Perhaps scootb and the jossies could hunt each other, winner to be pictured here waving the carcass of the loser.

You should be aware that the long gun laws in Canada are, in short, "if you want one, you can have one". Grandfathering means that some types of firearms that have been banned in the US can be legally owned in Canada.
It's even legal for me to drive around in my open convertible car with a car on the back seat and to leave the car parked with just a blanket over the gun. And it's not just the drivers of pastel Beetles who are allowed to do this!

My husband has a PAL and we have 3 rifles locked away. My husband loves hunting(he only shoots to eat) and loves target shooting. My boys like target shooting. I love target shooting with a hand gun, but that's a different licence aspect and I do not feel it necessary to bother.

I see no need for anything other than single shot types, end of. I see no need for hand guns either. It would be easy to say that licences make it difficult, but that would be deluded as there are shootings with unlicensed weapons going on all over the place. I was rather startled at a buy and sell ad on FB recently for someone wanting to buy weapons and rounds to prepare for a 'zombie apocalypse' No mention of their PAL and no doubt they got replies!

I have to say that I feel uneasy with weapons in the house, even though they are locked away correctly and the rounds are locked away correctly separately. I worry whenever my husband goes out shooting, even if responsible and wearing the correct clothing etc. Rifles shoot a long way and their are plenty of bad-shot muppets out there.

As FL says, hand guns at a range. If they had good licenced ranges which people could join and use, but not own. I think PAL licensing should be tighter than it is and involve regular checks and maybe home visits to inspect storage of them. Some people who have licenses, well, it scares me.

That's the rub isn't it: keeping guns out of the hands of the deranged, criminal and over-passionate. It could be done with much tighter regulation. That seems to be the right compromise between those who want to enjoy guns and those who prefer the protection low ownership affords.

Only if you can sell the idea in Washington then have some sort of widespread firearm reclaimation program. That's not going to happen in my lifetime.

That or perhaps a huge shift in social attitudes. That's possible in a shorter timeframe, for example, people used to wear scent in workplaces without thought, the shift to smelling bad has been brought about by peer pressure, not legislation. Something similar has happened with peanuts.

Leave it to Hilary, she will sort it out!

Hmm. She does have prior with things priapic...

I agree that people that really want a gun will find a way but a license could've stopped the guy last week from being able to walk into a shop & buy them as he wasn't exactly a social butterfly I think he would've found it hard to network the black market for one. Yes I know he stabbed & run over people also but guns are easier to do a lot more damage with & if he hadn't been stopped relatively quickly he had the means there for far worse.

You sound like a very responsible person & so does scootb but unfortunately not everyone with a gun is & that's where the problem lies. A lot of these school shootings have been carried out by kids (most of which come from irresponsible families) who have grown up around guns & had easy access to them. Although this seems to be more an American problem than Canadian, has there even been something similar in Canada (apart from the recent Toronto one)?

I just think at the end of the day having tougher gun licenses in America can only be a good thing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawson_College_shooting

Fortunately Alan2005 is not here to shoot me down, but I believe these massacres are at least partially attributable to Hollywood and video games which glorify mass violence. Societal change could start there.

I think the problem is a society in which, when these things happen, immediately goes on the aggressive-defensive re: gun control laws.

The NRA and their supporters are masters at lobbying and media manipulation, and they have the stamina and the wallet to play the long game. Grief and anger don't last as long, as victims' families just try to move on.

I don't think this is a licensing issue. A mad gunman here could apply for a PAL and then buy firearms legitimately. He likely wouldn't be granted a second PAL after a shooting spree but that's a bit stable door. It seems to me that the only way to reduce the number of shooting victims is to reduce the firepower of available weapons and, beyond that, to take the weapons away completely. Even if scootb is responsible, and having a license says nothing about that, there's no way of knowing if other members of his household are responsible, still less his burglars.

This is, as noted above, really a matter for the Canadians, rather than the immigrants. They're comfortable with a reasonable level of random death as part of the price of freedom to keep arms. We only need to be aware of that before moving here.

Not really a good start.

Regarding guns...I generally don't have a problem with people having them provided it's all licensed properly.

After 33 years, does that not make one "Canadian" - at very least relative to newer immigrants? Particularly as it is a country of immigrants. FN excepted.

Is the suggestion, less knee-jerk reaction to atrocities, more long term / sustained pressure to control guns?