The way they play the spin is that even if they are all minds made up, it isn' t a policy until it is formulated and anounced. This gives them deniability. The Feds have various types of legislation sitting around on shelves for certain long range policies, often sitting there for 20-30 years. When the time is right, they move on it.

It is like the military, in say the US. They train on how to take down cities, and plan on how to invade even friendly countries, because they need to have a plan even if it is never used. They game everything.

Any government would prefer gun control, just as the cops do, because it means more power to them. But their overall preference is to get re-elected. And it is obvious that most Canadians, for the time being, are a little tired of this subject. But that will change.

There isn' t a serious reason for gun ownership in Canada anyway. We don' t have a tradition of Liberty like the US; we don' t have a citizen army like the Swiss; We don' t realy accept shooting in self-defence, though there have been a few cases were people have gotten off in recent years, but generaly you aren' t even allowed to store ammo and guns in the same place; Guns aren' t necesary for sport hunting or target shooting. All sorts of sports etc... are regulated. When I was a kid in TO, they banned both Hoola Hoops, and skateboards at one time. Why not recreational guns?