He sure would
Revolver: Handgun which has cartridges loaded into a cylinder directly behind the barrel. With a pull of the trigger on a typical revolver, the cylinder rotates as the hammer is cocked back. At the end of this pull, the hammer drops down on the cartridge, firing the bullet out of the barrel. The you do it all again.
Pistol or rifle: Semi-auto handgun or rifle which holds a magazine. The magazine holds a number of cartridges and is inserted into the handle of the gun (or in the case of a rifle, usually in front of the trigger assembly). You pull back on the top of the gun (called a slide) and let it snap forward. A pull of the trigger will drop the hammer on the cartridge, firing the bullet out of the barrel. The energy created by the firing of the cartridge/bullet is used to automatically push the slide back to eject the empty cartridge and then chamber a fresh round. Another pull of the trigger will do it all over again. Holding the trigger will NOT allow you to fire all your cartridges within seconds.
Pistol or rifle: Full-auto handgun or rifle works exactly as above. Only difference is that you have a selector lever which allows you to shoot all the cartridges in the gun with just one pull of a trigger. This is a blast to do at least once in your life. However, the average full-auto will expend 30 rounds within approx. 3 seconds. Totally useless, and not at all like in the movies, where a soldier changes magazines once every 2 minutes, all the while spraying 150 bad guy soldiers
The average policeman, any policeman, American or Canadian, is the last person you should ever ask advice from where any laws other than traffic violations are concerned. And I'm not saying this to be nasty, I think the police get a bad deal from everyone. Joe Citizen, the media....
Thing is, they are policemen, not lawyers. Here's how it stands here in Canada insofar as firearms laws are concerned. Remember, you asked
;
Anyone wanting to "possess" a firearm, any firearm which you already owned before the new law (about 6-10 yrs ago??), is required to apply for and receive a Possession Permit. You fill in a form, they check your background, possibly talk to ex's, wives, girlfriends etc...You get the permit and Bob's your uncle.
Anyone wanting to be able to acquire additional non-restricted firearms (hunting rifles/shotguns) needs to get a revision on their permit. This permit will now be a Possession & Acquisition Permit. For this one, however, you need to take an exam on basic gun handling/safety.
Anyone wanting to be able to acquire any additional restricted firearms (certain assault-type rifles, handguns) needs a Possession & Acquisition Permit. For restricted firearms however, you need to take an exam on "restricted gun handling/safety". And no, it don't make any sense....
Anyone wanting to acquire Prohibited firearms (certain assault-type rifles, though in full-auto, full-auto converted to semi-auto and certain semi-auto mode rifles who's bullets apparently kill better or more painfully than others
)is $hit outta luck unless;
They owned aforementioned prohibited firearm before the Nazi's in power at the time decided that those firearms were to be deemed illegal. Among Prohibited firearms includes certain assault-type rifles and again, semi-autos were the main target. As well, any handgun with a barrel length of less than 4" is also considered prohibited. Everyone knows that criminals refuse to carry illegally-obtained handguns with barrel lengths of 4" or more. Just ain't cool..... As well, rifle mags are now allowed to contain only 5 rounds, handguns only 10. It takes me exactly 1.5 seconds to replace a mag in a handgun, I'm sure that if I was on a shooting rampage, anyone hiding under a table or desk wouldn't be watching and counting how many rounds I'd fired before taking a lunge at me. But what do I know...?
This all happened, as was mentioned, thanks to Marc Lepine's attack on the Polytechnique school back in the early 90's. He took the lives of so many innocent victims. The worst part is that he had begged to be admitted into a psych ward a month before the shooting rampage. Due mostly to our increasingly-overburdened health-care system, he was turned away...twice. The media and Wendy Cukier (one of the Polytechnique victims) decided to harp on the easy target, guns. It'd be harder to fight for improving our health-care system and working on improving the general mentality of kids growing up in divorced families, poor neighborhoods etc.. Thank god Marc Lepine didn't use a knife or a baseball bat. I wouldn't be able to cut up my steak while not watching a now-illegal sport.
](./images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Banging my head")
The Canadian government, pushed by the media (who are really the ones who run this country) and by a couple of the survivors of the massacre, passed all these new laws shortly thereafter. Wanna know what the kicker is? Marc Lepine was armed with a rifle and I believe at least one handgun. I believe the handgun was never used by him during the attack on the students. The rifle he used was a Ruger Mini-14. It's a common semi-auto rifle designed around the M-14 rifle. Used mostly for hunting. And while you can dress it up with different stocks and such to make it look mean, you can also do that with almost any other rifle. THIS RIFLE WAS NOT AFFECTED BY THE NEW LAWS. I ask you, are we or are we not being governed by Orangutans?
I believe in gun control to a point. Yes, they should be registered, beside the fact that in most countries where registration became mandatory in the last century, the same registry was used to seize them by a dictatorship-type governments (Nazis, Soviet-Bloc, Philippines, Cuba etc).
Yes, a person wishing to own firearms should need to prove he knows the basics of firearms safety. As much an issue for the owner of the firearm as it is for me and my family. No different than a driver's permit, in my opinion! But for cryin' out loud people, let's address the root causes for the increasing violence in our societies.
