Canadia is jumping on the blame America bandwagon. After local politicos claimed that half of the illegal guns in Canada come from the United States, the press has set out to prove them right. That leads us to stories like this tale of woe about a Canadian gun runner caught smuggling guns into Canada.

John Butcher had fallen on hard times.

Boo hoo hoo. A product of the Bush recession, no doubt.

His wife of 33 years had died after a lengthy battle with multiple sclerosis. He'd lost his job in the financial services industry, he'd run out of money and, in his late 50s, the expat Englishman had been forced to move in with his daughter. With only an entry-level job at a golf course and moonlight gigs as frontman of a blues band to earn his keep, he felt like a burden. So when a close friend approached him with a shady sounding proposition -- $500 per trip to squire envelopes stuffed with U.S. cash into Canada from Detroit -- he swallowed hard and accepted.

Yeah, that sounds completely on the level.

He did in fact make two trips with money in early 2004, crossing the border without incident and collecting his fee in cash. But on his third trip, Canadian customs officers stopped him at the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel and searched his 1991 Pontiac Sunbird. There, in the space beneath the spare tire in his trunk, they found 23 high-powered handguns, including a TEC-9 semi-automatic, a weapon notorious within the law enforcement community for its tendency to spray bullets like water from a garden hose.

Heh. Sounds like a direct quote from the gun grabbers at VPC/Brady/HCI, etc. Yadda, yadda, yadda, it's all America's fault...

Then there's this:

...[Windsor, Ontario] Det. Brad Hill is unsealing box after cardboard box, laying pistols on a table for viewing. Some are in pieces. One has a crudely attached laser that casts a red dot on the intended target. Hill, who has a deadpan air that would play nicely on Law & Order, wears a quizzical expression as he handles the pistols. "I'm not really into guns," he admits. "I only know how to fire my own."

Well then in my opinion, Det. Brad Hill is an idiot. This is like someone looking at a row of parked cars and telling you they only know how to drive their own. I mean, basic gun functionality hasn't changed much in 150 years. Yeah, the safety might be in a different place and they're safer and more effective, but there's still a trigger, a magazine, a chamber, and a barrel. Learning how to use any new gun shouldn't take more than about 5 minutes.

The bull of the herd, a TEC-9 machine pistol [Ed. Note: That's a lie, it's semi-auto], sat in a shoebox on the porch of a tidy bungalow, just above a manicured row of shrubs.

It is, without stretching the point, a fearsome piece of hardware. As Hill hoists the TEC-9 for closer inspection, he brushes away fingerprinting dust on the 30-round clip and points to the absence of a second handle to govern the direction of fire. "You couldn't control it, even if you wanted to," he says.

That second handle that's missing is what most lawmakers use to define an "assault weapon". It's what the city of Columbus just banned. Leave it to the government to ban something, then complain when it's not there any more.

Another problem is America's ongoing love affair with firearms, which gun control advocates say blinds it to the fears of its neighbours.

It's our love affair with freedom. Just because Canada is passing tyrannical controls on civil rights, don't expect Americans to go along.

The latest statistics indicate there's a gun in America for nearly every one of the country's 280 million people, and the anti-firearms lobby is getting nowhere with Republicans in control of Congress and the White House.

I'd bet that number is much higher.

While the ATF and other agencies have worked diligently to help Canadian police, the sheer volume of firearms south of the border makes their work appear futile. To Josh Horwitz, executive director of the Washington-based Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, this alone justifies Ottawa sticking its nose into American affairs. "We need to hear from other countries who say, 'We've done all we can. We need help,'" he says. "You have a role in this debate."

Horwitz and the CSGV want to ban all guns. If Feinstein could have gotten 51 votes, Mr. and Mrs. America turn them all in, she would have done it. Is it surprising then that he would advocate Canada pressuring the United States to help further a goal that he has sold his soul to achieve?

Canada could try some practical measures, too, starting with a tougher approach to Americans who try crossing the border with weapons.

Hello! There's a gangbuster! Let's see, we're having trouble with criminals illegally importing illegal firearms. How about we step up border security! While you're at it, maybe you should also look for Canadians crossing the border with illegal guns. Perhaps even expatriated Englishmen driving 10-year old Pontiacs.

There's a third approach, however, that could prove more effective -- and more divisive -- over the long term. Instead of scolding Americans for their attachment to firearms, some advocates say we should make gun-smuggling a keystone issue in talks to create a continental security perimeter. In exchange for harmonizing immigration and entry laws to address U.S. concerns about terrorism, the theory goes, Canada could press for stateside action against gun smugglers, and investment by the Americans in stronger border measures to block the movement of illicit firearms.

Extortion is an ugly word. But what do you call it when your so-called "ally" tells you that they will not help fight terrorism unless you send them cash and other resources to combat gun smuggling.

As more of these blame America stories surface, it's become obvious that the gun control lobby has gone international.