Thanks to the loyal 5FF reader who sent in this tweet.
And this one:
Indeed:
When you are applying for your PAL, under Part C: “Personal History,” applicants are asked about:
- Whether you’ve been charged, convicted or granted a discharge for an offense in the past 5 years, particularly one in which “violence was used, threatened or attempted”
- Whether you have been subject to a peace bond or protection order
- Whether you’ve suffered from or been diagnosed and treated by a medical practitioner for depression, behavioral problems or emotional problems
- Whether someone else has reported you to the police or social services for violence, including threatened or attempted, or other conflict in your home or elsewhere
- Whether you’ve experienced a divorce, separation, breakdown of a significant relationship, job loss or bankruptcy in the last two years
PLUS your spouse or conjugal/common law partner has to sign your application. If the application is not signed, the Chief Firearms Officer “has a duty to notify them of your application.” Also on the form is an 800 number to call if “you [the spouse] have any safety concerns about this application.”
You must also provide contact information about former conjugal parnters within the last 2 years.
“So what?” some of you are saying. “A wife beater could just lie on the application, right?”
Yep.
The only way the gun registry could possibly save your life is if you printed off all $2-billion of the data, folded the papers into a REALLY thick wad, and held it up in front of you before somebody shoots you.