as people may not like them, we ALL bear the burden of guilt in having created the problem. There used to be a time when pigeons actually lived in forested areas and seagulls actually lived by the sea.

Tell you what, we need a "new age" pied piper of hamlet (or is it Hamlin?) to lead them all away, after all, what human being would like to live with the reminder of their effect on nature every day? :D

Re: Spring general election?
 

I feel no guilt over the seagull population and do not accept that I have anything to do with the expansion in the raccoon population. I am, in fact, a model citizen with regard to the raccoons. If everyone killed three or four a year Gaia would achieve balance and we could all share in the sensation of spiritual cleansing once experienced only by the native population.

Re: Spring general election?
 

DB you actually made me L O L.. much as I dont agree with your views & I really didnt WANT to laugh ;) :p

Getting back to my point tho, this "pest problem" is caused by human beings overpopulation of the Earth & providing easy food sources for scavengers. As you and I are both human (I hope your human & not just some random program on a computer responding to me!) we among the other billions of humans on the earth have inherent guilt & blame to this problem.

OK now I sound like a bloody flower-power free love hippie from the 60's :o

Re: Spring general election?
 

I am a flower-power free love hippie from the 60's. Nonetheless, I've a problem with the raccoons, why I have a problem with the raccoons isn't immediately pertinent. Short of moving to the country, to escape the wildlife, what would you have me do ?

(Note that I haven't the zoning required for a donkey.)

Re: Spring general election?
 

Surely then the obvious answer is less gun control, and more incidents like the one in Montreal, and then surely the racoon problem will go away on it own:confused:


Poor taste? sorry, Im off home now :D

Im assuming in this case the "wildlife" is the racoon shooting neighbours, not the little rascals themselves. We have plenty of coons out here.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3...e/IMG_0897.jpg

Re: Spring general election?
 

^^^ You could harvest that critter and make it into a hat .... then you would be Iain K. Boone. :D

Iain K. Boone was a man,
Yes, a big man!
With an eye like an eagle
And as tall as a mountain was he!
Iain K. Boone was a man,
Yes, a big man!
He was brave, he was fearless
And as tough as a mighty oak tree!

From the coonskin cap on the top of ol' Iain
To the heel of his rawhide shoe;
The rippin'est, roarin'est, fightin'est man
The frontier ever knew!

Iain K. was a man,
Yes, a big man!
And he fought for Canada
To make all Canadians free!

What a Boone! What a doer!
What a dream come-er-true-er was he!

Iain K. Boone was a man!
Yes, a big man!
With a whoop and a holler
he c'd mow down a forest of trees!

Iain K. Boone was a man!
Yes, a big man!
If he frowned at a river
In July all the water would freeze!

But a peaceable, pioneer fella was Iain K.
When he smiled all the ice would thaw!
The singin'est, laughin'est, happiest man
The frontier ever saw!

Iain K. Boone was a man!
Yes, a big man!
With a dream of a country that'd
Always forever be free!

What a Boone! What a do-er!
What a dream-come-er-true-er was he!

You can hear that tune at:

http://www.boyscouttrail.com/content....asp?docid=630

Re: Spring general election?
 

I'm sure I recognise that tune from somewhere.......

Re: Spring general election?
 

^^^ It was a TV series from 'merica that ran from 1964 to 1970:

http://danielboonetv.com/danielboonetv.html

Here's a better photo:

http://us.imdb.com/gallery/mptv/1055...th_key=0057742


.... I haven't seen Novocastrian around for a while... I hope he didn't commit suicide with an unregistered gun. :scared:

Re: Spring general election?
 

Ahhh thats why it seemed so familiar, before my time but heard of it.... lets hope for the govt's new legislation rollbacks sake that it WAS registered ;)

Re: Spring general election?
 

^^^ Lets hope so.... he hasn't posted since I heard a BANG coming from his place.

Re: Spring general election?
 

^^^Pop!

Re: Spring general election?
 

ocean, sorry to have been away for, now let's see, several hours.

Re: Spring general election?
 

Thank god you're still kickin', you had me worried.

Re: Spring general election?
 

The thread had promise. I got bored with the gun control stuff. On the original theme, you see that Dr. Caroline quit the race and declared for Rae tonight?

Re: Spring general election?
 

Yes, and her (Bennett's) reasoning for going with Rae doesn't surprise me.... I'm the only one here so far to make a bold prediction about the next election... what are your thoughts about the next PM?

Re: Spring general election?
 

Another day, another Rae (TM). Thoughts about the next PM?

1) Please god it isn't Harper

2) Ideally Jack Layton, just to piss off dbd33

3) That Green burd seems OK

4) Assuming it's (are there any shes left?) a Liberal, then Rae's in front right now...seems to be the ABI candidate. Then IggyPop himself. (Who I liked a lot to begin with, but the foreign policy stuff has annoyed me more than a tad). Of the (current) also-rans, Kaufmann is really really good, but doesn't have a national base at all. Dion's funny accent comes too soon after Chretien.

5) Whoever is the next PM will be better than Blair (unless it's Harper)

Re: Spring general election?
 

Canadians don't like how Harper kowtows to Bush, and how Peter McKay romances Condi Rice .... although they deny it .... we certainly will know who the daddy is if Condi has a White baby in 9 months.

Re: Spring general election?
 

That surprises me. We never see them at the barn and think that's because there are too many predators and too much competition.

Re: Spring general election?
 

Layton would suit me quite well though he'd be terrible for Canada. If he were to be elected my dyed in the wool Canadian colleagues would stop being so ethnic and we could move the firm to the US.

Re: Spring general election?
 

Canada's not ready for a potential Conservative leader having a multi-racial relationship, even if it is with the most powerful woman in the world. He must be planning to jump to the Liberals.

Re: Spring general election?
 

I would think that it would be the Conservatives who would be having a sh*t fit over that issue not Canadians in general.