Weekly Politics Thread

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[u/Doctor_Dabmeister]

I think the Liberals are now just speedrunning trying to stop the growth of legal gun owners in Canada. We legal gun owners are also quite unfairly stigmatized by many Canadians, especially the ones living in cities like Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, and also their surrounding suburbs (basically the people who have the most say in an election). Here are my thoughts on what should be done in order to help change our public perception. u/Kerfaf also posted some good points about winning over urban Canadians and not copying the strategies of 2A activists in the US so please give their comment a read too.

We as individuals should do our best to have good faith conversations about guns with trusted friends and family, especially the anti-guns ones. We should mainly focus on activities like target shooting and hunting. We can also correct any common misconceptions they bring up about firearms in Canada. Sometimes, it may be best to just offer to take your anti-gun friends/family to a range or Crown Land. Giving them 20 minutes to plink with a .22 rifle may do more to change their mind about guns than debating them for 2 hours. We must also have realistic expectations though, one range trip or discussion about guns will not completely change their mind but it will get them thinking that legal gun owners are not as bad as society would like them to believe.

When discussing guns with friends/family, I would avoid politics initially but if it does come up, we shouldn't resort to name calling when it comes to the Liberals or any anti-gun groups. If you have to bring up Trudeau, just call him Trudeau, if you have to bring up the Liberal Party, just say the Liberals. As a general rule, don't use any language US Republicans use to refer to their political opponents. Also on the topic of the US, we should distance ourselves as much as we can from the US gun rights movement, especially the Republican ones. Much of Canada is rightfully disgusted with the Republican party. Associating ourselves with them will only hurt us in the long run. US gun rights mainly focuses on guns as a self-defense tool, I don't think most Canadians are comfortable with that idea yet.

I think Canadians deserve better firearm advocacy groups. I've only had an RPAL for 3 years and live in Ontario so please correct me if I'm wrong on certain things. I think our current advocacy groups have spent too much time preaching to the choir and not enough with public outreach. Have they advertised any sort of public outreach or events before the May 2020 OIC? Even after the OIC, all I remember they did was organize a small protest and they organized the Range Day this past weekend but barely any ranges in my area was participating. Do y'all wonder what they're doing with your donations? Some of the groups could benefit from a change in senior leadership too...

Lastly I want to bring up the Conservative Party. Even as a left-wing Canadian who has voted NDP, I've accepted the fact that I may have to vote CPC if I don't want to see my guns confiscated or "bought back" for pennies. This sucks a lot for me personally since I literally only agree with the CPC on the topic of guns.

The CPC and their voters need to realize that they must become more socially progressive, even more than O'Toole, if they want a chance at forming government in the present day. The CPC may be more socially progressive than they were 15 years ago or compared to US Republicans (the bar is so low when is comes to the Republican party it might as well be on the ground) but I'd say thats not enough for most Canadians. Lets go with the example of abortion which has many Canadians worried due to whats happening in the US. Its not enough for CPC leaders to be pro-choice, they should at the very least prevent their MPs from tabling any bills which may restrict abortion. Anti-abortion groups almost never seem to endorse Liberal or NDP MPs. Being condemned by anti-abortion groups should be seen as a badge of honour.

Even if the CPC does win the next election, there is a high likelihood it will be a minority government. I can't see the Liberals and CPC working together so they would need to form alliances with parties even more left to get a chance at passing anything. I remember Singh saying that he absolutely will not work with Scheer if he won a minority government but didn't say the same about O'Toole.

[u/[deleted] → u/Doctor_Dabmeister]

We have been focusing on target shooting and hunting since forever. Me and a handful of other users keep trying to hammer in this point that it doesn't work yet people still keep insisting on it. It's been 30+ years of sports shooting and hunting - give it a rest.

Guns are inherently political so trying to dodge it for the sake of courtesy is beating around the bush. I get your point but it doesn't work.

The CCFR is currently swamped with legal challenges. I wonder where my money is going but until we have another group equivalent to the Firearms Policy Coalition or GOA, the CCFR and NFA are the best options we have.

No offence but the rest of this post seems like thinly veiled cope so you can try and persuade yourself to vote CPC and save your guns. I've said it before I don't understand this fascination to move the CPC centre left just so people can feel "ok" to vote for them. If the thought of checking an X beside the federal CPC MP is enough to give you chills I highly suggest you get off the internet and stop being terminally online.

Also what is this fascination with abortion? It's been done and over with. No one gives a shit about it.

[u/Doctor_Dabmeister → u/[deleted]]

I'm going off from my own personal experience of growing up in the GTA. I have friends/family still living there who have rarely seen a gun in real life unless it was carried by a cop. They're the type of people who get scared when they hear people duck hunting. If I can convince some of them not to fear guns or legal gun owners, I consider that progress. Those are the voters who decide elections so we have to start somewhere.

I support the use of guns for self defence by trained and licensed individuals but good luck convincing any urban voter that in our current time. While its hard to not talk about guns and politics in North America, I still want people to be more comfortable around guns and gun owners before discussing politics.

I ain't coping just yet as I haven't made up my mind for the next election lol, I still got like 2 years at least. Its hard to ask anyone to put a price on their beliefs. I just chose abortion since everyones talking about it recently but I also support drug decriminalization and I'm against minimum sentencing.

If O'Toole is as left as the CPC is willing to go then I'm not confident they'll be able to secure a majority or convince other parties to form a coalition. Who knows, guess we'll see in 2025?

[u/[deleted] → u/Doctor_Dabmeister]

I'm going off my own experience as well. Not discounting yours by any means but I've said it in a reply to another user - proof of concept exists. I've convinced a good amount of people about guns in Canada. Many said they want an AR15 or a handgun for their own safety but never knew how to actually go about it. Urban voters like my friends and former classmates exist, they're just lost in all this mainstream media and disinformation.

You're correct about trying to convince more people but if we're talking about others who are scared over duck hunting... let's be real here, is there any progress to be made? Best of luck to you but that's an incredibly steep hill you're going to climb.

Unfortunately for us we have to choose between bad, worse and dogshit political parties. Abortion appears to be a done deal, and I think the only reason we're forced to talk about it again is because of politicians and urbanites trying so hard to import American topics onto our soil.

As for 2025 (or earlier), we'll see. Other users have pointed to the 600k new members that the CPC has now. I'm betting a lot are gun owners, and a lot more are for Pierre.

[u/Doctor_Dabmeister → u/[deleted]]

It's good that you were able to convince people to accept that guns are useful for their personal safety. My plan is to get people I know more comfortable with firearms in general before trying to convince them of anything else. Some people I know seem to be more scared of guns itself rather than being a victim of a mugging or home invasion.

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You're correct about trying to convince more people but if we're talking about others who are scared over duck hunting... let's be real here, is there any progress to be made? Best of luck to you but that's an incredibly steep hill you're going to climb.

Thanks lol, thankfully most of my friends/family were easier to convince than that