Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Don't Forget to Be Afraid!
Why is this news? Weapons found in car at U.S.-Canada border
Four weapons were found in a car after Canadian officials at a border crossing became suspicious of the driver, authorities said. The firearms — a 9 mm handgun, two shotguns and a rifle — were found in a car that had just passed through the Peace Arch border crossing at about 9:30 p.m., Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement. RCMP initially said a device found in the car’s engine compartment was an improvised explosive device but later said it was not a bomb after an explosives team examined it. [...] The man, whose parents live in Oregon, was turned over to the Canada Border Services Agency, said Paula Shore, a spokeswoman for the agency. No criminal charges were planned and the man was expected to be returned to the United States, officials said. "It appears as though the male is suffering from a mental illness," Morrow said in the statement.People do get caught trying to bring weapons into Canada. They're usually not smugglers, they're not terrorists, they don't intend to use the weapons; they're just stupid Americans who are used to taking their guns everywhere and don't consider that it's illegal to bring weapons across the border. When the people who get caught are, in fact, smuggling guns to sell in Canada, where are the headlines about those smuggling rings? This guy isn't even remotely suspected of having criminal intentions or terrorist connections. It's a routine border stop. Why is this news? Is it cynical of me to think that the purpose of reporting this nonstory is the headline? People who read the headline and don't read through the article may well jump to the conclusion that the guns were being brought into the U.S., not into Canada; that "guns" means a carload of smuggled weaponry; that, in fact, our Department of Homeland Security just saved us from a terrorist attack. I say it's fearmongering, and I saw the hell with it.
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