Why does it seem like many other countries are less focused on their Constitution than the USA?

[ChevySpoons]

Originally Posted by Gentoo

I am troubled to hear about the things you've said. Anyway, does Canada have anything like our 2nd amendment?

You are troubled? How so?

At any rate, Canadians do not have a constitutional right to firearms, as the Second Amendment allows Americans. That being said, neither does Canada outlaw firearms. Many Canadians own firearms, for various reasons: hunting, target shooting, and protecting livestock, for example.

Most recently, our government did away with the "long gun registry," which required Canadians who owned rifles and shotguns to register them. Rifles and shotguns no longer need to be registered. Note that handguns have had to have been registered since the 1930s, and there are a number of firearms that are just plain illegal, including certain combat rifles. A .22 bolt-action Cooey, a .22 bolt action Anschutz, a break-action 12-gauge Tobin, and a .257 Roberts are perfectly legal; a Kalashnikov or an AR-15 are not. But Canadians can certainly own firearms--they are not illegal, and I'd suspect there would be a great outcry from many parts of Canada if it was suggested they should be.

I should point out that after decades of such treatment, Canadian gun owners do not see guns as a means of self-protection. Very few Canadians see guns as "protection"; rather, they are sporting equipment, like a tennis racket or baseball bat. I've known a few Canadian gun owners who, when confronted by a burglar or similar, reach for a baseball bat rather than a gun.

Why? Because while our self-defence laws allow for self-defence (and I won't get into the Canadian legal definition of "self-defence"), the short answer is that a drawing a gun on an unarmed opponent will always attract criminal charges. As I said, we allow self-defence, but we start from the point of "like defends like." This means that is he attacks you with a knife, you can use a knife. If he attacks you with a club, you can attack him with a club (lamp, baseball bat, chair, etc.).

If he attacks you with a gun, only then can you use a gun. Not before, and you may not use a gun to threaten. In short, we do not allow self-appointed cowboys or neighbourhood vigilantes to use a gun against an unarmed, or lesser-armed assailant.