Crown corporation says it’s concerned about the risk of conflict between staff and gun owners
They are right to worry for the safety of their staff but not because of the gun owners turning their firearms in. They should be worried about becoming the target of criminals looking to steal those firearms from their delivery chain.
So much this! If someone is there trying to sell their gun for whatever reason, why would management believe there’s any chance of conflict? Plus, after a couple of days, the staff will be far more well-armed (have access to more arms) than the sellers!
But, yeah, that’s a tasty target for just about any criminal element in the area.
The average Canada Post staff is also probably not trained to ensure firearms are safe. If a gun were to be brought in the staff would have to know how to handle, unload and store firearms. This knowledge would still be needed if guns were brought in with locks as some models may still hold one in the chamber.
Ottawa’s plan is to have owners of banned guns place the unloaded and secured weapons in government-issued boxes
The article makes it sound like the guns will be dropped off by owners already packaged, it would be no different than guns that are already shipped through Canada Post. I think the danger is that post offices and vans will become gun loot piñatas for anyone that wants to give it a shot during the time frame that the confiscation takes place (unless the government spreads it put over many months, ex. people with PAL # ending in 1 go for three months, then people with PAL # ending in 2 go for three months, etc)
It seems like a poor policy to just trust that other people are dropping the guns off in a safe condition.
Guns shipped from retailer/manufacturers have a smaller risk of being improperly stored or loaded when shipped.
There is still a risk of a Canada Post employee realizing these boxes contain restricted firearms and arranging them to be stolen/stealing them themselves.
I just don’t think Canada Post is the right entity to handle a gun buyback.
It seems like a poor policy to just trust that other people are dropping the guns off in a safe condition.
Guns shipped from retailer/manufacturers have a smaller risk of being improperly stored or loaded when shipped.
These concerns don’t track with literal decades of experiences with individuals shipping firearms to each other and for factory warranty.
There is still a risk of a Canada Post employee realizing these boxes contain restricted firearms and arranging them to be stolen/stealing them themselves.
This is a much, much bigger concern. Canada Posts chain of custody is not the greatest on good days with mundane mail.
I love in the land where jacked-up coal-rolling pavement princesses are collaged in fuck Justin, pro convoy, and anti-vax decals.
I think there isn’t a danger from the people turn in their guns, but I would not be surprised if someone decided that the feds can’t have their gun, but can have some bullets.
Which is still probably a much lower risk that just getting jacked.
collaged
Took me a sec to parse that, but it’s the perfect word there. NICE.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Ottawa’s plan is to have owners of banned guns place the unloaded and secured weapons in government-issued boxes and then send them back to the government to be destroyed.
Government sources say they’re puzzled by Canada Post’s refusal to receive the weapons, since the corporation already delivers guns that are sold online.
The ban hit 1,500 types of weapons, including the AR-15, which has been used in a number of mass shootings in the United States, and the Ruger Mini-14, which was used to kill 14 women at the École Polytechnique in Montreal in 1989.
The government has promised to carry out the buyback in two phases, starting with weapons and parts still in the hands of businesses and then proceeding to guns owned by individuals.
Four provinces — New Brunswick, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba — urged Ottawa to “halt plans to use scarce RCMP and municipal police resources” to “confiscate” legally acquired firearms.
Pierre Pharand, co-owner of a shooting centre in L’Ange Gardien near Ottawa, denounced what he called the “confiscation” of legally-owned firearms.
The original article contains 752 words, the summary contains 167 words. Saved 78%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Government sources say they’re puzzled by Canada Post’s refusal to receive the weapons, since the corporation already delivers guns that are sold online.
Are those online sales from just random people or from shops that can be mostly trusted to ensure that the gun is safe to ship?
Both.
I don’t think the issue is whether the guns are safe to ship or not, Canada Post figured out how to safely ship guns from both retailers and individuals years ago.
And the way I read this, it doesn’t sound like the issue of conflict is from licensed owners either because it sounds like we’ll be expected to simply drop off boxes with guns in them so those that don’t want to participate simply won’t show up to the post office (aka avoid the conflict all together).
If I’m wrong and the government actually expects Canada Post carriers to go door to door bringing people boxes and say “pack up your guns right now and bring the box back out to me” that’s an entirely different story and way, way outside of Canada Post’s regular duties. They definitely aren’t equipped or trained for that sort of thing; that’s the type of thing you’d expect police to do.
I think the fear of conflict is because everyone and their grandma will know when there are tons guns flooding into post offices all at once and both post offices and carrier trucks will become prime targets for criminals. The locations and vehicles aren’t designed to resist that type of intrusion and the staff aren’t trained or equip to deal with it (I’m sure there are a few locations/vehicle that are but not only is it a very large, spread out volume to begin with, it’s not hard to find info from industry groups claiming that the Liberal estimate for the number of affected guns is quite low).
I haven’t really followed that closely in recent years, but pretty much everything to do with guns is handled so badly, no matter who is in power. This is just one more in long line of screw ups.
The last few decades have been just a mess. Way too many emotions on every side. Way too many people with little grasp of guns and their legitimate, harmless uses. Way too many people who think that guns are some god-given totem of freedom as opposed to a tool or recreational skill. Way too many people who see a path to power by inflaming the passions of one side or the other.
Nobody seems interested in conducting actual research into what actually works for the safety of individuals and society. It’s all intuition, gut feelings, different versions of “common sense”, “just so” stories, and emotional attachment to an immovable opinion.
