Which is a frightening prospect, given how little Mr. Angus seems to understand about the firearms issue and Canadian firearms owners.  Then Mr. Angus is, in reality, is simply doing what politicians ALWAYS do when facing a hostile electorate: he’s trying to save face and pretend he’s on “their side”.

Good luck Charlie.  You sold out your constituents because you were PO’d at another MP.  You let your petty emotions get in the way of doing your job.   Since you’ve obviously forgotten what that is, it’s to represent the constituents of Timmins–James Bay, Ontario.  Not Jack Layton, not Michael Ignatieff, and certainly not downtown Toronto.  The constituents of Timmins–James Bay, Ontario.

His private members bill hopefully stands as much of a chance to be passed into law as Jack Layton has of becoming Canada’s Prime Minister.

You can find the entire thing on the Parliament of Canada website.  Read carefully what he’s proposing.  It all sounds innocuous at first glance.  Mostly it regurgitates the same crap that Layton tried peddling, and Layton stole it from Ignatieff.  But it adds a few wrinkles that are rather frightening.

(3) The Governor in Council may make regulations requiring a manufacturer or importer to provide information for the purpose of establishing that the thing in question is reasonable for use in Canada for hunting or sporting purposes.

His proposed legislation would set up some bureaucrat as the decider of what is and is not appropriate for “sporting use” in Canada.  Giving bureaucrats uncontrolled access to decision-making powers like that is partly why we’re in this mess to begin with.  It was the bureaucrats, at the behest of their political masters, who took a copy of Gun Digest and circled all the “evil black rifles” and put them on the prohibited list.

Those same bureaucrats waved their magic pen and made every handgun in Canada with a barrel length of under 4-1/8 inches to be prohibited.  That stroke of genius cost the taxpayers of this nation dearly, as the bureaucrats failed to comprehend that their arbitrary barrel length decision covered every police handgun in the country, and the nation’s police forces had to completely replace their handgun inventories.  (You probably don’t want to know what happened to the old inventory…)

In Parliament when he introduced his new pet, Anguse said, referring to the fact that the semi-automatic Ruger Mini-14 is still available in Canada:

“That is not something that a legitimate duck hunter or farmer would need.”

Who the heck is Charlie Angus to tell anyone what is or is not appropriate for a particular use in Canada?  I’m sure I’d have remembered seeing anything about his expertise in firearms issues long ago, if it existed.

I think Charlie’s “expertise” comes from the same place as Jack Layton’s…   his desire to pander to voters.

Probably my favourite part of this legislation, because it shows Charlie’s ignorance, is this:

(1.1) Despite subsection (1), no fee shall be paid for a registration certificate for a firearm that is neither a prohibited firearm nor a restricted firearm.

The fees on transferring ALL firearms have been waived in Canada for the past few years.  I guess nobody told Charlie that…

But enough of my ranting… You can listen to Angus rant about his new bill in some sound-byte clips on his website.