[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Originally Posted by Envitro

I agree with pretty much everything you said. Hit the nail on the head. Anyone that comes into my house has no idea that I own firearms. So that's a good thing, both from a safety and op-sec perspective.

Here's a bit of a thought exercise, though, with everything going on in the world.

The only thing that I think would be useful for this country, is for every citizen to maybe take some more responsibility for our national defense. So I would really just advocate for a "territorial defense" type of component in grade 12 where everyone learned to safely operate, disassemble/clean/maintain and reassemble firearms, as well as basic safety and marksmanship skills. Now you can add whatever other component onto that like survival skills etc., but that would be a bonus.

Honestly, this country relies way too much on our cousins down south to come to our aid if SHTF. The Russian war on Ukraine really spells this out in clear terms. You have to have a population that's willing, knowledgable and brave enough to stand up to an invader. Not saying it has to be big bad Russia, but Canada is generally inept when it comes to anything to do with National Defense. And no, let's not lean on the fact that we're in NATO to save our ass if things ever go that way.

It would inevitably fall on the 2.2 million firearms owners to be the second line of defense for this country. Wouldn't it be better to have a population that knows how to be useful in this scenario, however unlikely it is??

If you really want a population that takes an active part in national defense, then what you're really talking about there is mandatory military service.

"Here's how you clean a hunting rifle, and here's how you make sure you don't accidentally shoot someone" isn't going to do anything when it comes to national defense, unless you're worried about a land war/invasion spearheaded by a bunch of guys with as much training as a grade 12 student with basic firearms training.