Sometimes you read something written in a supposedly mainstream publication and can only shake your head and say, huh? Tom Oleson’s column in the Winnipeg Free Press seems to be the rough equivalent of Larry King’s free-associating ramblings on this side of the border [For my money, nothing says summer like rocky road ice cream!]. But even in an opinion piece, there’s an obligation to get basic facts correct. Or so you’d think…
Really, don’t bother wading through this hot mess of gobbledy-gook. Trying to follow its non-linearity will only make your head hurt. It did mine. But get a load of this observation:
American gun-control laws are positively libertine by Canadian standards. The handguns and automatic weapons, grenade launchers and machine guns that are routinely available to most Americans — U.S. gun laws are mostly state-based with a constitutional right to bear arms override — are either draconianly regulated or simply unavailable in Canada.
I know I don’t need to elaborate how utterly ludicrous this statement is. Not here, anyway. Its factual negligence is more a commentary on the lack of editorial standards of the Free Press than it is an example of one Canuck commentator’s ignorance.
But enough about that. It’s Independence Day weekend and we have a big pyrotechnic display planned. I need to get back to cleaning my grenade launcher. I want to make sure it’s in good shape for Monday.