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Interesting and sobering read. Thanks for posting it.
Airports use technology to scan baggage. It is an added layer of security. Crossing a land border however the only security check is via a human agent. Sure they run your passport through a DB to see if you have any warrants or records and ask you questions, look for 'signs' etc that your visit is suspicious or that you are doing something illegal - but that is it.
Of course, implementing a scanning technology at land borders would be expensive, but it would layer on something more than just the human element.
Interesting and sobering read. Thanks for posting it.
Airports use technology to scan baggage. It is an added layer of security. Crossing a land border however the only security check is via a human agent. Sure they run your passport through a DB to see if you have any warrants or records and ask you questions, look for 'signs' etc that your visit is suspicious or that you are doing something illegal - but that is it.
Of course, implementing a scanning technology at land borders would be expensive, but it would layer on something more than just the human element.
Well, yes it would be an additional element to what's there now but, that still leaves the greatest single avenue proven for the smuggling of tobacco products being native reservations on the border.
I was privy to that situation reaching epic proportions during the 80's and there was not one thing the Canadian authorities could effectively do about it.
A story; Another local union president for the City of Laval old location of Imperial Tobacco was busily refurbishing a house on the south shore. His and his wife's routine was to relax on the porch after a day of drywall/mudding/sanding with a cocktail before driving back into Mnt'l.
They were often treated to the sounds of huge H/P speed boats running cases of Cigarettes across the river just after dusk. One evening just as the convoy started up - a helicopter flew low over their house with it's searchlight targeting the leaders of the group of boats with other law enforcement approaching with a variety of their own boats.
The loud hailer of the helicopter was ordering the natives to stop and allow boarding parties to approach them - and - of course - they were ignored. They heard the snap of a few rifle warning shots being fired to force the issue - to which this fellow told me, one of the native's craft opened up with what sounded to him with his ex-military experience to be a .50 cal. machine gun. There was no attempt to hit the helicopter with the every third tracer rounds sailing well over his house and disappearing in the distance.
Searchlights off. Copter turned and beat feet out of there. All LEO craft turned around and ran for shore.
That was the end of that. After that episode the high speed engines were once again a fairly routine sound without any challenge.
Guns are coming across that border in those semi trucks by the thousands, either hidden in loads or sequestered by the driver's in any one of the literally thousands of hidey-holes and there's not a dang thing we can do about it with the flow of commerce being sacrosanct and the "Freedoms of Truckers" being such a cause-celebre today.
Imaging stopping every trucker to tear his tractor apart behind the dashboard and under the hood to search for a single semi-auto 9mm or .45 that would easily bring a $1K payday to the driver. You can just hear the strident "freedom" squalling now were they to be targeted for special attention as they reasonably should be!
The US has a problem with dealing with criminals. After having figured it out somewhat, we collectively got soft in the head and let them run rampant. That's the problem we need to solve. We know how to do it. We just need to (re)find the resolve to do it.
The other problem is the US government trampling on rights we were supposed to be guaranteed. It seems like Canada is developing a similar problem.
The US has a problem with dealing with criminals. After having figured it out somewhat, we collectively got soft in the head and let them run rampant. That's the problem we need to solve. We know how to do it. We just need to (re)find the resolve to do it.
The other problem is the US government trampling on rights we were supposed to be guaranteed. It seems like Canada is developing a similar problem.
The U.S. Constitution/second amendment does not apply in Canada.
The US has a problem with dealing with criminals. After having figured it out somewhat, we collectively got soft in the head and let them run rampant. That's the problem we need to solve. We know how to do it. We just need to (re)find the resolve to do it.
The other problem is the US government trampling on rights we were supposed to be guaranteed. It seems like Canada is developing a similar problem.
I see it just a little differently.
In the context of this topic the US has a problem with criminals with guns.
And I think also a big problem with semantics about rights because I'm pretty sure that when the Americans' constitutional rights were defined and granted there was nothing indicated there about criminals being granted those same rights or the rights to be criminals with guns.
Canada is developing a similar problem with Canadian criminals with guns, the majority of whom are purchasing their ill-gotten guns from American criminals with guns. Because it's so easy for Canadian criminals to get guns from American criminals because it's been made so easy for American criminals to get guns because of semantics about rights .
It would be so easy to resolve much of these problems if only there wasn't such an ages old problem with semantics about rights.
I think some more appropriate and up-to-date new amendments are required, ones that are fitting for today's modern society which is not the same archaic society that existed two or three hundred years ago. And get those new amendments written up correctly next time with proper wording that can't possibly be misunderstood or twisted by even the most simple minded or criminal minded to give them wrong meaning.
A simplistic attitude like that is pretty much why the US does have a gun problem and will always have a gun problem.
Nobody is saying that guns should be banned outright (impossible in our entitled society), but to argue that we shouldn't be more stringent about gun laws / ability to buy guns and type of guns is ignorant and just perpetuates the violence.
The problem is that extreme views on both sides of the political arena stops ANYTHING to be done. Instead of sitting down and admitting that there is a problem, they argue, bicker and use it to advance their own party.
BTW, the fact that the US has only 2 political parties is part of the problem.
I think countries should have "moderate" parties than can see both sides of the issues and compromise so we can find solutions.
The new party, called Forward, will initially be co-chaired by former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang and Christine Todd Whitman, the former Republican governor of New Jersey. They hope the party will become a viable alternative to the Republican and Democratic parties that dominate US politics, founding members told Reuters.
I know nothing about how it works, but wonder if that means they will run in the 2024 election?
This will definitely be a game changer IF they do it right. So far they have no policies or platform.
In the very least they may split the vote. More options, more competition the better.
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