The best of intentions
I can respect an individual operating towards a higher purpose, particularly when the purpose in question is noble in nature. What I cannot respect, is when an individual or group uses the premise of that higher purpose to further an agenda that is not necessarily related to the purpose one purports to resolve.
Enter “The Advocacy Project”. According to the project’s website, “The Advocacy Project (AP) recruits students to help marginalized communities tell their story and claim their rights.”
At long last, a special interest group rises to the urgent requirement to assist those marginalized by oppressive governments or backwards populations imposing restrictions on the rights of the people.
As a Canadian Firearms owner, I am keenly aware of the impact of marginalization at the hands of Government. I have been painted as a criminal by the media, forced to endure warrantless searches with potential seizures, been subjected to unreasonable interference in my personal life, required to provide personal information about my private relationships to government officials, and denied my charter right to possession of property.
Thank goodness the Advocacy Project can stand up and champion my cause, to valiantly defend the rights of the marginalized community I represent.
It is well understood that the rules and regulations used to justify the infringement of my rights are done in the interests of preventing crimes, as it is equally known that those most likely to commit crimes are the least likely to be affected by the legislation in question.
It is well known that countless social programs have suffered through crippling cuts in federal subsidies, while the Firearms Registry continues fully funded, at a cost of billions of dollars since it’s inception, with no discernible effect on firearms related crime.
In the interests of meeting their stated objectives, the Project should make every effort to ensure that wasted taxpayer dollars are more appropriately apportioned to programs that desperately require the funding necessary to address the social roots of crimes against women!
Let’s shelve the thinly-veiled sarcasm and get on point. If the Advocacy Project were truly acting in the interests of marginalized communities to reclaim their rights, there can be little argument against the rights of Canadian firearms owners as they, as a community, have been marginalized by countless entities for personal and political gain. If the Project truly stands as a beacon of hope against the oppression of a community’s rights, they should proudly stand against legislation that targets the law abiding, and in the process, tramples the rights of honest citizens, enacted towards an objective it does nothing to address.
The Advocacy Project is just another anti-firearms lobby group, akin to the Coalition for Gun Control, who’s desire to disarm the Canadian Firearms Owner is disguised under the emotional plight of violence against women, urban gun crime, and the random acts of the mentally disturbed.
I am not a criminal. I have not, nor would I ever, participate in violence against women or any other individual where the threat of violence was not, as per my stated rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Criminal Code of Canada, in the interests of preventing violence upon myself or any other person.
Championing the cause of violence against women is a noble prospect. Standing up for the rights of marginalized communities is equally noble. Ignoring, and in fact supporting, the marginalization of one community under the misguided, and often dishonest premise that one community is somehow responsible for the oppression of the other’s rights is disingenuous, disrespectful, and downright dishonest.
Advocating the waste of billions of dollars in support of a program that has done nothing towards it’s intended purpose, while necessary programs go unfunded warrants attention. The Advocacy Project would do better to focus their attention on government waste and mismanagement, towards an end result that may truly benefit the marginalized communities they purport to represent. Anything else is simple deception.
