So...more random shooting

You've prompted me to do a bit of rummaging around on the internet for the earliest known use of the phrase, but I've found nothing concrete. The earliest claimed use I've come across was someone on a forum saying that pretty much the same saying was used in German about Alfred Kerr in 1933, in the Nazi paper Voelkischer Beobachter. I've been unable to verify this.A very similar expression, but without the 'up against the wall' formulation, can be found in the Evening Standard of Pennsylvania, from 8th July 1936:

quote:

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Almost furled in the flying American flag at his side, he was hot gospeling doom for capitalism and religion from a soap box in Columbus Circle, the haven for discontents. His long hair in volcanic eruption, nostrils gloating, he was in fine furor. "A guy like that," twitched Bob Brinkerhoff, "will probably be the chief shootee, come the revolution."

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Gun laws are fairly liberal in this country, but if you want a licence to carry a gun around on the street with you for self-defence, one of the requirements is to demonstrate that you can hit a .25 square-metre target from 10 metres away four times out of five.As Stalinist a restriction on freedom as this may be, I feel a little bit more comfortable knowing that anyone likely to start shooting away in a public place has a fair chance of hitting what they're aiming at. Kind of like how we make people demonstrate they can drive before turning them loose on the roads.Edited by caffeine, : No reason given.

Not quite. The Statute of Westminster (in 1931, not 1935), removed most of Canada's dependence on the Westminster Parliament, but not all. The British Parliament still had the power to pass legislation on Canadian affairs at the request of the Canadian Parliament, and the Canadian Parliament did not have the right to amend its constitution without consent of the British Parliament. Canada attained full legislative independence only in 1982.