Canadian border agents cant carry guns!

This is a riot!

Fox news was just reporting that Canadian border and customs agents have been begging to carry guns. They get shot at sometimes. And the Canadian parliament voted to allow them to, but the liberals in there voted it down!

They said that they didn't want to promote a gun culture in their border agents like the U.S. has! In border and customs agents! Disarmed! ROFLMAO!

'To my mind it is wholly irresponsible to go into the world incapable of preventing violence, injury, crime, and death. How feeble is the mindset to accept defenselessness. How unnatural. How cheap. How cowardly. How pathetic.'

UK,

Your post was a real riot-uproariously funny.

Perhaps you could post a reputable site which says that Canadian border agents are shot at sometimes? How often? Once a decade? I can't recall ever hearing about such an incident, and I live in Canada. When did the Canadian parliament vote for this? I don't recall a vote on this and I'm very much informed.

I wouldn't argue that border guns should not have guns. You however seem to think that border guards should automatically have guns. That seems to be the premise of your post. So tell me what for? How many incidents involving the actual discharge of firearms have occurred and in what time span? Wouldn't this be a more appropriate test of whether or not border guards should have guns?

This sort of automatic or should I say autonomic reaction that everyone should be armed to the hilt in case Osama Bin Laden comes marching across the border is truly a sign of the reactionary times. Don't think, react, that seems to be the motto nowadays and quite frankly I'm sick of it. My motto is think first, then react. We are human beings not dogs. Dogs BTW respond emotively. Look over in Iraq and you will see the result of reacting first then thinking afterwards.

I often wonder how the human species has survived with people who react first and think later. I thought by now they would have been taken care of via the Darwinian method or whatever the hell you call that genetics

Problem is that the bloody Federal Liberal talk a lot but do nothing, absolutely nothing! Paul Martin and his bunch are corrupt and must be replaced immediately!

Ted Nugent's brain if fried.

I do not know of nor have I ever heard a news report that a Canadian customs agent or immigration officer has been shot at and I have lived in the Toronto, Ontario area for the last 40 years. Ontario happens to have the three busiest road border crossings in Canada plus the length and breadth of four of the five Great Lakes as a common border with the USA. If you look a little deeper into this situation you will discover that it is a labour union driven issue. The officers belong to The Public Service Alliance of Canada and they have a contract that is riddled with items of merit benefits such as being bilingual etc, that qualify them for a higher pay scale. Being qualified to carry a firearm would just give them another pay scale to claim.

It would also seem that your grasp of the Canadian political process is suspect. The Government of Canada at present just happens to be a Liberal one albeit in a minority position. As they are the Governing body they do not need to vote on wether the border officers should carry firearms. They are the boss and they make the decisions. It can only come to a vote in Parliament if the Government wishes it to or an individual member of the government or opposition can present a private members bill. I follow Parliament fairly closely and I can assure you no such Bill has been put to the floor of the house. As much as I hate Lieberals it really pains me at this time to admit that they got this one right. Canadian border officers do NOT need personal firearms.

I'm an American, and I realize I don't really have any say in Canadian politics. This is merely my personal opinion.

I would prefer that a nation's border agents (i.e. those directly responsible for allowing and barring access to a specific country) would have the means to prevent access, with force if necessary, to that country.

What happens if someone is trying to run the checkpoint in a vehicle? What if its a carbomb?

Perhaps my viewpoints a bit skewed, as my army unit guarded a checkpoint in Iraq. Had the unit been unarmed, the Bad Guys would have no deterrent to simply running the checkpoint, or driving carbombs into it.

I have no doubt that the US-Canadian border is an incredibly calm and peaceful border, and certainly don't want it to turn into the West Germany-East Germany border with guard towers, searchlights, etc. I further realize that violent acts occur only rarely on the border.

Still, having border agents armed with handguns doesn't seem terribly unreasonable (nearly all law enforcement agencies in the US carry sidearms), with maybe a case of rifles in the checkpoint building just in case.

Again, just my personal opinion.

> >Fox news was just reporting that Canadian border and customs agents >have been begging to carry guns. They get shot at sometimes. And >the Canadian parliament voted to allow them to, but the liberals in >there voted it down! > >They said that they didn't want to promote a gun culture in their >border agents like the U.S. has! In border and customs agents! >Disarmed! ROFLMAO! > >'To my mind it is wholly irresponsible to go into the world >incapable of preventing violence, injury, crime, and death. How >feeble is the mindset to accept defenselessness. How unnatural. >How cheap. How cowardly. How pathetic.'

Godwined.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law

Try again next time.

Geez. You provided a link to a discussion of 'Godwin's law'; why don't you actually read what's there and try to understand it.

Obviously you're another moron who doesn't know what Godwin's Law is.

our 'armed' forces use paintball guns in exercises. arming border guards? how not canadian. we will arm them with a vocabulary of harsh words, invective, strong and commanding facial expressions and of course the 'why canada?' plaintive look. that will work. i feel safer