Canadian Firearms Journal - July 2011

CANADIAN

Firearms Journal July - August 2011

Fully Committed On All Fronts:

Canada’s National Firearms Association

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Inside This Issue

Greetings from Head Office Members calling head office these days may have noticed some changes. Our much beloved and longserving office manager, Ms. Diane Laitila, retired this past June. Diane was a veritable NFA institution and permanent fixture at gun shows throughout the western provinces. However, Diane maintained close ties with shooters and members from coast to coast and was always ready to help out where needed. Her work ethic and dedication to NFA and our mission was unparalleled.

Like so many of us here at NFA, I considered Diane family, and her presence is still sorely missed. However, I’m happy to report that Diane is adjusting to “civilian” life, although she hasn’t

Regulars

slowed down much, between running the Laitila household, her extensive family commitments and volunteer activities, etc... We wish her well in all her future endeavours and thank her profoundly for her service.

From the Editor’s Desk ...................................................4 Sean G. Penney

From The NFA Bookshelf – Ruger & His Guns..............5

Wm. R. Rantz

President’s Message – . .............................................. 6 -7

Joining the head office team is Ms. Ginger Fournier.

I’m pleased to announce that Ginger is fully bilingual and was hand-picked by the executive to better serve our members, especially those hailing from Quebec and those whose primary language is French. I’m sure you will all join me in welcoming her aboard.

Sheldon Clare

Vice President’s Column – . ......................................... 8- 9 Blair Hagen

Letters to the Editor – ........................................... 10-11 Sean G. Penney

Preserving Our Firearms Heritage – Sharing our firearms heritage........................................ 12-13

On The Cover

Gary K. Kangas

Politics & Guns - Self-defence Redux........................ 14-16

IPSC is a dynamic shooting sport where the principles of Accuracy, Speed and Power are balanced in a unique scoring system. IPSC has defined Action Shooting. It requires competitors to shoot fast and accurately, often shooting on the move and developing techniques and styles to shave off fractions of a second between shots, during reloads and drawing from the holster. Offering a wide choice of divisions in which a shooter may choose to compete, the introduction of new divisions such as the extremely popular Production Division permits new shooters to get into the game on a very reasonable budget. There is a growing community of female and youth shooters involved in IPSC and the nature of the sport does not really penalize those of slighter build. In fact, many now choose to make IPSC a family affair, with Mom, Dad & the kids all competing!

Editor

Tyler Vance

Team NFA Update.................................................... 17-19 Grayson Penney

Made Right Here - NEIT Arms Co........................... 22-23 Tyler Vance

Legal Corner............................................................... 36-37 Sean G. Penney

The International Front – How to argue scrapping the Long Gun Registry.......... 38-39 Gary Mauser

Old West Armoury – Bat Masterson...................... ..40-43 Jesse L. “Wolf” Hardin

Members Soapbox – . ............................................. 44-45 Jon McCormick

Last Word – . ............................................................. 46-47

Photo: Oleg Volk

Mission Statement

Grayson Penney

Canada’s National Firearms Association exists to promote, support and protect all safe firearms activities, including the right of self defence; firearms education for all Canadians; freedom and justice for Canada’s firearms community, and to advocate for legislative change to ensure the right of all Canadians to own and use firearms is protected.

Features

Firearm’s Research in Canada.................................. 20-21 Bruce Gold

Hunting with the DPMS Panther Arms.................... 24-29 Norman Gray

Handguns of WWI....................................................... 30-33 Bob Shell with Sean G. Penney

The contents of the Canadian Firearms Journal are copyrighted Gun Control in Canada.............................................. 34-35 and may be reproduced only when written permission is Jennifer Dadson obtained from the publisher.

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From The Editor’s Desk Welcome to another issue of Canadian Firearms Journal. On behalf of everyone at CFJ and at National Firearms Association we’d like to extend our apologies to members who may have experienced an excessive delay in receiving their last issue.

We have a standing contract with Canada Post for CFJ delivery, and our magazines were bagged and awaiting shipment from their depot in June, well before the recent labour fracas started with CUPW. Unfortunately, between the rolling strikes and subsequent lock-out, along with the resulting backlog of bulk mail, Canada Post really dropped the ball on us. We have since communicated our displeasure to the powers-that-be at Canada Post, and hopefully we won’t see a repeat of this scenario anytime soon.

That said, we’ve tried to put together a wellbalanced combo of contributors and articles this go round; hopefully you, our readers, will find a gem or two in the mix that will strike you fancy or pique your interest.

For this issue, Jesse Hardin continues his extremely popular “Lawman” series, with his profile of Bat Masterson, one of the truly great Old West lawmen. Our own Bill Rantz is back with NFA Bookshelf, and his review of Ruger and his Guns, while Gary Kangas shares with us some great photos and relates how his local club, along with the Victoria Frontier Shootists, are working to promote the shooting sports and attract new shooters to our community. He presents a model that every gun club would do well to consider emulating.

The brash Tyler Vance returns with another instalment of Politics & Guns. This time he tackles the issue of malicious prosecution and the case of self-defence in Canada. He is more than a little critical of our current justice system, along with the role lawenforcement plays in the decision-making process that has seen far too many lawabiding citizens charged with criminal offences as a result of having exercised

NFA Book Shelf

larger international context and draws comparisons with other nations who had enacted similar firearms registries. His conclusions should surprise no one and we can only hope that our politicians will learn from past mistakes.

Regular contributor Bruce Gold weighs in with his thought-provoking discussion on the role academic research has played in shaping the gun control debate in Canada today versus that of pseudo-science so beloved by gun control advocates.

Yours truly also gets involved in the mix this issue with my review of NEIT ARMS Co., and their great line of Canadianmade firearms parts and accessories in Made Right Here. A true innovator, this is one company to watch. Also, in hopes of clearing up some of the confusion surrounding the Government’s on-going “compliance incentives” related to registration and licensing I examine the issue in our regular Legal Corner feature.

In it I attempt to explain the options open to gun owners in possession of unregistered firearms and/or an expired firearms license, and how they can bring themselves into compliance with current regulations.

Finally, I join Bob Shell to bring you the final instalment of our “Firearms of WW I” series, with “Handguns of WW I.” It isn’t intended to be an exhaustive index of every sidearm that saw battle, but covers those we believe to be the most significant.

This issue also welcomes a new contributor to CFJ, Ms. Jennifer Dadson. Jennifer tackles the meaty subject of gun control in Canada today and, does a fantastic job putting the debate into context for a post May 2nd world. I’m sure you’ll quickly become a fan of her work. I know that I am!

Professor Gary Mauser also tackles the registration issue and presents his take on how the argument for scrapping the long registry should best be made. Using peerreviewed statistics and research, Gary successfully places the debate within the

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To wrap things up, my fellow editor, Grayson shares with us the latest Team NFA Update, and gets the last word, with his examination of the role grass-roots advocacy played in last spring’s electoral defeat of Liberal MP Mark Holland.

Holland had assumed the mantle of premier gun-grabber in Ottawa and was not shy in expressing his disdain for the rights of Canadian gun owners. I wonder if he regrets his decision to target law-abiding gun owners instead of actual criminals in his quest to solve Canada’s so-called “gun problem?”

RUGER & HIS GUNS A History of The Man, The Company and Their Firearms

their right to self-defence. To present a more sympathetic view of the role of lawenforcement in Canada, past contributor, Jon McCormick once more steps up on the Member’s Soapbox in his article, “The Thin Blue Line.”

With the promised end of the long-gun registry and substantive reform of the Liberal’s failed gun control program expected, there is a growing demand to reclassify modern semi-automatic sporting rifles such as the AR-15 and AR-10. They are the fastest selling sporting rifle in North America and are rapidly dominating not only Service Rifle competitions across the continent, but are becoming the #1 choice of both varmint and big game hunters alike south of the border. Norman Gray attempts to shed more light on the subject with his expose on the new DPMS Panther Arms rifle chambered in .338 Federal. After reading it, I was struck by just how ideal this set-up would be for Canadian hunters who are often lucky enough to be able to hunt multiple species in a season. Is it time we started a new debate here in Canada and ended this silly policy of prohibiting firearms based solely on cosmetics?

by Wm. Rantz

www.nfa.ca www.nfa.ca

Author: R. L. Wilson 1996 Reprinted by Chartwell Books, Inc. 2010 ISBN: 978-0-7858-2103-8 Hardcover: 8 ½ x 11 ½ with Dust Jacket 358 Pages Colour Photographs

William B. Ruger was born on June 21, 1916 and he passed away on July 6, 2002 at the age of eighty-six. RUGER & HIS GUNS outlines the life of Bill Ruger and clearly establishes him as a firearms enthusiast, mechanical genius and an extraordinary businessman.

Ruger was introduced to hunting early in life and at the age of 12 his father presented him with a Remington pump action .22 rifle. During the next few years a great deal of Ruger’s time was spent studying the design of firearm actions currently available. He was also intrigued with the machinery and techniques needed to produce firearms, which obviously made a career in the gun industry a logical choice.

At the age of twenty-two Ruger was employed in Hartford, Connecticut at a small firm. He converted a lever action 250-3000 Savage 99 rifle to fire as a semiautomatic. When Ruger presented the concept to Savage Arms they were not interested in his prototype. One can only surmise that this experience convinced Ruger that he must eventually establish his own company if he wished to see his firearm inventions reach production.

In 1945, after five successful years as a firearm designer with Auto-Ordnance, Ruger established Ruger Corporation. The goal was to produce a quality but inexpensive .22 caliber semiautomatic handgun. This company failed but Ruger had gained valuable experience in both business management and firearm manufacturing. It was at this point that Ruger met Alexander Sturm who invested $50,000 to finance the formation of Sturm, Ruger & Company.

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Throughout RUGER & HIS GUNS, the author carefully outlines the chronological development of the company and its’ products from 1949 to 1993. The author’s unique style utilizes twelve chapters each related to a stage of Bill Ruger’s life. Wilson’s information is presented through a combination of Ruger’s personal notes, letters, experiences and actual responses to interview questions.

The firearms discussed in a chapter are those Ruger developed during that specific time period. Such an original approach effectively integrated Ruger’s development of high quality firearms with his impressive business skills. These two factors had enabled Sturm, Ruger & Company to evolve into America’s major firearms manufacturer producing over half a million firearms in 1994.

In order to fully appreciate the history of Bill Ruger and his company this book is intended to be read from cover to cover. However, the reader may also use the extensive index to research information specific to any model of Ruger firearm. Wilson has also included tables which will enable the reader to approximate the date of production for firearms manufactured between 1949 and 1993.

RUGER & HIS GUNS: A History of The Man, the Company and Their Firearms 1st Edition was originally priced at $88 Canadian in 1994. The current edition is a high quality publication readily found online in the $30 range. Anyone with an interest in Ruger rifles or handguns will find this book a most worthwhile investment.

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President’s Message

Message du Président

Plan of Action

by Sheldon Clare

The other day someone out at the range asked me “Now that we have a Conservative government everything is going to be okay, right?” Actually, no, now the real work begins – here is where we have to undo the mindset created by over twenty years of bad law. The problem is that many firearms owners have known little but the constrictive gun control crafted by those who would see an end to firearms ownership. The firearm laws of the 1990s represent nothing reasonable – they are really one barrier after another to ownership and use of your property.

The question is what can be done about these barriers? The answer is easy – get involved, and if you are already involved, get a friend interested as well.

The NFA needs you to help by joining your local federal riding association. It is truly shocking how many of us are not members of a federal political party - the fact is that party members make policy. Fortunately the indications are that our activism rates are much higher than the general population, but they are still not sufficient to achieve all of our goals.

What are our goals? Well by now it is clear that our old practical firearms control system with the pilot license model no longer fits the regimes that we are facing. It was originally intended to return to the situation in which people could regain the right to use and transfer any and all of their firearms, regardless of class distinctions. Our needs are now much more basic. NFA members were present at the Conservative party’s June policy convention to present out goals and distribute information. This is what the party was told that firearms 6

owners want to achieve: • Completely repeal the former bills C-17 and C-68, known as the Firearms Act—including scrapping the firearms registry, firearms licenses, and destroying the records.

• Eliminate firearm licences and the requirement to take any sort of course to own one’s own property; ordinary firearms owners are not a threat to public safety, violent criminals are.

• Eliminate the automatic check of legal firearms owners when a person is stopped for a traffic offence and replace it with an instant check of criminal/ parole/probation records; hunters and target shooters are not a threat to public safety - violent criminals are.

• Replace the licensing and registration provisions with a point of purchase instant criminal record check for firearms. This system would keep legal access to firearms away from criminal elements by making use of a practical list of people who should not have firearms, rather than by trying to make lists of those who may.

• Renounce the agreement to implement the UN marking regulations (Firearm Markings Regulation SOR 2004-275) that was passed in 2004.

• Cancel the introduction of the proposed new gun show regulations.

• Curtail the RCMP’s attempts to unilaterally reclassify firearms.

• End prohibitions capacity.

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• Restore handgun hunting as a legitimate use of a handgun.

• Eliminate punitive safe storage and July - August

transport requirements that have caused much grief to firearm owners in the absence of any wrongdoing.

• Remove the category of prohibited from firearms ownership so as to allow free exchange of property. The arbitrary nature of the prohibited class is a great affront to ordinary citizens who happen to own these firearms. It is also a means of stealing their property from them as many prohibited category firearms may not be passed on to heirs, or readily sold at their fair market value.

If there is to be a “restricted category”, then it must have broader reasons for use, which should allow combined reasons for ownership and use, and it must include at least hunting and selfdefence along with the other categories.

• Encourage support for recreational and competitive shooting sports so as to eliminate the negative stigma created by this regressive legislation.

These goals may appear ambitious, but they are actually perfectly reasonable needs, and they are far less than the rights that firearms owners have traditionally enjoyed in this country.

These changes should be easy to achieve in an apparently friendly majority parliament and we expect that they will be achieved. The problem is that we have had many years of becoming used to Kim Campbell and Alan Rock’s style of unnecessary and ineffective firearms control. We now need to educate and activate ourselves that what we have is completely unacceptable. The law needs to be changed – if you want it changed then President - Continued On Page 9 www.nfa.ca

Lorsque j’étais au club de tir récemment, un autre tireur m’a demandé : ‘Tout va bien aller maintenant puisque nous avons un gouvernement Conservateur?’ Pas vraiment, c’est maintenant que le vrai travail commence. Nous devons travailler à changer les manières de penser erronées qui ont été créées par plus de 20 ans de mauvaises lois. Le problème actuel est que plusieurs propriétaires d’armes à feu n’ont jamais connu mieux que le contrôle abusif des armes à feu créé par des gens dont le but ultime est d’éliminer la possession d’armes à feu par des citoyens ordinaires. Les lois sur les armes à feu des années 1990 n’ont rien de raisonnable : Elles ne sont qu’un obstacle après l’autre envers la jouissance paisible de vos biens.

Que pouvons-nous faire maintenant pour contrer ces obstacles? La réponse est facile, impliquez vous! Si vous l’êtes déjà, demandez à un ami de se joindre à vous! L’Association Canadienne des Propriétaires d’Armes à Feu (NFA) a besoin de votre implication dans votre association de comté fédérale. Il est vraiment surprenant de constater combien il y a de propriétaires d’armes à feu qui ne sont pas membre d’un parti politique fédéral. Pourtant dans tous les partis ce sont les membres qui déterminent leurs politiques. Heureusement notre degré d’implication est beaucoup plus grand que celui de la population en général, mais il est encore insuffisant pour l’atteinte de nos objectifs.

Quels sont ces objectifs? Il est clair que notre ancien système de contrôle pratique des armes à feu est périmé et ne peut pas s’appliquer aux régimes actuels. Il visait à rétablir le droit des individus d’utiliser et de céder toutes et n’importe quelles de leurs armes à feu quelles que soient leurs classifications. Nos besoins actuels sont beaucoup plus rudimentaires. Des

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membres de la NFA étaient présents au congrès du Parti Conservateur en juin 2011, ils ont présenté nos objectifs au Parti et ont distribué de l’information.

Voici les changements demandés par les propriétaires d’armes à feu qui ont été présentés au Parti Conservateur.

1. Que les anciens projets de loi C-17 et C-68, connus aujourd’hui sous le nom de Loi sur les Armes à Feu soient entièrement abrogés et que par conséquent les registres des armes à feu, des permis et tous leurs dossiers soient détruits.

2. Éliminer les permis d’armes à feu et toute obligation de suivre un cours pour être autorisé de posséder ses propres biens. Les propriétaires distraits ne constituent pas une menace à la sécurité publique, ce sont les criminels violents qui sont dangereux.

3. Éliminer la vérification automatique des propriétaires légitimes d’armes à feu lors d’enquêtes de routine comme les infractions au Code de la Sécurité Routière. La remplacer par une vérification instantanée des dossiers judiciaires et des libérations conditionnelles. Les chasseurs et les tireurs sportifs ne sont pas menaçants pour la sécurité publique, les criminels violents le sont.

4. Remplacer les mesures d’émission de permis et d’enregistrement par une vérification instantanée de casier judiciaire au moment de l’achat d’armes à feu. Ce système permettra d’éviter que les criminels aient accès aux armes à feu en créant une liste de personnes qui ne doivent pas posséder d’armes plutôt qu’une liste de gens qui en ont le droit.

5. Se désister de l’entente de l’ONU conclue en 2004 qui vise le marquage des armes. (DORS 2004-275) 6. Annuler la prise d’effet des nouveaux

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règlements sur les expositions d’armes à feu.

7. Empêcher la GRC de faire des changements arbitraires de classifications d’armes.

8. Cesser les prohibitions de chargeurs à haute capacité.

9. Réinstaurer la chasse comme fin légitime d’utilisation d’une arme de poing.

10.Éliminer les règlements punitifs sur l’entreposage et le transport sécuritaire, qui depuis leur création ont fait beaucoup de mal aux propriétaires d’armes à feu sans qu’ils aient commis d’infraction.

11. Éliminer la classe ‘Prohibée’ de toutes les armes à feu pour permettre l’échange légitime et libre des biens.

La classe prohibée arbitraire est un affront monumental envers les citoyens ordinaires qui sont à la fois propriétaires d’armes à feu. C’est aussi un moyen de leur voler leur biens puisque plusieurs de ces armes prohibées ne peuvent même pas être léguées à leurs héritiers ni vendues à leur réelle valeur. S’il doit toujours exister une catégorie d’arme à ‘autorisation restreinte’, ses fins d’utilisation et de possession doivent être élargies pour que la chasse et la protection de la vie y soient inclues entre autres.

12. Promouvoir le tir compétitif et récréatif pour enfin éliminer la stigmatisation négative de ces sports qui fut initiée par des lois rétrogrades.

Ces demandes peuvent vous paraître ambitieuses mais elles découlent de besoins parfaitement raisonnables et elles sont beaucoup moindres que les droits dont les propriétaires d’armes à feu

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Vice President’s Column Blair Hagen, National VP Communications

Several issues have developed on the firearms front since the Conservative’s majority election win last May. With pressure ramping up from the domestic and international civil disarmament lobbies, the political police chiefs and the opposition parties, the government has recommitted on several occasions to “end the long gun registry”.

Legislation to do so is apparently coming in the fall session of Parliament. At this time, Canadians will finally see just how this is to be accomplished.

A byproduct of the civil disarmament lobby’s battle to save their doomed registry is a revisiting of the issue of provincial firearms registries. In 2000, the Alberta provincial government sued the then federal Liberal government, asserting that the federal firearms registry was invalid as firearms were a provincial regulatory issue.

The Supreme Court of Canada did not agree with that assertion, finding that firearms as a public safety issue were within federal purview, and that the federal government could legislate against them.

The Quebec provincial government recently made announcements indicating they would investigate setting up a “long gun” registry in Quebec when the federal long gun registry is ended. Quebec, of course, is the last bastion of support for gun control in Canada, and this is not surprising since two of Canada’s most serious tragedies were perpetrated at schools in Montreal.

The Quebec government can regulate firearms, this is within their provincial regulatory rights, but a Quebec long gun registry would have no force in criminal law.

That is no one could be charged criminally for possessing an unregistered long gun. However, law abiding firearms owners in Quebec could continue to be harassed through fines and bureaucratic excess. How does this enhance public safety? You will have to ask the politicians in Quebec.

So why would Quebec want to set up its own costly and useless gun registry?

Largely for the same reason the federal Liberals originally set up a national long gun registry back in 1995. Many Quebec politicians see firearms as an inherent danger to public safety. Many Quebec politicians see the people who own them as an embarrassment to society and an inherent danger to public safety, and wish to license, register, regulate, harass and hopefully cajole those people into surrendering those firearms rather than put up with the harassment of bureaucrats and lawmakers.

The Quebec government has already shown that it regards the

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firearms community there as a troublesome danger to public safety with the introduction of the infamous “Bill 9”. A provincial law that duplicates federal restrictions on handguns and other restricted firearms, while increasing the regulatory burden on Quebecers that own them.

The federal government has indicated that any province wishing to set up its own provincial long gun registry can expect no financial assistance or data transfer from the federal registry, so essentially they would have to start from scratch. That’s an expensive and controversial proposition in the wake of the complete failure of the national gun registry.

It is expected that most provinces will reject the idea of a provincial gun registry. Voters time and time again have told them they want the gun law repealed and replaced, but there is a chance that Quebec will persevere beyond all reason and pursue its own gun registry.

United Nations Arms Trade Treaty Preparatory Committee On the international front, at the UN Arms Trade meetings in New York, Canada has proposed that sporting arms be exempted from the UN Draft Accord on small arms.

The UN wishes to set up an international gun control bureaucracy who would not only oversee the transfer and possession of military arms by nations, but also civilian arms owned by citizens of all nations.

In a statement to committee members, Canadian diplomats said: “Canada would like to see language in the principles section that explicitly recognizes that there is a legal trade in small arms for legitimate civilian uses, including for sporting, hunting and collecting purposes.”

Canadian representatives have also said the accord should include language: “Reaffirming that small arms have certain legitimate civilian uses, including sporting, hunting and collecting purposes.”

What a change from UN Small Arms meetings of the 1990s, when the Canadian government and diplomats were at the forefront of proposing ever increasing restrictions on the lawful ownership and use of firearms at home and abroad.

Obviously, this Conservative Government of Canada has decided to take a different path than those of the past, which so clearly intended to set Canada on a path of civil disarmament according to the UN plan.

The Canadian position was in contrast to that of the Obama Administration of the United States, which has supported including civilian firearms in the UN arms trade draft accord.

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I must tell you that there is great satisfaction on my part with the new Canadian position on the trade and ownership of civilian arms owned, and used by Canadians.

The Government of Canada displayed great courage and concern for Canadian sovereignty and the protection of our Canadian right and cultural tradition of firearms ownership at the UN Arms Trade meetings. Unlike past years where Canadian sovereignty was surrendered at the altar of civil disarmament, Canadian rights and freedoms were affirmed by the Canadian position at these meetings.

How did all of this change, you might ask? This fundamental shift in Canadian domestic and international firearms policy is entirely due to the political action of the firearms community of Canada. Your calls, letters, emails and personal visits to MPs are starting to pay off. Your votes and your support of pro freedom candidates during election times have created a new political landscape in Canada.

Today, in 2011, Canadian firearms owners have political power; the Canadian firearms community decides elections.

Canadian firearms owners stood by the new fledgling Conservative Party of Canada and helped finally deliver their much sought after majority government in May. But this can be fleeting if firearms owners ever decide that the danger to their firearms freedom has past, that they can afford to compromise or become less vigilant in their defense of the Canadian right and cultural tradition of firearms ownership.

At one time the Coalition for Gun Control drove Canadian national and international gun control policy for the benefit of Liberal governments. The failure of the Firearms Act, the gun registry and the ultimate defeat of the Liberal Party ended all of that, but those days can return if the firearms community of Canada ever stops fighting to preserve firearms freedom and to replace failed and un-Canadian firearms control laws.

Canada’s National Firearms Association will continue to fight at home and abroad to secure firearms freedom in Canada, but it is the actions of every member of the firearms community that will ultimately decide whether our rights and traditions are secured, or if they fall victim to the domestic and international disarmament lobbies.

Please, never let that happen.

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PRESIDENT - Cont. From Page 6 it is extremely important that you write your member of parliament and tell her or him so by mentioning the points listed above. It doesn’t matter to which party your member belongs. In addition, send a copy of your handwritten or typed letter (not an e-mail) to Vic Toews, the Minister of Public Safety, and one to the NFA. Tell your member

President - Cont. From Page 9 Canadiens jouissaient traditionnellement.

Ces changements devraient être faciles à effectuer puisque le Gouvernement majoritaire tout récemment élu est favorable à notre cause et nous sommes confiants que ces changements se feront.

Le seul grain de sable dans l’engrenage est que nous nous sommes habitués aux contrôles inutiles et inefficaces créés pas Alan Rock et Kim Campbell. Nous devons nous rééduquer et nous activer au fait que ce que nous vivons présentement est totalement inacceptable. La loi doit être changée! Si vous voulez qu’elle le soit, il est très important que vous écriviez à votre député en lui faisant part des objectifs énumérés ci-haut. Le parti politique auquel appartient votre député n’est pas important. Envoyer la même lettre écrite à la main ou avec votre ordinateur (pas un courriel) au Ministre de la Sécurité Publique, l’Honorable Vic Toews. Dites leurs que vous voulez ce que la NFA propose, que vous voulez que

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and Minister Toews that you want what the NFA is proposing and that you want the NFA to speak for you. You don’t want compromises cut in back-room deals - you want significant change to these bad laws. They have already heard it from the NFA, now they need to hear it from you. Please write your letters today. The postage to parliament is still free.

la NFA soit votre porte parole et que vous n’accepterez aucuns compromis issus de marchandage fait dans les coulisses du Parlement. Vous exigez des changements majeurs à ces mauvaises lois. La NFA leur a déjà présenté ces demandes, ils doivent maintenant les recevoir de vous!

Il n’est toujours pas nécessaire d’apposer de timbre sur les lettres qui sont adressées au Parlement. SVP envoyer ces lettres le plus tôt possible.

Sheldon Clare

Président : Association Canadienne des Propriétaires d’Armes à Feu Adresse du Ministre : l’Honorable Vic Toews, Ministre de la sécurité publique, Chambre des Communes, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6

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Letters to the Editor Dear NFA: I am a new shooter and first-time handgun owner. I’m currently waiting for the transfer to be approved and am trying to make heads & tails of all the different applications and paperwork required of me to take my new gun home.

I downloaded the form to apply for a long term Authorization to Transport so I would be ready to take my new gun to the range ASAP. Reading over the form I’m wondering if I need to fill out the part where it asks for a list of all firearms I plan on taking to the range.

While I will only have the one restricted registered to me (pending), I plan on purchasing several others in the coming months. Another shooter I met told me to simply leave that section of the application blank and write in “all registered restricted firearms” instead. In that way, it would cover all restricted firearms registered to my address, now and in the future.

Will this work, or will I need to fill out a new application every time I buy a new restricted? I don’t want to run afoul of the “gun cops” on my way to the range, or worry about some midnight knock on the door from NWEST, so want to do this right.

My dad and older brother have also promised the longterm loan of several other restricted firearms that I plan on shooting regularly. Do I need to apply for a separate ATT for them as well?

Llewellyn G.

Hello Llewellyn, Thanks for the question, however, we can’t offer an easy answer as you didn’t indicate your province of residence.

One of the problems inherent to the Liberal’s failed gun control program has been the lack of consistency in how the Act has been interpreted and applied across the country by individual CFO’s.

On the ATT application itself, you are clearly instructed to: List all the restricted and prohibited firearms, including prohibited handguns, that you are planning to transport. Print the firearm registration certificate number in Box 5. Print the Firearms Identification Number (FIN) for the firearm in Box 6.

If the firearm you are applying to transport belongs tosomeone else, print the person’s licence number in Box 7. Ifthe firearm belongs to you, leave Box 7 blank.

That would seem to indicate that no shortcuts are permitted.

However, in truth there are some CFOs prepared to issue a blanket LTATT covering all restricted/prohibited firearms you possess a registration certificate for (which would

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include borrowed firearms, just as long as you have the original registration certificate for it) with a simple phone call that covers all approved ranges in your province.

Others require that every single section of the application be properly completed, including the cert. #, FIN & license number of the owner, along with copies of the applicants range membership. In such cases, the LTATT is good solely for that particular range. If you wish to attend a competition at a different club, a short-term ATT would be required.

Obviously, these are the extremes, but it does serve to highlight the unfairness of the current system and the onus that is placed upon gun owners unnecessarily. Here at NFA we have been strongly urging government to act swiftly to eliminate this needless red tape and to make ATT’s a permanent part of any valid firearm license in order to provide blanket coverage for all legal firearms from coast to coast. For now, however, I would suggest that you contact your provincial CFO directly for help in completing your application.

You can find a complete list of provincial CFOs and contact info at: http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/cfp-pcaf/cfo-caf/indexeng.htm Or, you may call 1-800-731-4000.

- Editors

Dear NFA: I have an Alberta-wide LTATT. I contacted the CFO for a short-term ATT to attend several shooting competitions in Saskatchewan. However, I was told that I would have to provide written copies of the “invitations” to the competitions in question, along with the name, contact info and PAL number of the person “inviting” me to the competition.

I found such requirements unnecessary and overly bureaucratic in nature. I felt like telling the CFO that it was none of their business who invited me, as I was requesting a STATT to an approved range for legitimate competitive purposes. The range was legit. The competition was legit.

So what business was it of theirs who invited me? In fact, the competition was open to all, and no official invitation was actually required!

Dear John, The reason you could not find any legal reference to such requirements is that they simply do not exist under the current Firearms Act; but are rather a policy implemented by your CFO, and presented to firearms owners as “law” and applied as such.

As such, you have the option of writing to your CFO requesting that they provide a written reason for refusing to issue the requested STATT so that you could file a legal challenge. In all likelihood the CFO will opt to instead issue you the STATT without the “required” documents and invitations. If not, you may proceed to your local provincial court and file an application for a reference hearing on the matter. It is very rare for the CFO to allow things to get to this point.

Frankly, the reason why CFOs have been able to accrue such a degree of power over responsible gun owners is because government and we gun owners have permitted them to do so. Most gun owners opt to jump through the bureaucratic hoops created by their respective CFOs, rather than challenge their right to impose such unilateral policies under guise of “law,” for fear of potential retribution, i.e., being “red-flagged” by the CFO, etc...

Either option will eventually get you your STATT. Providing the “required” documents will undoubtedly be the faster of the two. However, if more gun owners opted to challenge these unfair and overly-bureaucratic CFO policies, and took the time to get their provincial MLA and MPs involved in the process it is a safe bet that we’d all see far fewer attempts to implement such unilateral gun policies by our un-elected firearms bureaucrats. The choice is yours, and we wish you well whatever your decision.

- Editors

I checked the Firearms Act, along with all the official literature the CFC sends out and could find nothing in law that would require that I provide such information.

When I asked the lady at the CFO to provide me with the specific regs covering this requirement she got hostile and rather snippily informed me that the CFO would not issue the requested STATT without the required documentation.

What should I do?

July - August

John S.

Canadian

Firearms Journal

The Official Magazine of the National Firearms Association

Editor .................................................................... sean@nfa.ca Sean Penney & Grayson Penney General Manager ..................................................info@nfa.ca Ginger Fournier ................................................... 780-439-1394 Accounts / Membership / General Info .... membership@nfa.ca Legal Inquiries .................................................... legal@nfa.ca

National Executive

National President .......................................... 1-877-818-0393 Sheldon Clare.................................................... sheldon@nfa.ca Executive VP, Communications.....................1-877-818-0393 Blair Hagen............................................................ blair@nfa.ca Treasurer......................................................... 1-877-818-0393 Henry Atkinson.....................................................henry@nfa.ca Secretary.......................................................... 1-877-818-0393 Ted Simmermon.......................................................info@nfa.ca

Regional Directors

British Columbia - Yukon...............................1-877-818-0393 Sheldon Clare .................................................. sheldon@nfa.ca Blair Hagen ........................................................... blair@nfa.ca Alberta – NWT – Out-of-Canada...................1-877-818-0393 Ed Lucas ................................................................... ed@nfa.ca Ted Simmermon ..................................................... info@nfa.ca Saskatchewan ..................................................1-877-818-0393 Vacant …….......................................................1-877-818-0393 Manitoba – Nunavut........................................1-877-818-0393 Vacant ………...................................................1-877-818-0393 Ontario .............................................................1-877-818-0393 Bill Rantz .................................................................bill@nfa.ca Henry Atkinson ....................................................henry@nfa.ca Quebec .............................................................1-877-818-0393 Phil Simard ............................................................ phil@nfa.ca Stephen Buddo ..................................................... steve@nfa.ca Maritimes – Newfoundland & Labrador..........1-877-818-0393 Sean Penney........................................................... sean@nfa.ca Creative Design by The AD Guys ...................... 780-488-5776 Angie Hutchison ....................................... angie@theadguys.ca

Canadian National Firearms Association

Join us on www.nfa.ca

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Box 52183 Edmonton, Alberta Canada T6G 2T5 info@nfa.ca

July - August

Tel: 780-439-1394 Toll Free 1-877-818-0393 Fax: 780-439-4091 www.nfa.ca

11

Preserving Our Firearms Heritage Sharing our Firearms heritage

By Gary K. Kangas

Since the mid 1990’s the Victoria Frontier Shootists of the Victoria Fish & Game Protective Association have hosted a weekend dedicated to sharing their knowledge and skills. The event is known as “Nimrod”.

This past April 30th saw another annual Nimrod event. The public are invited to a cowboy Action Shooting Instruction Day. For a match fee of $35.00 70 participants of all ages and genders received expert instruction in Cowboy Action Shooting. The early part of the morning was dedicated to classroom activity. The attendees were assigned in groups at various times for the seminars (firearms types, safe handling CAS techniques and the importance of eye and ear protection); then it was off to the range for hands on instruction. With two supervisors per station, they were managed one on one by knowledgeable and skilled instructors in holding, loading, unloading and shooting each of the Cowboy Action firearms, rifle, pistol, shotgun ( both types, double barrels and ’97 pumps) with emphasis on safety procedures in moving firearms, muzzle direction, etc. the match fee included lunch. After lunch the participants under close supervision competed in a mini cowboy match.

It is a credit to the committee of the Victoria Frontier Shootists of the VFGPA to volunteer their time and knowledge. Cowboy Action Shooting is an endeavour that is not limited by age or gender. We have active competitors from age 10 to 83 years of age. One of the competitors is a recent Cowboy Action enthusiast having lost her spouse and inheriting firearms she took the course and competes regularly. When asked her age she would only admit to being 70 something.

By sharing our firearms heritage we afford others the opportunity to become part of an enjoyable, rewarding form of recreation.

The response over the years has been rewarding, 2011 being no different. A number of these participating have become members of the VF&GPA and are taking their firearms course. In the past there have been individuals competing before the turn of the year.

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13

Politics & Guns

by Tyler Vance

the thief’s head that incapacitated him, ending the threat to Mrs. Singleton.

Self-defence Redux No man is above the law and no man below it.

-Theodore Roosevelt

It is not what a lawyer tells me I may do; but what humanity, reason, and justice tell me I ought to do.

~Edmund Burke, Second Speech on Conciliation, 1775 Canadian Firearms Journal readers may remember the case of Taber, AB oilfield consultant, Joseph Singleton, whose plight we highlighted earlier this year, along with that of New Brunswick resident, Lawrence Manzer.

In mid-June, the crown prosecutor in charge of the Singleton case struck what some have called, a “blow for common sense,” after assault charges were officially withdrawn. If in truth it was such a blow, it was a very small one indeed.

Last spring, Mr. Singleton and his wife surprised a burglar in the act of ransacking their rural home. In order to speed his getaway, the thief, Luc Roy, then 19, had left his car idling in the Singleton’s driveway. Not recognizing the automobile and instinctively recognizing that something was wrong with the scene before him, Mr. Singleton blocked the driveway with his own vehicle until he could determine what was going on.

Discovering the wreckage of his home upon his entry, Mr. Singleton went back outside to inform his wife of the robbery.

In the meantime the perpetrator had exited the Singleton home via another entrance. Climbing into his idling car, said burglar then attempted to ram the Singleton’s vehicle out of the way in order to make good his escape. Mrs. Singleton, who had exited the family automobile, was standing nearby and in real danger of being killed by the fleeing criminal.

Justice is incidental to law and order.

- John Edgar Hoover Without thought of his own safety, Mr. Singleton grabbed the nearest weapon he could find, a small hatchet that was resting against a nearby chopping block, and rushed the thief’s car.

His only goal was to prevent the driver from running down his wife and killing her with his vehicle. Striking with the blunt end of the hatchet, Mr. Singleton delivered two clubbing blows to 14

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The police arrived some time later, in response to the Singleton’s calls for help, and took the freshly collared thief into custody. For most of us, this is where the story should have ended. The bad guy was caught and taken off the street, while the law-abiding citizens thankfully emerge relatively unscathed from their ordeal. Most Canadians would agree that not only were Mr. Singleton’s actions appropriate and timely, a case could be made that they bordered on the heroic. The RCMP and local Crown prosecutor, however, did not share this view.

In what can only be seen as a complete miscarriage of justice, Mr. Singleton was charged with “assault with a weapon,” and “assault causing bodily harm,” for his actions. The police laid the charges against him BEFORE they had even bothered to interview him or his wife, and they acted on information based solely on the word of the admitted thief, Luc Roy! Mr. Singleton had no criminal record and had never had any previous trouble with the law. As a law-abiding citizen, he believed the RCMP when they called asking him to stop by their detachment.

He had been led to believe that they had allegedly recovered some of his stolen goods taken during the robbery. Only AFTER Mr. Singleton had walked into the station did he learn that he had been deliberately misled and that he was being placed under arrest and charged with several related counts of assault/ assault with a weapon.

Roy and his two partners had earlier been charged with “break and enter,” a charge to which Roy later pled guilty.

No charges of attempted assault or assault with a weapon (his vehicle) were ever laid. Instead, Roy received a conditional sentence from the courts, with no incarceration. Mr. Singleton, however, was looking at serving real jail time for defensive actions that fateful day.

I don’t know why I was surprised to learn of these events, as they are www.nfa.ca

Silence never won rights.

They are not handed down from above; they are forced by pressures from below.

- Roger Baldwin merely a continuation of the de facto “criminals first” institutional ethos that has permeated the Canadian “justice” system over the past quarter century.

This is in spite of the fact that such a position is completely contrary to the roots of our criminal justice system and English Common Law, and remains an insult to the modern concept of “consent policing” upon which Canadian lawenforcement is built.

Our justice system and the concept of policing by consent grew out of a need and desire to protect society, including the individual law-abiding citizen, from the predation of criminals and brigands. The latter, unlike the former, had voluntarily chosen to break the de facto social contract, found at the center of civilized society. In doing so they made themselves a clear and present danger to the future survival of the social order, and not just a threat to their personal victim.

Yet, somewhere along the line, that clarity has been lost; perhaps due to the modern affliction that is political correctness, the ongoing attempts by progressive elements to “socially reengineer” our society or perhaps, more simply, systemic bureaucratic inertia emanating from certain elements within the justice system itself. Howsoever, the lines have been unjustifiably blurred.

The dismissal of all charges against Mr. Singleton may have been a “small blow for common sense” and, indeed justice,

The trouble with the laws these days is that criminals know their rights better than their wrongs.

-Author Unknown July - August

however; too many progressives, civil rights activists, journalists and government officials have completely missed the point. Joseph Singleton SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN CHARGED in the first place! The same can be said of New Brunswick’s Lawrence Manzer, Ontario’s David Chen & Ian Thompson, or Nova Scotia’s Michael Goulden.

While I applaud the decision to drop all charges against Mr. Singleton, I cannot ignore the underlying truth that Mr. Singleton, and other law-abiding citizens who exercise their absolute right to self-defence, will be victimized not once, but twice under the existing system: First by their attackers, the villains and rogues who attempted to steal their property and take their lives, and again by the Crown and the police, the ostensible defenders of justice and the protectors of the innocent.

Unfortunately, the latter have somehow confused victim with villain, and consequently regularly force citizens onto the defensive; thrusting them into the adversarial legal quagmire that allegedly serves as our system of justice today, and regardless of the correctness or consequences of such actions.

Far too often it is public outrage and consequent political pressure, and not the actual desire to see justice done, that ultimately determines which adherents of the “troublesome right” of self-defence become the recipients of actual justice. While the Crown in the Singleton case eventually bowed to common sense, the Singleton’s lives were forever scarred by their collision with the brute force, and all too often unthinking tyranny, which is Canadian criminal justice system. The Singleton’s face undue financial hardships as a result of the overwhelming costs associated with defending against such spurious charges laid by the Crown.

Unquestionably, there was damage done to their reputation as well, and their marriage placed under extreme pressure by the threat of looming jail time, and the unrelenting media scrutiny of their lives sparked by the case.

15

With the proverbial deck stacked against him, Mr. Singleton eventually accepted the Crown’s offer of community service in exchange for not being brought to trial. I would hope that I am not alone in my outrage that Joe Singleton was essentially forced to accept such a “sentence” without ever having been convicted of a crime; while his original attacker, who pled guilty to a lesser charge, was given a sweetheart of a deal and got off with a conditional sentence.

Mr. Singleton’s heavy-handed treatment by the Crown and police, even in the face of a clear case of justified selfdefence is not atypical of the system, but rather is representative of an unofficial standard operating procedure adhered to by prosecutors and police alike. The same attitude is clearly discernible in the decision to charge Lawrence Manzer, David Chen and Ian Thompson.

However, what is even more troubling is the fact that both prosecutor and police officer alike are cognizant of the fact that self-defence is a right, not only supported by our centuries old tradition of English Common Law, but explicitly delineated and protected by the Criminal Code of Canada. It would seem they simply do not care to permit law-abiding citizens the prerogative of not assuming the mantle of victim in the face of overt aggression toward themselves, their loved ones and their hard-earned property.

In a recent firearms case emanating from Winnipeg, MB, the crown attorney involved repudiated the defendant’s decision to carry a firearm for protection, commenting that, “...

This isn’t the Wild West.” However, current crime statistics would beg to differ, as the city of Winnipeg’s violent crime rate far exceeds that of almost any of the raucous old west boomtowns.

Such statements are insulting, yet representative of the arrogance with which far too many Crown attorneys and police approach the issue of community policing, law-enforcement and the right to self-defence. While the defendant in the Winnipeg case broke the law, his fear was real. Whether we like it or not, 16

there are neighbourhoods and areas of our country where the law of the jungle and not the rule of law hold sway. This is a reality that confronts many of the poorest and most disadvantaged of our society on a daily basis, regardless of whether or not government agents or actors care to admit it. To make light of their plight, especially from a position of great public trust, is unacceptable.

This is a court of law, young man, not a court of justice.

- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. There are no easy answers as to how or why we have reached this point.

Is this a case of denial; of political correctness run amok, or is it something even more petty and debased? Can the answer be found in the most primal of human motivations, jealousy? Clearly, Canadian law enforcement agencies and their counterparts within the civilian justice system covet their right and ability to employ state-sanctioned force in the interests of justice and security. Over the past three decades they have assiduously defended their assumed monopoly of this power.

Understandably then, they would much prefer to maintain the fiction that Canada remains the ‘Peaceable Kingdom’ where peace, order and good government holds dominion over the populace, and where they remain the self-less defenders of the realm.

However, Canadians are not now, and have never been merely, “Passive participants in the enforcement of law and order in their country,” (National Post, Opinion, July 19) but rather have been active players in the defence of hearth and home since before the founding of our nation.

As such, it is morally bankrupt of Canadian law-enforcement and the Crown to continue to charge lawabiding citizens for the non-crime of self-defence; to do so is contrary to both the spirit and letter of Canadian law. If permitted to continue unchecked, this July - August

Team NFA Update

will inevitably bring the entire system into disrepute and will ultimately undermine all respect for said authority.

An official recognition of this truth by both police and the Crown is long overdue.

In any and all incidence where/when the police are unable or unwilling to act in defence of citizens, the latter are lawfully permitted to take all necessary action to secure their safety, as well as that of their loved ones, and property.

At the same time, denying citizens access to the necessary tools required to protect their safety is just as morally bereft as the laying of indiscriminate charges.

Rob “Fang” Engh July and August mark the height of the IPSC competition season in Canada, with the 2011 National Championships scheduled for July 27th-31st in Kingston, Ontario. Rob kicked off July with a quick trip to Brooks, Alberta (July 2nd – 3rd) for the Alberta Provincial Championships. Once more doing TEAM NFA proud, Rob returned with the gold in Production Division.

Interestingly, the top three shooters were all from BC and all were shooting the CZ Shadow. As Rob noted, “CZ is truly dominating this sport in Production Division.”

Self-defence remains a legal justification for the acquisition of a firearm under current Canadian law. To deny citizens their legal right to actually carry said firearm for its intended purpose demonstrates contempt for the law and complete disregard for the safety of our citizens. If we look to the seminal work by Dr. John Lott, More Guns, Less Crime, he proves that there is a direct correlation between a reduction in criminal activity and the prevalence of legal firearms in the hands of lawabiding citizens.

Alberta provided Rob with clear evidence that his new training regime was working. However, with Nationals looming over his shoulder, little time was spent on celebrating his win.

Clearly, Canadian police and Crown attorneys need to be reminded of these truths. Self-defence advocates such as myself had hoped that a positive outcome in the Singleton or Manzer cases would serve as a de facto acknowledgement of this right, and put an end to what I see as nothing more than petty, unjustified and malicious prosecution. Alas, the judge hearing the Manzer case ultimately opted to dismiss all charges against Mr. Manzer.

While I am happy that Mr. Manzer’s legal ordeal is now over, as is Mr. Singleton’s, it is a shame that their enforced sacrifices by the Crown could not have served to send a more forceful message to prosecutors and police contemplating laying similar charges in the future. The Thompson case is still pending, so there is some hope that justice will prevail finally. Nonetheless, it is time Canadians had a frank and earnest debate on this issue. www.nfa.ca

By Grayson Penney

Instead, Rob redoubled his training efforts to ensure he reached his ultimate goal of putting a minimum of 5000 rounds per month downrange in the lead-up to Nationals. In addition to the physical benefits offered by such an inflated round count, the exhaustive training regime also ensured that any hidden problems or kinks were worked out of Rob’s new competition pistol.

Rob has made a concerted effort to avoid the pitfalls associated with overtraining, by ensuring that each range session involves a different focus for that particular training cycle. Strong hand/weak hand drills, speed drills, draw and presentation, along with pure accuracy and shooting for group on multiple targets were all in the mix.

The aim was not only to appreciably

Rob in action at a recent IPSC Canada sanctioned match

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17

Megan Heinicke Megan is hard at work training and competing in Europe in her off-season.

Like Rob, Megan is mixing up her training regime and this cycle has added balance training via slack line, in addition to precision shooting practice and drills 3-4 times a week, and cycling up to several hundred kilometres. Her aim is to not only improve overall balance, but to strengthen the small muscles associated that will translate to improved cross-country skiing performance.

Megan’s work ethic continues to pay extra dividends, even in the off-season, as she posted a 2nd place finish racing in the recent Altenberg Mountain Bike Biathlon held in Altenberg, Germany.

Megan’s biking was considerably off the pace of the race leader, but her outstanding shooting was more than sufficient to off-set the latter’s faster wheel time. In fact, Megan had been on pace to secure first, however, a momentary lapse in concentration saw

her drop her final shot and allowed the ultimate race winner to overtake her in the final seconds of the race. Lesson learned.

Following Altenberg, Megan and family attended a minitraining camp at Ramsau, Austria. There she also picked up some new equipment, including Fischer skis for the upcoming race season. During the Ramsau camp, Megan’s day started out at the gym with core and upper body strength training, followed by a shooting session. The afternoon training cycle always featured extensive bike ride in preparation for several important cycling races slated for the following month.

July marked the massive TransAlps Bike Race. The TransAlps is a competition of frightening proportions that involved one week of racing, 7 stages, 926 kilometres, some 19,494 meters of vertical climb, 22 passes and some 1300 cyclists! Megan, competing with her husband and coach as part of a mixed pair, turned in some stellar performances.

Unfortunately, two flat tires and some bad luck saw another racer crash into Megan, resulting in the pair finishing lower than their skill set warranted; not to mention some skinned knees, elbows and hip for Megan.

Despite the bad luck, the duo posted exceptional times throughout all seven stages, led a number of times, and racked up finishes ranging from as high as 4th to a respectable 21st (following a flat tire by iLmar). Most stages saw the team finishing in the top ten and in the final stage they managed to post a 5th place finish, despite Megan’s aforementioned crash, just 2km from the finish line! This final effort was good enough to secure 12th overall for the duo in their category; an impressive feat to say the least.

For the immediate future, Megan plans on continuing

with this mixed training regime, while taking in as many additional competitions as her schedule permits. In this way, it is hoped she will keep her competitive edge sharp for the start of the fall biathlon racing season.

Matt Neumann Matt was lucky enough to get some extra skiing in the latter part of June, where he and his fellow Rocky Mountain Racers spent a number of mornings on Sunshine Mt. in Banff on a 4km loop; under what proved near perfect conditions.

According to Matt it was sunny five of the six days they were in the mountains and it was only during the final two days of training that extensive grooming of the trail became necessary, as the trail started to break down. It was very convenient to have summer skiing so close to “home” and it replaced what would have been an expensive trip to the glacier for Matt. Those additional hours of “summer” skiing are expected to pay extra dividends come November and the kick-off of the fall competition season.

The extra week in the mountains was not simply a fun break from cycling and roadwork, but serious business for an athlete of Matt’s caliber. With limited on-snow training opportunities for the next several months, Matt made sure he was 100% focused on working to perfect his ski technique, learning to control his heart rate and proper recovery thereafter.

Matt admitted that despite the intensity the trip required and the hard work involved, he still viewed Sunshine Mt. as equal parts hard work and fun, and looked forward to reaping the benefits the extra training cycle promised for the fall.

Rob clearing a stage in record time.

improve his overall primary skill set, but to ensure that he enhanced those areas where he felt improvement was needed.

In doing so, he raised his “game” across the board.

After Nationals, Rob has his first Level II at Abbotsford on August 6th, followed by Thompson Mountain on the 13th and 14th and the 2011 IPSC BC Provincial Championships the first week of September. Rob is stoked that he is going to be in a position to shoot so many matches in such a short time, especially since they will provide fantastic training opportunities for the upcoming World Shoot XVI in Greece which runs October 3rd – 8th.

Rob has been building on a multitude of successes this past year and we expect big things of him in Rhodes. On behalf of everybody at NFA we wish Rob every success in the days ahead. GO TEAM NFA! 18

Matt joined us at the Calgary gunshow this past spring for a meet-and-greet.

Megan with coach & husband iLmar

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For now, Matt is still hard at work training in Canmore and has been posting some fantastic cycling times that have coaches well pleased with his progress.

As we noted in previous updates, cycling remains a big part of Matt’s off-season training regime and according to latest reports he is on-pace to exceed last year’s expectations. Matt posted over 2500km in just a single month during the cycling/ road work phase of his training! That is most impressive and we expect that all that hard work will pay off handsomely once the 2011-2012 race season starts.

Incidentally, you can meet Matt at Huntfest Edmonton (August 5-7). Just drop by the NFA booth (booth 845).

19

Firearm’s Research in Canada: an Example Considered

by Bruce Gold

Introduction In the heated rhetoric of

the pro-gun/anti-gun debate, the importance of research, especially academic research, can be seriously underestimated. In actual practice every element of Canada’s current gun laws and official attitudes can be traced back to the academic research of the last two or three decades. This migration of ideas from academic research papers, to consensus and understanding, to political policy, and finally law, is observable across the public policy spectrum. The underlying reason for this is the modern regard for science and the belief that our policies should be evidence based and not mere reflections of ideology or dogma. The essence of policy research is to create a map of how the world works and why it works that way (technically causation). This research process is not easy due to the influence of theories, assumptions and methodologies, which can determine what questions we are allowed to ask and what evidence can be accepted.

To demonstrate this process, and take a closer look at the research shaping our laws and policies, let us examine a research paper “Strategies for Reducing Gun Violence: The Role of Gangs, Drugs and Firearms Accessibility” by George E. Tita, PhD. This research paper is published by the National Crime Prevention Centre, Public Safety Canada and proudly displayed on their web site. (http://www. publicsafety.gc.ca/res/cp/res/gun-vlnce-eng.aspx)

Politics in Research The first issue is the dividing line between science and pseudo-science. As educated people, we realize that the 20

scientific process is supposed to be impartial and

evidence based. Accordingly, we draw a sharp

division between agenda scholarship produced by people who already have the preferred answer and will do whatever it takes to “find it” and actual research that gives priority to evidence. It’s a question of separating empirical research from political polemics. However, in criminology research this distinction is more nuanced because politics will inevitably drive policy (all public policies have a political dimension) and policy in turn will change what is happening on the street. For example, the policy choice that prioritizes re-habilitation over imprisonment will change the cost/ benefit calculations of criminals who will then modify their behaviour to suit. The impact of policy means that research into crime and violence will always have an inescapable political element.

Defining the Problem With these understanding firmly in mind let us return to the research paper to examine how the researcher defines the problem of gangs and gun violence. After noting that the US has much higher rates of gun violence in general and gang violence in particular he recommends “lawmakers in Canada would do well to learn from the decades of failed, as well as successful, US policies aimed at curbing gangs and gun violence.” Pg2 This must be done to prevent gun “violence in Canada from rivalling levels found in its southern neighbour.” Pg2 These statements imply that gun/ gang violence in Canada has an American origin. As proof of this phenomenon, he quotes Toronto Mayor David Miller’s statement that “the US is exporting its problem of violence to the streets of Toronto.” Pg2

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Let us look at these assertions more closely. The researcher has introduced a theory, the American origin of Canada’s gun/gang problem. He has also implied that without serious action this importation will accelerate to American levels of crime. The argument that gun/gang violence has an American source is commonplace enough but is it correct or just a political evasion of responsibility by Canadian politicians?

Is there actual evidence that gangs in Canada are hiring American advisors? How exactly does this importation work? What sort of evidence supports the politically convenient contention that the problems in Canada are really US problems and therefore not “really” the fault of Canadian authorities? The only evidence provided by the researcher to prove the importation theory is a transparently self-serving quote from an embattled Canadian politician. We might also note some underlying assumptions. The researcher merely assumes that Canada, with a more successful record of suppressing gangs and violence, needs to learn from the less successful US. He also assumes that our cities are so socially, demographically and culturally similar to the American drug gang capitals like Los Angeles and Detroit that they are vulnerable to a rapid escalation of gangs and violence. If one wishes to make a dramatic statement emphasising the importance of a problem this sort of rhetoric will serve, but the researcher has provided precious little evidence to justify his theory or assumptions.

The Use of Evidence For good research, and good policy good evidence is essential. So let us examine the evidence used to determine the source of crime guns in Canada, a critical issue in gun control policy. The author gives us evidence from several sources. He cites the Coalition for Gun Control to establish that crime guns are “diverted” from domestic owners, (52% of the time) and smuggled from the US (48% of the time).

Pg 6 He also uses the Coalition to establish that smuggling involves handguns more than rifles.Pg7 He quotes a Special Agent of the ATF’s Crime Gun Tracing unit in Seattle that each year between 150 and 200 handguns are recovered in crimes around Vancouver BC, the overwhelming majority of which were purchased in Washington state.Pg7-8 In the section on International Trafficking he observes that “there is very little official data released regarding the volume or types of guns smuggled across the border into Canada from the United States.”Pg 7 Other than the fact that illegal access to guns is out of control it is hard to determine what we should make of this hodgepodge. The author starts by using a political activist group with an obvious policy agenda as if it were a neutral scientific organization. The report notes the data on the Coalition’s web site is a decade out of date but makes no recognition of its political nature.Pg6-7 The author does not seem to notice that the statements of the Coalition are contradicted by www.nfa.ca

another of his sources, the ATF agent who states that the “overwhelming” source of crime guns is smuggling. Pg7-8 Even more telling is the admission by the author that “very little official data” has been released. Pg7 For starters, why does it have to be released? The author is doing a study for the National Crime Prevention Centre at Public Safety Canada. Can they not give him access to their data rather than compelling him to rely on public releases?

If we are talking aggregate level statistical data, which we are, why can it not be released? These questions highlight the nature of the author’s decision to use political activists as his source. However, the most damning revelation is his willingness to accept a political activist’s ability to determine crime gun sources to single-digit accuracy at the same time he explicitly recognizes that there is “little official data.” It is reasonable to regard his choice of authorities and acceptance of data as having more to do with politics then science.

Summary I began this article by addressing the importance of research and the need to sort science from pseudo-science. In our examination of one piece of research published by the National Crime Prevention Centre, we find a cheerful willingness to use contested statements of politicians as “evidence.” We also find the researcher using numerical data from a political activist for his analysis. This is particularly alarming when the author has explicitly stated in the same report that data at that level of detail simply does not exist.

Another issue in the research paper is the implicit assumption that guns can only be part of the problem never part of the solution. This assumption guarantees that any anti-gun policy will always be justified by the “facts.” The significant body of research in guns as a deterrent to violent crime is simply ignored. To give an idea of how much reality is being excluded we might note that Florida passed the first self-defence concealed carry bill in 1987 and over 30 other states have followed its example. A number of scientific, peer reviewed, studies place the number of US defensive gun uses per year in the millions.* Rejecting evidence can be just as political as accepting it.

With research like this, one does not have to look far for the source of Canada’s highly problematic gun laws and the perverse anti-gun bias of many official governmental actors and agents.

Author can be reached at goldb@shaw.ca for comment *See: Gary Mauser, “Armed self defense: the Canadian Case,” Journal of Criminal Justice, Vol 24, No 5, pp 393-406. http://www.sfu.ca/~mauser/papers/selfdefense/CSD-JCJJFP-8-3-99.pdf

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By Jesse L. Hardin

I first became aware of fledgling firearms parts and accessories manufacturer NEIT ARMS Co. while researching a previous MADE RIGHT HERE article featuring NEA and their line of parts for the CZ-858/VZ-58 family of firearms. Founder and CEO of NEIT ARMS, Mr. Dave McFaul had consulted with NEA on many of their designs and had been singled out for his contribution to that company’s early success.

It is this same spirit of innovation and expertise that founder and CEO Dave McFaul would ultimately bring to NEIT ARMS Co. Also based in Ontario, NEIT ARMS has developed a strong following within the Canadian firearms community with their pioneering parts designs and commitment to delivering the highest possible quality product to market. Their market share has grown quickly, and NEIT ARMS parts can now be found on rifles across Canada, as well as internationally, including the USA, Europe and beyond.

While I usually prefer to run my tactical style rifles ‘lean & mean,’ rather than encumbered by too many unnecessary add-ons, and after-market accessories I immediately saw the advantages offered by the improved parts designs emanating from the NEIT design shop.

I’ve always been far more interested 22

Made Right Here:

NEIT ARMS CO. IMPROVING THE VZ-58

By Sean G. Penney

At the same time, Dave at NEIT ARMS also has an open door policy, and is happy to talk to customers over the phone or via E-mail and walk them through the process if they get really stuck. The hands-on, personal approach is much appreciated in this day and age.

in performance rather than cosmetics, so lucky for me; I was to ultimately discover both in the product line offered

by NEIT ARMS Co. For this latest instalment of MADE RIGHT HERE, I acquired three examples of the NEIT ARMS product line, including one each or their NEIT Extended Mag Release (Model EMR002), NEIT Tac Bolt Release (Model TBR) and NEIT Single Point Sling Plate (Model ASP-003). While the parts mentioned are ostensibly marketed as SA VZ-58 parts, they work equally well with the related CZ-858 and new Czech Small Arms line of rifles which are based upon the original VZ-58 design.

After placing my order, the parts arrived very quickly via Canada Post Expedited mail and were well protected in a padded bubble mailer. The parts were individually bagged with custom printed NEIT ARMS CO. top cards identifying the contents. I have to admit that I found the packaging to be quite attractive and this extra attention to detail foreshadowed the quality of the NEIT ARMS product line that awaited me.

Given this evident attention to detail, I was surprised to discover, however, that there were no separate installation instructions included with my shipment. I did find that an abbreviated July - August

videos on YouTube and a variety of similar on-line video hosting sites.

Alas, I didn’t think to check on-line when completing my own installations.

However, between the posted videos and a number of Internet-based firearms forums dedicated to the CZ/ VZ family of rifles, I’m convinced even the rankest of amateur home gun mechanics should be able to finish their install in less than an hour.

set of instructions were printed on the reverse side of the package carding for the Extended Mag Release and Single Point Sling Plate, but for some reason the carding for the Tac Bolt Release lacked the same ancillary instruction.

Nonetheless, with a little extra effort I was able to puzzle things out for myself.

However, I’m sure a more detailed set of installation instructions would’ve been most welcome, especially had I been a novice gun owner attempting his/her first customization project. It was a simple oversight and one that I have since learned has been corrected via a downloadable PDF file from their website.

I was not surprised to later discover that a number of fellow CZ & CSA aficionados had run into similar problems. In response, I learned that a number of the more enterprising owners had taken the time to post basic “How-To” videos demonstrating the correct installation procedures for a variety of NEIT ARMS CO. parts.

You can still find these and similar www.nfa.ca

All parts reviewed in this feature were manufactured in Canada and were cut on state-of-the-art, multi-axis CNC machines. The machining for all three parts was simply flawless, with no defects, tool chatter or other tooling marks in evidence. Both the bolt and mag releases, were machined from, heat-treated 4140 steel, while the sling plate was 6061 T6 aluminum; the same super-tough alloy used in the manufacture of many firearm receivers and high-wear gun parts.

The sling plate and mag release were nicely finished in an attractive black colour. The sling plate was hard anodized to Type-III specs, while the mag release was parkerized. Both finishes wore extremely well through the course of the testing phase, while offering a typical “gritty” feel to the touch. The extended magazine and bolt release also had a series of parallel lines machined in their surface flats that permitted very positive operator control during magazine changes and action manipulation under all weather conditions. Incidentally, NEIT is now offering the same style mag release in ambidextrous format for you southpaw shooters out there.

is because of the lack of installation instructions, my lack of familiarity with the VZ design or I was just having a bad day. Either way, the release was eventually successfully installed and put through its paces. Unlike the other parts, the bolt release had a different metal finish that appeared to be more akin to bluing than anything else. It was a dark blue-black that better matched the factory finish on the Czech Small Arms Carbine used as a test platform, rather than its companion non-restricted CZ-858 test rifle. The latter is more greyish in colour.

Due to the variable dimensions of the various VZ rifles currently on the market, some minor fitting of the NEIT bolt release may be required. However, before breaking out the bastard file, take the rifle to the range and test it with loaded magazines. The release is designed to “wear in” to a certain degree with use. If you are function testing with a brand new, empty

I was pleasantly surprised by just how much improved my magazine change times were following installation of the new tactical bolt release and extended magazine release. Like the AK-47 and M-14, VZ-58 magazines must be rocked into the rifle’s magazine well.

You insert the front of the magazine into the well until it catches and rock the magazine backward until you hear and feel it seat. Unfortunately, the VZ-58, like many other classic COMBLOC designs, seems to have many of its controls and factory stocks scaled almost too small for our North American frames and musculature.

Both the factory magazine and bolt release are relatively tiny and do not lend themselves well to speedy mag changes. The NEIT ARMS products offer vastly improved performance at an extremely cost effective price, and I highly recommend every VZ-58 owner give some serious thought into upgrading their basic rifle thusly.

As for the NEIT Single Point Sling Plate, I ended up installing it on the CZ-858 test rifle that sported the fixed stock. The current sling plate is ambidextrous and offers sling points for both left and right hand operators.

As such, it is not recommended for use with rifles equipped with the factory folding stock, and NEIT is upfront with this caveat on their web site. If you are happy to run your rifle without folding the stock, the sling plate can be used as is. However, you will have to break

Perhaps the most time consuming of the three parts to install was the NEIT Tac Bolt Release. I don’t know if this www.nfa.ca

30 round magazine, with a virgin magazine spring, it may prove difficult to manipulate the release against the spring pressure. The release works best with a loaded magazine, so bear this in mind following the installation. Trying to operate the release on an empty rifle is not a fair test. If after proper testing you still aren’t satisfied, NEIT ARMS offers an outstanding warranty and Dave McFaul and Co. will make things right to ensure your rifle is operating at peak efficiency.

Made Here- Cont. On Page 29 July - August

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Hunting with the DPMS Panther Arms LR-338L in .338 Federal

by Norman Gray

The DPMS Panther Arms LR-338L was born to hunt big game Hunting larger game with an AR

platform requires potent ammunition like the .338 Federal and only one AR delivers it, the DPMS Panther Arms LR-338L. Since the inception of the AR platform more than 5 decades ago, it has grown from a military small arm to a viable hunting rifle in a wide varity of calibers from the .17 Remington all the way to heavy hitting .458 SOCOM. DPMS (Defense Procurement Manufacturing Services) is the only company that has harnessed the .338 Federal in an AR platform and has given the hunter a potent choice for taking larger game. The LR-338L is designed from the ground up as a hunting rifle and comes to you with one, four round and one, ten round magazines, (you can request two, four round magazines) sling, carrying case, owner’s manual and a DPMS sticker to show your pride.

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Think it’s a tactical rifle? Absolutely not, and while it may share its origins with similar tactical firearms, the LR338L is a thoroughbred hunting rifle designed to put food on the table and a trophy on the wall. Factory ammunition is still a bit pricey for target shooting, most offerings fall into the “premium hunting” catagory. For instance, Federal Ammunition currently offers six bullet weights and types, from 180gr Nosler AccuBond Vital Shock to 210gr Nosler Partition Vital Shock that should cover most hunting needs.

As a hand loader, you will have more choices, but DPMS clearly states in their owner’s manual that using reloaded or foreign ammunition will void your warranty. But hand loading is the only way to build a custom load that performs the best in any given rifle and I will cover this later in the article.

The .338 Federal is a .308 caliber case July - August

necked up to hold a .33 caliber bullet.

So DPMS gave this round a rock solid platform starting with an 18 inch fluted barrel and adds a permanently affixed custom compensator for an overall length of 21.4 inches. The Button rifled barrel is constructed of 416 stainless steel and is considered a light contour barrel with a six groove, righthand, 1:10 twist. Since the LR-338L is gas operated, and of a direct gas impingement design (meaning it vents gas directly back into the operating system to cycle) it uses a lightweight gas block to secure the gas tube, and has no means to attach a front mounted iron sight. You must use optics on the receivers A3 flattop Picatinny rail which is about 6.75 inches in length.

The barrel is then wrapped in a free floated carbon fiber tube that will offer durable protection to the barrel and gas tube; it also sports a sling stud for the 25

If you prefer the classic “Black Rifle” look, Magpul offers their excellent 20 LR magazine

provided sling. The barrel nut that attaches the hand guard to the upper receiver is also ventilated to aid in air flow over the barrel.

The upper receiver resembles an AR, however, DPMS has squared the edges of the rifle, instead of rounding them off.

This creates a striking contrast that is most clearly seen in the shape of the forward assist and brass deflector. The charging handle, dust cover and rail are straight forward AR. The lower receiver follows the same stylized, squared design while using stock AR parts such as the bolt release, safety selector lever, magazine catch and the captured takedown pins. DPMS went with the Hogue rubber grip for improved control, in wet conditions. Be aware that the rubber is quite sticky and may cause the rifle to become hung-up on your clothing at times. The trigger is a two stage type most are familiar with, and is housed inside a durable metal trigger guard. Unlike other AR’s that allow you to open the gate for glove use, DPMS chose not to incorporate this feature.

The trigger guard is generous in size and should handle most hunting gloves, but will not accommodate mitten style gloves. The magazine well is larger to accommodate the .338 Federal, and as it accepts all DPMS magazines, it will accept Magpul’s excellent 20LR PMag as well.

Top to bottom: Standard Colt .223 bolt group and DPMS LR-338L bolt group

The stock is skeletonized according to DPMS to reduce weight, although the stock still has a trap door. Visually, it may be a little off-putting to some, but makes for a firm two handed hold or if you’re passing an unloaded rifle to someone. Lastly the buffer and spring, aside from being larger to accommodate the .338 Federal, are what you would expect to see in any AR platform. If you have never owned a larger caliber AR, the first thing you notice upon disassembly is the heavier and redesigned bolt carrier and bolt. For the most part they are identical but vary to a degree from manufacturer to manufacturer. The DPMS bolt carrier and bolt design looks much like what you would find in a standard .223 design except hardier to handle the potent .338 Federal. They will field strip in much the same way, however.

The rifle weighs in at 8.4 lbs with the provided 4 round magazine, and 8.7 lbs with a loaded 4 round magazine containing the 185gr Barnes TripleShock. With the Trijicon TR20-1 AccuPoint 3-9x40 riflescope and 4 rounds of the same ammunition, the rifle weighed in at 9.75 lbs. The overall length is a little over 39 inches and the trigger pull was a consistent 5.25 lbs. The exterior is hard coat anodized mil spec and Teflon coated black. The rifle’s upper and lower receivers match with little play. The rifle handles well and is balanced for its size. One of the things I do when testing firearms is to let other shooters fire the rifle to get their opinions. The shooters range in all skill levels and backgrounds, so I get a good mix of feedback. Their comments fell in the order of: recoil, trigger pull, weight, esthetics and ammo, but in general, all the shooters liked the rifle and scope combination. All shooters reported that they never knew this rifle or the .338 Federal existed. I can only conclude there may be a few more sales of the RL-338L in the future for dpms.

Since using iron sights is out of the question on this rifle, Trijicon sent me their TR20-1 3-9x40 AccuPoint.

I have always been a fan of Trijicon because of their use by the military and they build tough optics that use illuminated reticules and best of all, require no batteries. This model uses a standard crosshair with a dot that uses

the Trijicon tritium phosphor lamp, surrounded by aircraft grade anodized aluminum.

Trijicon incorporates great features into the TR20-1 like fiber optics with automatic brightness control; this allows you to manually set your brightness level. Longer eye reliefs for use with heavy hitters like the .338 Federal, easy focus eye piece and multi-layer coated lenses for clarity and light gathering with no distortion aid you in the field. All these features are wrapped in a matte black finish with no glare or light reflection to make a great looking scope. The TR201 seemed a very good match for the type of hunting you will be doing with the .338 Federal and Trijicon backs it optics with a lifetime warranty for the original owner.

The .338 Federal began its service in 1986 and gave the hunter a medium caliber in a known cartridge case for light rifles such as the LR-388L. The 338-08, a 308 Winchester necked up to hold a .338 bullet was the cartridge the .338 Federal was modeled after and with some minor modifications it became what it is today. Cartridges such as the .348 Winchester, .35 Remington and the .358 Winchester, although proven calibers, couldn’t compete in range with the new .338 Federal that Federal ammunition engineers had designed. The .338 Federal was designed for shots out to 200 yards and delivers over 3200 ft/lbs of energy with

The skeletonized stock offers some weight savings at the expense of lost stock storage capability

From L to R: .338 Federal and .308 Winchester 26

a max pressure of 62,000 psi. It works well with powders that drive the .223 and with up to 225 grain bullets, will take deer, elk and black bears all with the recoil of a standard 30-06 rifle.

Factory 180 or 185 grain loads will easily take any deer you care to hunt , but if you’re going to move up to moose and bear, heavier 200+ grain bullets would be a sound choice. Hand loaders have more choices, so you should shop around and see what bullet makers offer. Barnes does a good job of making bullets for penetration and expansion and Hornady bullets are exceptional in accuracy and performance. Sometimes the bullet that performs the best in the rifle is not the best bullet for the hunt and as a rule of thumb, whenever you switch loads, make sure you re-zero as all rounds point of aim, point of impact are different.

Federal Premium Ammunition provided me with three types of their .338 Federal. 180gr Nosler Accubond, 185gr Barnes Triple-Shock and 200gr Fusion for testing. Other ammunition companies manufacture the .338 Federal but Federal Premium specializes in their namesake caliber providing 6 bullet weights and types to choose from. I found that they performed as expected with groups averaging from 1.4 to 2 inches at 100 yards. Chronograph results yielded positive results as well with good velocities for such a large and heavy

The low-profile factory DPMS magazine offers sufficient cartridge capacity for most hunting situations

Hogue grips are a nice touch and provide a secure grip under the wettest hunting conditions July - August

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hitting bullet with standard deviation and extreme spread being low.

Even though DPMS doesn’t allow using hand loads in its rifle for warranty purposes, I still used them in my testing because they allow you to customize your loads and ring out the best possible accuracy for this rifle. Once you do this, they could retain the right to refuse warranty service at their discretion.

I would caution new hand loaders to take care loading for this caliber, but experienced loaders shouldn’t experience too many problems. With reasonable care, and following all the safety rules for hand loading, you can create ammunition that will make your RL338L even more accurate. After

chronographing and firing my factory loads, I cleaned my Federal brass and started reloading. Since there isn’t a lot of load information on this round I worked carefully with my mentor Bob Shell, and used information we found for the .358 Winchester. These two cartridges are identical except for bullet diameter so it makes a good choice for a loading reference for the .338 Federal.

After full length resizing and depriming each case, it is a good idea to check your case’s overall length using loading data or a factory cartridge.

Semi-automatics such as the LR-338L will not chamber overly long rounds.

Under length rounds will not be as accurate because the bullet is not sitting

Federal Premium Factory Loads Chronograph Results LOAD

Federal

BULLET

VELOCITY

NOTES

180 grain Nosler Accubond 2777

consistent

Federal 185 grain Barnes Triple shock 2681

good load

Federal

200 grain Fusion

2630

good load

at the optimal distance to the lands and grooves. The proper overall length of Factory .338 loads is 2.894” and while it will tolerate plus or minus that by a few thousands of an inch, make sure you keep it as close as possible for best function and performance. After you have loaded your cartridges, make sure you check function in the magazine and rifle before you head out on that big hunt; the field is not the place to find your ammo will not chamber.

Through trial and error I found this to be a valuable bit of information that will save you time and aggravation at the bench and in the field.

Here are the results from my reloads that were chronographed on a RCBS, Ammo Master. I made up seven loads using my Federal .338 Brass and various powders.

A few small issues I discovered along the way were easy to fix like the magazine not locking open after the last shot or stripping another round from the magazine. On the AR rifles

The AR platform offers low felt-recoil and is an ideal choice of firearm for youth, female and recoil-sensitive hunters & shooters

LOAD POWDER

BULLET

VELOCITY NOTES

44 Gr IMR 4895

225 grain Hornady

2461

consistent

47 Gr AA 2520

200 grain Hornady

2494

best load

48 Gr IMR 4320 200 gr FTX 2461

really consistent

47 Gr IMR 4895

200 gr FTX

2494

satisfactory

47 Gr AA 2520

200 gr FTX

2462

consistent

41 Gr 748 225 gr Hornady 2123

consistent but light load

41 Gr 748 210 gr Barnes solid 2147

consistent but light load

the magazine release is spring loaded and if you push in the release with a small object it pushes out the other side and can be turned to tighten up the hold on the magazine. Using light loads may not generate enough gas pressure to cycle the bolt properly to eject and strip a new round from the magazine.

A few grains of powder seemed to fix this issue, but proceed with care. Safety is paramount, so be sure to consult a reputable loading manual. With my eye relief on the AccuPoint, the scope overhung the charging handle and made it difficult to chamber a round using the factory charging handle. An aftermarket charging handle with extended ears will fix this problem and a different eye relief may aid this as well.

The recoil plate has a diamond cut pattern to aid in keeping the rifle in your shoulder pocket, although they are sharp and shooting it repeatedly in a t-shirt will leave the pattern on your skin. For extended shooting sessions I suggest a pad or jacket, however, with a hunting jacket it poses no issues.

Overall the DPMS LR-338L is a well built rifle and with proper maintenance and care it will give you many years of faithful service, and I would have no problem taking it on almost any big game hunt in North American.

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Made Here- Cont. From Page 23

Reloading Chronograph Results

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Sources: DPMS www.dpms.com Federal Premium Ammunition www.federalpremium.com Trijicon www.trijicon.com Elite Tactical Components www.elitetacticalcomponents. com

DISCLAIMER: The information contained in the above article is provided for informational purposes only and are used by readers strictly at their own risk. Neither the author, the Canadian Firearms Journal nor Canada’s National Firearms Association assumes any legal liability or responsibility for any property damage, injury, nor death that may occur as a consequence of using the information contained within the above article. We recommend consulting a reputable reloading manual.

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out the hacksaw or Dremel tool and remove the offending sling attachment point in order to allow the factory stock to properly fold. Hopefully NEIT will eventually offer the option of ordering a dedicated left or right plate in addition to the flagship ambi-plate now in their line.

I ran the NEIT parts on both rifles for approximately five months, including at the range and afield in the Newfoundland bush. As I live on the shores of Conception Bay, on the province’s Avalon Peninsula, the air is always laden with the tang of salt; the bane of gun owners everywhere and the mortal enemy of gun metal. There were no corrosion issues encountered and all parts were used hard, although they weren’t deliberately abused.

After pretty extensive testing and lots of honest use, I would feel quite comfortable running either NEIT “improved” rifle in competition, or in the field. I have to give Dave McFaul and the gang at NEIT ARMS Co. full marks for manufacturing a top-notch product line that offers fans of the VZ58 some real opportunity to improve the performance and comfort of their firearm. As I write this I’m eagerly awaiting the arrival of my new NEIT Arms Crusader muzzle brake.

You can check out the entire NEIT ARMS Co. product line on-line at www.NeitArms.com. They also have a growing list of stocking dealers that include most of the major firearms dealers in Canada, including Wolverine Supplies, One Shot Tactical, Target Sports, Ellwood Epps, The Shooting Edge and many more.

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Handguns of WW l

By Bob Shell with Sean G. Penney

The Allies – Starting with the Allies, the United States fielded the Model 1911 .45 ACP designed by John Browning. It replaced the .38 Long Colt, which proved to be an unsatisfactory combat round against Moro tribesmen in the Philippines. The .45 ACP was arguably the most effective combat handgun fielded by any combatant during the war. A magazine fed, semi-automatic design, it had a 7 round capacity, with an additional round available in the chamber. The standard load consisted of a 230 grain FMJ bullet launched at about 855 fps producing some 405 ft-lbs of energy. It proved an extremely reliable, accurate and effective weapon in the hands of American “Doughboys.” It was so good that a century later, many Special Forces units continue to use the improved Model 1911A1in combat today.

Even though the rifle is the soldier’s best friend many, especially officers carried handguns. Some other units who for one reason or another didn’t want to carry a rifle used handguns mostly for self defense against enemy troops. As we will see some countries didn’t take combat handguns seriously and used obsolete designs and weak rounds. It seems that some countries used handguns as an afterthought. Handguns were generally issued to such personal as officers, machine gun units and medical personal that might need a weapon for self defense at close range. Pilots also carried them in the event that they were taken down behind enemy lines. While they lack the power and accuracy of a rifle they are much handier to carry. Also since the ammo is smaller and lighter then rifle shells more can be carried which may have been an important consideration sometimes.

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During the war, demand for the 1911 outstripped manufacturing capacity. As a result, the American military was forced to adopt several “substitute-standard” revolvers to make up for the shortfall in 1911 production.

Ultimately, the US was forced to adopt both Colt’s and Smith & Wesson’s large frame revolvers to meet combat requirements. Both were chambered in .45 Auto Rim, which was basically a rimmed version of the standard .45 ACP. To speed reloading and to aid positive ejection, half and full moon metal clips were developed that permitted standard .45 ACP cartridges to be used. Since the ballistics of the rimmed cartridge were virtually the same as for the auto, stopping power remained unchanged. Although originally finished in blue, both the Colt auto and revolvers were later parkerized to speed production and reduce unit cost.

The British and Commonwealth troops used various Webley revolvers in .455 Webley calibre. The .455 Webley cartridge was adopted in 1897 and saw extensive service throughout WW I. There are many variations of the Webley round but most of them are interchangeable. The military load was a 265 grain FMJ or hollow base bullet at about 600 fps giving 212 ft-lbs of energy. Some loadings were a little heavier. It was considered a satisfactory short range round for stopping an enemy. It did suffer from a much curved trajectory after about 25 yards. The break open Webley was popular and reliable and about 300,000 units were produced.

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A very interesting variant was the Webley-Fosbery invented in 1895. It has grooves cut into the cylinder and can be fired very rapidly. You cock the hammer for the first shot and then it can be fired as rapidly as an auto-loader.

Some British officers bought them and they saw some service in France in WW I. They were highly regarded as being accurate and reliable. Not many were made, about 4750 in all, and they are quite valuable today. Considering the horrendous double action trigger pull of most revolvers of the day, the Webley Fosbery really seemed attractive to many people interested in rapid fire revolvers. In my humble opinion the Webley-Fosbery was the most fascinating handgun of WW I. The British Royal Navy also introduced a .45 Webley auto pistol in 1912 that used a cartridge that resembles a .45 ACP round, but was longer and semi rimmed. However, it featured only a 200 grain bullet and produced just 700 fps of muzzle velocity, making it the inferior to the .45 ACP. Neither the pistol, nor the cartridge were considered satisfactory and were dropped after WW I. The handgun was a large, ungainly, and strange looking pistol.

The British, during the Great War, did seem enamored with large caliber pistols. Another variation used in WW I was the .455 Eley, and interestingly enough, the American firm, Colt’s, actually manufactured a number of them under contract. The cartridge was similar to the original Webley chambering, but offered a little increase in overall length. Diameter remained .45 calibre. Many Canadian units were equipped with the .455 Eley round and carried the Colt revolver throughout the war. At home, the Mounties adopted the cartridge as well and both saw extensive use long after the end of the war. The revolver was quite a large firearm, and enjoyed a reputation as being wellmade and extremely reliable. Like many of its contemporaries, the double action trigger was very heavy, making accurate shooting difficult. The single action pull is serviceable and easier to shoot accurately.

The Italians adopted the 9 mm Glisenti in 1910 to replace the Bodero revolver.

The cartridge resembles a Luger round

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but is loaded to lower performance levels. Also the Glesenti wasn’t as durable as the Luger, as the frame was weaker. Regular Luger ammo shouldn’t be fired in the Glesenti as it is too powerful for the action. I can’t help but wonder why such a handgun would have been designed in this way; knowing that the Germans had a more powerful round that would chamber in the Glisenti. Perhaps that is what makes some of these guns so fascinating - the “logic” or lack thereof when it came time to design and/or adopt these firearms.

The even more obscure 10.35mm Bodero also saw some service in WW I with the Italians. Like many weapons the 10.35mm was kept in service for years after it was declared obsolete. It fired a 180 grain bullet at about 700 fps which would make it a fairly decent short range stopper. The Bodero was produced at various locations and some even have brass frames and other variations. Interestingly, the officer’s model had a trigger guard, while the non officer’s model lacked this basic safety feature. It would certainly be amusing to hear the official explanation for such an ill-advised decision. In addition to the Glisenti and Bodero, the Italians also fielded a Beretta 7.65mm pistol, although it wasn’t highly regarded, and was considered underpowered and inaccurate.

The French adopted the 8mm Lebel cartridge for their Model 1892 revolver.

It was a rather anemic round, which replaced an equally poor combat round in the guise of the 11 mm French. The 8mm Lebel launched a 102 grain lead bullet at about 625 fps, producing just Top to Bottom:

US Model 1911 .45 ACP

Webley-Fosbery “Automatic” Revolver Russian 7.62mm Nagant

German “Broomhandle” Mauser combination holster & shoulder stock

.45 Auto Rim (Top) & .455 Eley (Bottom) - Both having seen Canadian service in WW I German “Red Nine” 9mm Broomhandle Mauser German Artillery Luger in 9mm

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104 ft-lbs of energy. The 11 mm, which saw some service, launched a 180 grain bullet at 695 fps, producing a paltry 195 ft-lbs of energy. Both revolvers were marginal, at best, as man-stoppers. Of the two, the 8mm Lebel was the more popular, and was liked for its reliability, if nothing else. Not immune to production shortages either, the French also adopted small numbers of a Savage contract pistol, the 1907 in 7.65mm (.32 Auto).

The Russians adopted the 7.62mm Nagant revolver in 1895 and it served as their primary sidearm for WW I. It boasted several unusual features, including 7-shot cylinder, instead of the more typical 5 or 6 rounds. As well, when the hammer is cocked, the revolver creates a unique gas seal between the barrel and cylinder. This adaptation was intended to boost muzzle velocity, and to an extent succeeded. The Nagant’s standard load also saw the bullet seated entirely within the case. Power wise it is about the equivalent of a .32 S&W Long, with its 98 grain bullet yielding a muzzle velocity of approximately 800 fps. The revolver is light and moderately accurate, but like most combat pistols, its double action trigger pull is abysmal.

Top to Bottom:

Standard 9mm German Luger

Model 12 Steyr Hahn in 9mm Steyr Italian 10.4mm Bodero

.455 Eley with ammunition US .45 Auto Rim Revolver

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The Nagant ultimately replaced the old Smith and Wesson revolver chambered for the .44 Russian round, although even some of these saw action during the war. The obsolete.44 Russian round was a product of the 19th Century and an 1870 contract between the Imperial Russian Army and American firm, Smith & Wesson. Like many of the Smith & Wesson revolvers of that period, it was a break open model. The military load fired a 246 grain lead bullet at 770 fps, producing 324 ft-lbs of energy. Compared to many of the other chambering fielded during the war, the .44 Russian remained a fairly decent stopper and enjoyed a good reputation for accuracy. As with their long arms, the Russians suffered from a severe lack of production capability, so anything that went bang was used.

Japan, though a minor player in WW I, did manage to see some action. In 1895 they adopted a new revolver, the Type 26 that superficially resembled the S&W, but which fired a 9mm cartridge of relatively low power. It was a double action only

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and suffered from and extremely heavy trigger pull, making it difficult to shoot accurately. It fired a 150 grain bullet at 650-750 fps, depending on the arsenal that loaded it. In 1904 the 8mm Nambu was officially adopted by Japan as their primary sidearm. They were generally very well-made pistols, however, like its predecessor, the 8mm Nambu failed to impress ballistically. It fired a 102 grain bullet at 950 fps, producing about 200 ft-lbs of energy. Outwardly, the Nambu resembled the German Luger in profile, but differed internally. The actual 8mm cartridge, however, did resemble the .30 Luger round, which may have also contributed to some cases of mistaken identity. For the most part, the Japanese viewed the sidearm more as a badge of honor or symbol of rank, rather than as a serious combat weapon. With the abundance of almost criminally anemic and marginally effective chambering, it would seem that the Japanese were not along in this adopting this attitude toward the lowly combat sidearm.

Central Powers – One of the Central Powers, Austria used a 9mm Steyr cartridge. It had a case slightly longer than the standard German 9mm Luger (9X23mm vs. 9X19mm for the German round). It is also quite similar to the 9mm Bayard round, and in some guns the two will interchange. The standard Steyr military load consisted of a 116 grain FMJ fired at around 1200 fps, making similar to the 9mm Luger round in power. They, along with some of their allies, also fielded several additional substitute sidearms, including the Model 4 and 1910 Mausers in 7.65mm, which was also popular in Germany.

Additionally, the Austrians also used the Models 07 and 12. Both models, the M07 and M12 served in WW I and WW II. The M07 was made for Cavalry and Jaegerregiments and Uhlanen etc., while the M12 was meant for issue to officers, field police (Military police), and other Austrian officials.

The M07 had an interesting trigger arrangement that included an initial stop, then a second, at which point the firearm discharged.This was for safety while on a horseback in battle conditions it was the best way to prevent accidental discharge during battle. Another series of

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guns used was the Mannlicher models 1900, 01, and 05 military auto pistols.

The cartridge was generally designated as the 7.63 to avoid confusion with the 7.65 which in this case is a 32 auto.

It closely resembles the later French 7.65 Long both in looks and power. It shoots an 86 grain bullet at about 1000 FPS giving it around 200 FT LBS of energy making it fairly anemic.

The real reason, for the odd calibers was mainly, when a gun was captured by the enemy, it could not be used directly against the Austrians. A directive order of 1901 stated that desire. The Austrians also used the 8 mm RastGasser revolver to a fairly wide extent. This strange and well made revolver was made from 1898 to 1918. The cartridge generally used a bullet of 125 grains launched at 750 FPS giving it around 170 FT Lbs of energy. It held 8 rounds and was a double action revolver. After the war Italy confiscated many of them and used them in WW ll. The 8 mm Roth Steyr auto was adopted by the AustroHungarian cavalry in 1907. It was an odd looking semi auto pistol that fired a 116 grain FMJ at 1090 FPS giving it about 310 FT LBS of energy. It has a non detachable magazine necessitating loading it from the top with a special clip. It seems that the Austrians had a wide selection of handguns to choose from. That doesn’t seem particularly efficient to me.

Other countries also adopted the 9 mm Steyr including Romania and Chile.

The Austrians also employed the 11mm Montenegrin as a secondary sidearm.

It is a very large revolver weighing around 4 ½ lbs and was originally designed to use black powder. First produced in 1870, it fired a .446” diameter, 300 grain lead bullet around 700 fps, producing approximately 300 ft-lbs of energy and making it a more than decent close range man stopper. Although long obsolete, a few Rast Gasser revolvers were also used during the war, and they were to also see service with Hungary as well.

Germany used the 9X19mm round chambered in the excellent autoloading Luger pistol. First adopted by the German navy in 1904, the Luger

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was subsequently accepted into army service in 1908. The cartridge was known by several different designations, including 9mm Luger, 9mm Parabellum and 9X19mm. In its original load, the 9mm Luger utilized a 115-124 grain FMJ and offered a muzzle velocity of about 1250 fps. It remains in use today and has turned out to be possibly the most popular handgun round for various police and military agencies world wide. One complaint, however, is its perceived lack of stopping power with ball ammo; although penetration is adequate.

The Germans also employed an additional 1 ½ million “Broomhandle” Mausers during WW I as a result of production shortfalls for the Luger. The fielded Mauser pistol was chambered in the 9mm as opposed to the .30 Mauser, and the grips were engraved with a large red 9 to prevent any confusion.

Despite this, there is no doubt that a few .30 caliber Broomhandle Mausers saw action in the Great War. Incidentally, combination holsters/shoulder stocks were common for both the Mauser and the artillery model of the Luger.

They also had sights graduated to 500 meters, which was rather optimistic.

For the most part, such weapons were effective out to a hundred yards or with the shoulder stock. They did have a poor reputation in terms of stopping power; it was thought that the small caliber full metal jacketed bullet was the culprit. The 9mm replaced the 11mm German service cartridge. The latter had launched a 262 grain bullet at 700 fps, producing around 290 ft-lbs of energy.

While obsolete, there were a few 11mm revolvers fielded during the war, and it ended up servings as a fairly adequate close range cartridge.

All of those sidearms are interesting regardless of their ballistic capabilities.

Why some were picked for military service will forever remain a mystery.

If you have any of these guns then you should take them out and shoot them as long as they are in safe condition. If in doubt have a gunsmith check them out.

Ammo for some may be a challenge to obtain though a little determination will turn some up. Anytime you get a chance to shoot a historical gun by all means do so. You won’t regret it.

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Top to Bottom:

Italian 9mm Glisenti

German Broomhandle Mauser in .30 Mauser

US .45 Auto Rim Revolver made by Colt

German “Red Nine” 9mm Broomhandle Mauser L-R: .45 Auto Rim, .45ACP, .455 Webley Auto, .455 Eley, .455 Webley

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firearms registration. As stated by the RCMP in their report, they continue to spend an additional $22.3 million1 per year to maintain the registry – not $4 million as Chief Blair of the CACP has led us to believe.

Gun Control in Canada

Why do organizations like the CACP and CGC insist that we continue to throw so much money at a program that addresses such a tiny fraction of crime in this country? Why do these organizations continue to fight so vehemently for a program that has absolutely no evidence to support its usefulness?

By Jennifer Dadson

Perhaps it’s because these organizations are not interested in preventing crime at all.

The role of the CACP is to look after the best interests of police officers. Understandably, the CACP wants police to have more power and access to more tools to maintain order in our society. However, just because the CACP wants something, that doesn’t mean it’s in the best interest of the people for them to have it. This is the same organization, after all, that was adamantly opposed to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Indeed, the opening line in the CACP Brief presented to the Special Joint Committee reads, “The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police is of the firm opinion that a Charter of Rights and Freedoms enshrined in the Constitution is neither necessary nor desirable.”5

In the wake of the May 2nd election, the political landscape in Canada has changed dramatically. However, there is one debate that remains the same: gun control.

The second point is more complicated to address, yet far more critical to the debate on gun control. What are the true motives of gun control advocates in Canada?

Over the last year there has been a lot of debate over the long-gun registry and gun control in general. Now, with a Conservative majority government in power, that has promised to abolish the long-gun registry, the topic of gun control will once again be front and centre. It’s long past time to cut through the rhetoric, misrepresentations and lies and get to the heart of the matter.

Two of the most vocal supporters of the registry in Canada are the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP), and the Coalition for Gun Control (CGC).

The actual process of registering a firearm remains a relatively uncomplicated procedure at the end of the day, right? So why are gun owners are so firmly set against it?

There are two answers to that question: 1. Registration of firearms does nothing to prevent crime.

2. Gun owners simply do not trust the motives of those who support registration.

The first point is easy to tackle. Gun owners represent a very broad cross-section of society; however one thing that many have in common is that they tend to value their privacy and individual liberty more than most. With the government already requiring so much information about our day to day lives, is it wrong of gun owners to ask for a valid reason before they give out even more information? Is it wrong of them to ask the government to prove that a list of names and serial numbers is actually beneficial to society? Until advocates of the gun registry can prove that it is actually useful in preventing crime, gun owners will continue to oppose it.

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The CACP tells us that the firearms registry is a critical tool for fighting crime. Yet according to the recently released RCMP report1 on the Canadian Firearms Program, 97.6% of all violent crime in 2006 did not involve a firearm. What does the CACP have to say about the 302,860 victims of violent crime2 who were not assaulted with a firearm in 2006?

The CGC and their member groups tell us that the firearms registry is critical in preventing violence against women. Yet according to Statistics Canada, 99.9% of spousal assaults against women in 2006 did not involve a firearm. Only 34 of 32,028 female victims of spousal abuse3 were assaulted with a firearm. What about the other 31,994 victims?

Both organizations tell us that crime has dropped since the registry was introduced in 2001. If we look at the Statistics Canada Reports, to which these organizations refer, spousal violence3 and homicide4 have been dropping since the 1970s – long before the firearms registry was ever imagined.

Firearms deaths4 have remained relatively constant over the same time period, while violent crime2 has been increasing steadily. So what impact exactly has the registry had on crime in Canada?

Since 2001, taxpayers have spent billions of dollars on

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Chief Bill Blair, the current police chief for Toronto as well as the president of the CACP, is a staunch supporter of the firearms registry. He is also responsible for the largest mass arrests in Canadian history6 at the 2010 G20 summit in Toronto. He has unapologetically admitted to lying to the Canadian public about the now infamous “5-metre Law”7 at the same summit. He also organized bogus weapons displays8 after the summit, in an effort to prove that his heavy-handed policing tactics were necessary. As was pointed out earlier, we now also know that Chief Blair has been misleading Canadians as to the true costs of the firearms registry.

Chief Blair has shown us quite clearly that he values police power at the expense of honesty and civil liberties. Why should Canadians believe anything that he or the CACP have to say on gun control?

While Chief Blair’s tactics are deplorable, they are at least understandable. The same cannot be said of other gun control advocates.

The Coalition for Gun Control is a member group of IANSA (International Action Network on Small Arms). In a televised debate9 with Wayne Lapierre, Executive Vice-President of the NRA, the former director of IANSA, Rebecca Peters said, “Yes, I believe that semiautomatic rifles and shotguns have no legitimate role in civilian hands. And not only that, handguns have no legitimate role in civilian hands.”

Wendy Cukier, co-founder of the CGC, stated in a 2006 interview10, “Although it doesn’t directly address the problem of illegal handguns, the registry helps create a culture that believes guns are dangerous and owners must be held accountable.” www.nfa.ca

Those two statements bear repeating. IANSA, of which the CGC is a member, has publicly stated that they would like to remove handguns as well as semi-automatic rifles and shotguns from civilian hands, while the CGC has stated that the purpose of the registry in Canada is to target legal gun owners and create a culture that fears guns.

Gun owners are often dismissed as “paranoid” by gun control advocates. When we couple the statements of Cukier and Peters with some notable quotes made by the politicians who spearheaded the introduction of our current firearms laws, perhaps gun owners are right to be paranoid.

In 1994, Minister of Justice, Allan Rock11 said, “I came to Ottawa with the firm belief that the only people in this country who should have guns are police officers and soldiers.”

In 1996, Liberal Senator Sharon Carstairs12, who later denied the comment, was overheard saying, “C-68 [now the Firearms Act] has little to do with gun control or crime control, but it is the first step necessary to begin the social re-engineering of Canada.”

More recently, political party leaders have come out in favour of complete bans on handguns and more stringent controls on shotguns and rifles.

In 2005, then Prime Minister Paul Martin said, “I’ve come to the conclusion that significant change is needed. I’ve come to the conclusion that we should ban handguns.”13 Green Party Leader, Elizabeth May was quoted in an interview saying, “the more that we restrict access to handguns, long guns, the better.”14 In 2008, NDP Leader Jack Layton said, “There’s no way that people should have handguns in cities unless they’re law enforcement officers.”15 “I don’t see a good reason why we can’t ban handguns in this country. I put that to all federal leaders,” said Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty in 2008.16 According to former Liberal Party Leader, Stephane Dion, “Military assault weapons have no connection to hunting or sport shooting, and serve absolutely no purpose in our society. No one outside of the military needs these weapons and we would all be safer without them in Canada.”17 While it’s a noble goal to aim for a peaceful society, banning civilian firearm ownership will never result in a Utopia where only the police and the military are armed. It will result in a society where the criminals are armed and the people are defenseless against them. Outlawing guns doesn’t make any of us safer. The focus of our legislation needs to be on the crime itself, not the tool that is used to commit it.

It’s quite plain to see that there has been a concerted effort in this country to convince the general public that guns are evil, and that anyone who owns them is evil by association. Is it any wonder that legal gun owners in Canada feel persecuted?

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The Canadian

Firearms Program continues to be extremely misunderstood by average Canadian gun owners. We continue to get many E-mails and phone calls at head office from gun owners confused as to whether or not they still need a firearms license or need to register their hunting rifle, or if they even need to renew an expired license. While we may disagree with many of the legal requirements currently imposed upon Canadian gun owners by the Liberal C-68 Firearms Act, it remains the law. As such, gun owners are required to comply with it.

It would seem, that in many cases they remain confused over Conservative “compliance incentives,” introduced with the stated aim of increasing public compliance with current firearms licensing and registration provisions. The goal was to simplify and streamline the renewal process for license holders as much as possible, in order to encourage greater compliance with the law. While originally intended to be a short-term “band-aid,” until they could introduce genuine firearms reform, this compliance incentive program has been renewed every year since then.

l a Leg er n r Co G. Sean

ey

Penn

ce n e i l p Com ves ti n e c In

by

One of the least understood of these incentives has been the associated amnesty introduced in accordance with section 117.14 of the Criminal Code. This amnesty was enacted in order to protect non-compliant owners of non-restricted long guns from criminal liability, and to permit them to take the necessary steps to bring themselves into legal compliance with current licensing and registration requirements without fear of prosecution.

Compliance Incentives - Amnesty

* Previous POL holders with a PAL application still in process may apply for a new POL under this initiative.

◦EXPORT the firearm in accordance with all legal requirements, including those of the importing country, or

* Grandfathering privileges for prohibited firearms are permanently lost when a POL expires.

◦TURN IN the firearm to a police officer or a firearms officer for destruction or other disposal The amnesty does not apply to individuals who have never obtained a firearms licence.

The amnesty applies to individuals in the following circumstances: •Individuals who are in possession of a non-restricted firearm and hold a Possession Only Licence (POL) or a Possession and Acquisition Licence (PAL) for such a firearm, but do not hold a registration certificate for that firearm, or •Individuals who are in possession of a non-restricted firearm, who do not hold a registration certificate for the firearm in question and who:

◦Held a POL or a PAL that expired between January 1, 2004 and the present, or

◦Currently hold a POL or a PAL that will expire between now and May 16, 2013

•Licensed individuals can obtain a registration certificate for their non-restricted firearm; •Individuals with expired licences can obtain a new licence and then a registration certificate.

•All individuals can ◦DEACTIVATE the firearm so it is no longer a firearm, or ◦SELL or GIVE the firearm to a public service agency (such as police service), to a business (including a museum) that holds a July - August

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*As a result, ANY PROHIBITED class firearms in your possession must be lawfully disposed of thereafter.

Compliance Incentives – Fee Waiver

Current fee waiver is in effect until May 16, 2012.

In addition to the above amnesty, the Government also introduced further measures that permit holders of expired Possession Only Licences to re-apply and obtain a new POL which will serve to bring them into compliance with current regulations. Prior to the introduction of this incentive, the only option available to holders of expired POL’s was to complete the Possession and Acquisition License application process. The POL remains valid for five years and permits firearms owners to continue to legally posses registered firearms as well as legally borrow firearms from any class for which they have an endorsement, i.e., nonrestricted, restricted, or prohibited.

Under the current Government directed incentives, individuals no longer have to pay the fee for the renewal of their Possession Only Licence (POL) or their Possession and Acquisition Licence (PAL). The fee waiver also applies to:

The POL does not allow for the acquisition of more firearms, however, you may apply to register firearms in your possession that were not formerly registered as per the current amnesty explained above.

This fee waiver does not apply to:

The current amnesty will remain in effec until May 16, 2013.

The amnesty permits the following:

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licence authorizing the acquisition, or to an individual who holds a PAL which authorizes the acquisition, or

Compliance Incentives – Possession Only License

Current POL incentive will continue to be in effect

until May 16, 2013

Possession Only Licence (POL) Firearm owners whose POL expired on or after January 1, 2004, may be eligible to apply for a new POL, if they meet all of the following criteria:

•individuals who are modifying their licence to upgrade from a POL to a PAL; •individuals who are adding new privileges to their licence; •individuals whose licence expired and are obtaining a new licence; and •minors who renew their Minors Possession licence.

•individuals obtaining their first licence; •individuals who held a minors licence and are applying for a PAL; •individuals who are obtaining a new licence after their licence was refused or revoked; and •individuals obtaining a licence after the expiry of a firearms prohibition order.

For additional information you may contact the Canadian Firearms Program at 1-800-731-4000 or on-line http:// www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/index-eng.htm

•They previously held a POL which expired naturally (was not revoked or refused); •They are in possession of at least one restricted or nonrestricted firearm that was or is registered; and •They meet all public safety requirements in order to possess firearms.

Eligible individuals who have maintained a valid address with the Canadian Firearms Program (CFP) will be sent a new POL application under this initiative.

There is no fee for the new POL. NOTE:

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Murder Rates Can Increase ADer Gun Bans (standardized with the murder rate in 1970 = 1.00) 6.00

How to argue for scrapping the long-gun registry

Standardized Rates per 100,000 popula4on

5.00

By Gary Mauser

4.00

3.00

Jamaica E&W ROI

2.00

1.00

That is not what the research found. The murder rate in New Zealand was the lowest of the three countries and murders involving firearms fell the fastest. In Australia, despite the more Draconian bans, the gun murder rate did not decline any faster than Canada’s. Obviously, New Zealand’s decision to abandon their longgun registry did not lead to an increase in gun murders. Nor did the Australian gun ban play an important role in the declining murder rate.

1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

0.00

Sources: Home Office, London, Guarda, Jamaican Constabulary

Credibility is everything. Anyone who actually wants to get parliament to change the laws, rather than just listen to themselves talk, must be credible. Why would anyone listen to an ignorant blowhard? If activists want to influence politicians, it is important to get the facts straight. Canadian gun owners have legitimate complaints, but they will be ignored if their arguments are not well documented and communicated effectively. The facts support civilian firearms ownership, so those who want to argue for scrapping the long-gun registry or even the entirety of Bill C-68 can be on solid ground. That is, if they really want to try.

In this article, I briefly outline how to argue that gun laws fail to reduce violent crime and give international examples. I will also provide examples that will be more useful than repeating the same old tales about life in idyllic Switzerland surrounded by machine guns or the urban myth about how Australian gun laws caused crime to jump. Some of these stories have been floating around the internet for quite awhile.

Few in the Northern Hemisphere seem to know much about Australia. For example, I have been sent many times easily debunkable emails extolling the antics of rabid Aussie grandmas. http://www.snopes.com/crime/justice/grambo.asp . Or, claims about Australian gun laws that are just as bogus, http://www.snopes.com/crime/statistics/ausguns.asp . These are nonsense and nonsense is damaging to our credibility.

Evaluating legislation is difficult to do. Perhaps that’s why so few people are willing to actually try. Nevertheless, there are a few simple steps anyone can take to determine roughly whether a law is effective or not, but a rigorous evaluation is probably best left to experts. The first step is to decide on an appropriate measure for evaluating effectiveness, such as public safety. If a gun law, such as owner licensing or a gun ban, is to be considered successful, supporters of the gun law need to show that the law improved public safety by reducing gun violence, criminal violence, or homicide.

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Let’s start with the basics. If registering guns or banning certain types of guns had some effect on crime rates or on suicide rates, how could we tell? Would murder rates jump? Fall? Clearly, other factors besides legislation drive violent crime, such as the economy, as well as social and cultural characteristics. For example, violent crime tends to decrease when the economy improves and increase when the economy collapses. In the real world, many events happen simultaneously. However important legislation may be, it is rarely the most powerful factor behind crime rates in a given year. Given that legislation takes place in a busy environment, the key to knowing whether it had an effect is to eliminate the influence of as many other factors as possible. Researchers use complex statistical models in an attempt to do this.

Internationally, gun bans are often followed by shocking increases in murder rates and violent crime. But not always. In England, homicide rates soared after handguns were banned; murder rates tripled after virtually all firearms were banned in Republic of Ireland and Jamaica. On the other hand, homicide rates fell after Bill C-68 was introduced in Canada in 1995 and after self-loading long guns were banned in Australia in 1997 (Mauser 2007, 2008). How can we account for this?

Why do homicide rates increase in one country but decrease in another? If gun laws are claimed to increase homicide rates, what is to be done when homicide drops in other countries following the imposition of draconian gun laws?

As near as anyone can tell, restrictive gun laws are ineffectual.

No solid research exists showing that laws limiting the availability of guns have any effect on violent crime: good or bad. As mentioned before, the basic drivers of homicide rates are social, cultural and economic, not legislative. Few gun laws touch these basic factors. Violent crime primarily involves organized gangs and smuggled firearms, which continue to drive crime rates after gun bans just as they did before. Unsurprisingly, gun bans only disarm law-abiding citizens so that violent crime continued to spiral out of control in England, the Republic of Ireland and Jamaica.

Homicide rates had been falling in Canada and Australia before the mid-90s gun laws and continued to do so afterwards; in Canada’s case, homicide rates only fell for a few years before

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www.nfa.ca

Murder Rates Can Decrease A@er Gun Laws Introduced 3.00

2.50

Rates per 100,000 popularion

Do gun regulations have any effect on criminal violence? On suicide? It is easy to pontificate on these questions, but solid answers are harder to come by. All too often, people make outrageous claims without checking the facts; some even do so while acting as if they know it all.

2.00

Australia

1.50

Canada New Zealand 1.00

0.50

-­‐

1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Source: Australian Bureau of Sta7s7cs, Sta7s7cs Canada, New Zealand Police

rebounding. The gradual decline of the homicide rate in both countries is consistent with the claim that the gun law had no effect.

An alternative way to evaluate gun laws is to compare homicide rates in similar countries. Australia, New Zealand and Canada resemble each other rather closely (both socially and

economically), their homicide rates had been declining for decades, and all three countries have made major changes to their gun laws at roughly the same time. To see if murder rates fell faster in countries with tighter gun laws, Australian researchers analysed trends in firearm murder rates (McPhedran, Baker and Singh, 2010).

Comparison of Australian, Canadian and New Zealand Firearms Legislation Police background check Owners licence required Photograph required Licence length Details 'safe storage' regulations Handgun registration Long gun registration General ban on self-­‐loading long arms General ban on pump-­‐action long arms Separate permit required for each firearm acquired

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Australia Yes Yes Yes 5 years Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Canada Yes Yes Yes 5 yeas Yes Yes Yes No No No

New Zealand Yes Yes Yes 10 years Yes Yes No No No No

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While the gun laws in all three countries are quite similar, Australia has the most draconian British-style gun law (e.g., banning and confiscating semi-auto and pump action long guns), and therefore some have claimed that it would have the largest drop in violent crime rates. In contrast, New Zealand abandoned their long-gun registry in the 1980s, so if the registry had been valuable to the police, their murder rate had been predicted to be higher than those of the other two countries.

Remember, it is not necessary to argue that civilian gun ownership causes violent crime to fall. That may be true, but all that is required logically is to show that restricting civilian gun ownership fails to reduce criminal violence. Research shows that the long-gun registry doesn’t protect public safety. Recall these tips the next time you write or speak to an MP. Politicians can be educated, and the public’s support for gun rights can be fostered. But only with solid arguments.

Rather than provide angry rants, activists should focus on orderly presentations of solid criminological (or legislative) analyses. Be sure to mention the results of McPhedran, Baker and Singh’s research when writing to MPs. References McPhedran, Samara, Jeanine Baker, and Pooja Singh (2010). Firearm Homicide in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand: What Can We Learn From Long-Term International Comparisons?

Journal of Interpersonal Violence, XX(X) 1–12.

Mauser, Gary (2008). Firearms: Do Restrictive Laws Improve Public Safety? In John Meadowcroft (ed.), Prohibitions, Institute of Economic Affairs, London, England.

Mauser, Gary (2007). Hubris in the North: The Canadian Firearms Registry, Fraser Institute, Vancouver, BC.

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Western Lawmen:

Bat Masterson Integrity, Independence & Panache

by Jesse Wolf Hardin

The man who preferred to be called Bat, lawman and adventurer, lay slumped over in his chair. He’d died the way we wanted, with his “boots on” as that old saying goes, obstinately taking yet another stand against injustice. Still clutched tightly in Masterson’s right hand, was one of the tools of his trade, in instrument with which he was known to be expert and dangerous... not the criminal humbling Colt .45 that he had so often in the past employed, but the New York made fountain pen with which he wrote his sometimes combative and characteristically opinion-filled newspaper columns, scratching away on sheets of pressed paper as automobiles and trolleys whooshed and clanged down the busy streets just outside. And the 68 year old man had died from a heart attack rather than a bullet, his final piece for the Morning Telegraph neatly arrayed on the desk before him.

The “ginks,” he’d just written, “hold that because the rich man gets ice in the Summer and the poor man gets it in the Winter, things are breaking even for both... but I just don’t see it that way.” And there had been a lot of things he chose to see differently since moving from the West to the largest, most upscale city in the U.S. It may have been three decades or so since this feisty penslinger had slung a gun on the streets of Dodge City, Kansas and Leadville, Colorado, yet he never stopped being known around the “Big Apple” for both his reported exploits out in the perennially alluring West. Even in his sixties, with whitened and receding hair, heavier build and slowed gait, he was in nearly all cases treated with deference as well as respect. He came across as “just a friendly ol’ guy,” as one reporter put it, “with one hell of a history.”

As usual, the source of that so-often fanciful record were the many various literary and cinematic versions, from articles circulated during his time to Gene Barry’s portrayal on TV in the 1960s. The lot were spiced up in every way possible in order to get the attention of potential readers and viewers, and to increase the circulation or viewership of the host papers or stations. And rather than simply making it all up from start, the majority of the authors and screenwriters got their juicy material from Masterson’s many obliging buddies, always 40

happy to fill in the gaps where truth leaves off, spinning some spectacular yarns intended to dismay and delude. As late as 1926, a Bat acquaintance by the name of Fred Sutton was quoted as saying the lawman was responsible for the planting of 37 evil doers in Dodge City’s “Boot Hill.” An earlier 1887 Kansas paper claimed he’d killed a man on his birthday every year since he was a boy. And it may have all started in 1881 in southern Colorado, when a gullible reporter from the New York Sun was directed by a certain Dr. W. Cockrell to the jauntily dressed friend he claimed had decapitated the murderers of his brother, and had killed a total of 26 men.

Bat himself contributed to the fiction, through what he didn’t say as much as through the responses he gave in that Sun interview.

“I’ve not killed as many men as supposed,” was his cryptic reply, when quizzed by a Kansas City Journal correspondent in 1881. He confirmed his gunning down of his brother’s assailants and then, apparently warming to subject, claimed to have killed seven others in a single gunfight, and then added that he’d been charged with murder four times but had always been found not guilty.

The Journal story, which would be reprinted in papers all around the country, ended with its author asserting “whether he has killed 26 men... cannot be positively ascertained... but that many men have fallen by his deadly revolver and rifle is an established fact,“ and concluded that here was ”an illustration that the thrilling stories of life on the frontier are not always overdrawn.”

the Lady Gay bar in Sweetwater, Texas in 1876; even though some reported the fatal shots came from the notorious Ben Thompson, rather than Bat. And in April of 1878 he shot down two men after one of them had put a revolver slug through the belly of his brother Ed, a marshall of Dodge City at the time. This puts his possible lifetime record of men killed in a gunfight not at 38, or even 26, but at a more sober 2 or 3.

Masterson was friends with another Dodge City lawman, Wyatt Earp, and both would become exceptionally famous due largely to inflated accounts of their exploits. It was a late in life book of lies by Stuart Lake that cemented Earp as a cultural icon and shining knight, and the quoted interviews responsible for jump-starting Bat’s considerable fame. Both were also considered “sporting men,” were great fans of boxing, wore badges for periods of their lives, were known to be exceedingly good with a gun, and by implication peed standing up... but that’s about as far as the comparisons go.

Masterson bent or sidestepped the letter of the law on more than few occasions as we shall see, but unlike Earp, he never did so in an effort at personal enrichment. And while both men lost brothers to assailant’s bullets, Earp tracked down the killers after the fact and executed them on the spot whether armed or not. In 1877, Bat dropped the two men responsible for his brother Ed’s death, but he shot them while they were armed in what westerners called “a stand-up” fight. Earp was constantly fabricating additional embellishments to his own legend in order to make himself look more important and less sinister than he was. Bat’s motivation, on the other hand, seems to have been more to see how far he could stretch the truth and get away with it, in the time honored tradition of earthy mountain men and crusty westerners having great fun by making fools of slack-jawed “flatlanders,” and anxious rubes from the east.

Irrespective of the creative yarn spinning, Masterson’s real life was irrefutably momentous and exciting. In 1871, at age 18, he left home to work as a buffalo hunter, and it was in the community of hunter’s camps that he was introduced to the gambling and hard drinking that he would never quit.

He was only 20 when he participated in the second battle of Adobe Walls, famous for the amazing 1,538 yard shot made by Billy Dixon with his .50 caliber Sharps, toppling

a mounted Comanche medicine man and effectively ending the warriors’ siege.

In early 1877, Bat got his first taste of law enforcement from then Dodge City Marshal, Larry Deager, a 300 pound bully of an officer who beat and then arrested him for daring to object to the manhandling of a local drunk. And his next taste came only a few months later, when he himself pinned on a badge, as the appointed Undersheriff of surrounding Ford County, Kansas.

One of Bat’s brothers, Ed, was serving his first stint as city Marshal at the same time, a capable lawman who was well liked in the growing community. It was April 5th, 1878, when Ed was shot in the gut by an inebriated cowboy he was wanting to disarm. The shooter was Jack Wagner, who jerked a revolver from concealment and cut loose at such close range that it set Masterson’s shirt afire. Wagner’s foreman, Alf Walker, then pulled his own hogleg and held the second officer, Nate Haywood, at bay. Hearing the shots from nearby, Undersheriff Bat raced to the scene within seconds, instantly engaging both gunmen from about 60 feet distance with his 5” barreled Colt .45. Four rounds were heard to go off, one after the other, “as rapid as a gatling gun” as one over excited witness would later describe it to the press. The first of these pierced the offender, Wagner, through the side, ventilating both lungs and dropping him to the ground. The second two caught Walker in the right arm and chest, effectively putting an end to the fight, if not making things right. Walker survived and was released, only to die a couple years later from pneumonia related to the lung wound. Few were saddened by the death of the murderer, Wagner, but most of Dodge mourned the passage of kind and brave Ed Masterson.

A few credible historians have written asserted that it was a dying Ed, not Bat, who fired those four deadly shots, but the recent surfacing of original court records includes Bat’s admission he was the one who so deftly pulled the trigger.

Six months later, on October 5th, he demonstrated his firearms prowess once again by sending a .50 caliber slug from his own buffalo-bagging Sharps through the shoulder of an escaping Jim Kennedy, wanted for shooting a visiting songstress, Dora Hand, in an attempt to send the Dodge City mayor into permanent retirement instead.

“Overdrawn” would in fact be the nicest possible way to describe such chicanery. Bat may or may not have considered a benefit to claim such a fearsome reputation, but the intimidation value could well have made it easier for him to bring in alive every single lawbreaker he ever sets out after.

That’s right, alive... either sneaking up on them, “getting the drop,” or more often negotiating a cooperative surrender.

Bat, however, wasn’t afraid to pull the trigger when necessary. It’s likely that Masterson was the one to end the life of a certain highly jealous Sgt. King in an altercation at

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L: Elderly Masterson shortly before his death

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Actor Gene Barry as Bat Masterson, 1958-1961

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R: Masterson gravemarker

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Bat lost his position in the election of 1879, during which time he did his gunfighter friend, Ben Thompson, the honor of helping Ben’s troublesome brother Billy escape a jail in Ogallala on a fast departing train. He pulled a similar trick only three years later while working as a gambler in Colorado, doing his sleezy pard Earp a favor by working out a scheme to keep the gunfighter Doc Holiday from being extradited to Arizona on charges relating to the shootout at O.K. Corral.

In both cases, loyalty easily trumped bothersome legalities... something you just gotta like about the Old West!

Bat had followed Earp and any number of other boom town opportunists to Tombstone in 1880, but before the famed O.K. gunfight went down, he was called back to bleeding Kansas by a telegraph warning that the life of his surviving lawman brother, Jim, was threatened. Jim had recently been the latest Masterson to be picked to serve as a Dodge City peace officer. He’d also purchased a financial stake in the same Lady Gay Saloon in front of which brother Ed had been killed only a few years before. Within months he’d come into conflict with principle partner A.J. Peacock and A.J.‘s combative, gun-totin’ alcoholic bartender, Al Updegraff, precipitating the verbal threats that had spurred Bat’s fast train back. Bat wasn’t even getting along with Jim at this point, but that sure didn’t keep him from immediately packing his guns and buying a ticket out.

Bat had barely gotten off the arriving train when he spotted the two antagonists and commanded them to halt. While it remains unclear who fired the first shot, rounds were almost immediately sent sailing in both directions over the Santa Fe Railroad tracks, with a few uninvolved and uninformed bystanders on both sides evidently joining in the target shooting just for the fun of it. Peacock and Updegraff fired from around the corners of the Dodge City jailhouse, their

misses penetrating the walls and emptying out the patrons of McCarty’s Drugstore and the famed Long Branch Saloon.

Bat’s slugs were better placed, sending splinters into his adversaries eyes with preliminary shots, and then airmailing one through Al Updegraff’s lung before pausing to reload.

Ab Webster, Dodge City’s current mayor, took advantage of the temporary lull to hurry and place Bat under arrest, emphasizing his mayoral authority with an American made, Fox brand, double barreled 12 gauge shotgun. Once assured

by Webster that his brother Jim was alive and well, Bat was checked in to the very jail that he’d just shot up. Tough ol’ Al recovered quickly, and a sympathetic or perhaps star-struck judge found Bat guilty only of “reckless firing of a gun” and letting him go after paying an $8 fine. It would prove to be the last gunfight that Bat Masterson ever fought.

That Masterson was a crack shot, there can be no doubt.

Early on, it seems he was the one to put the hurt on the enraged Sgt. King at close quarters, even though King had already “started the ball rolling.” Bat’s deciding shot with his 12 pound Sharps rifle was taken offhand, standing up, and at a fast moving target. And when the hammer dropped in ‘78, he put all four fired rounds into Ed’s attackers before either could take aim and fire at him... while unsteady from being out of breath!

It was not accuracy alone that settled fights in his favor, of course, but the quality that Bat later described as a writer: deliberation. From his oft quoted book Human Life: “Courage to step out and fight to the death with a pistol is but one of three qualities a man must possess in order to last very long in this hazardous business. Courage is of little use to a man who essays to arbitrate a difference with the pistol if he is inexperienced in the use of the weapon he is going to use. Then again he may possess both the courage and the

Left: Wm. Masterson at 53 while employed as a staff writer on the New York Telegraph, along with Dodge City writ with notations in Masterson’s hand while serving as Undersheriff to Charlie Bassett, 1878.

Pictured below are a selection of Masterson’s personal Colt SAA revolvers of various calibers and vintages

experience and still fail if he lacks deliberation.”

Bat flirted with running various Colorado businesses while taking up the art of writing with the same deliberateness he had earlier given to gun handling and shooting. He took particular pleasure in writing about two especially combative contests, politics and boxing, and made many enemies as well as friends in the process of railing against the fraud so common to both. It was over what he believed to be a fixed fight in Denver, that he finally departed the West for the East and never looked back again. His job at the Telegraph met his needs nicely, in an environment where he could wear his fanciest suits and derby hats without looking out of place.

What struck me in reading a number of Bat’s newspaper columns, was how contemporary his comments sound even though penned nearly a hundred years ago. When he says “Clerical humbugs and sordid politicians are certainly giving the decent, liberty-loving people of this country a lively run for their existence,” he could be talking about today. And it wouldn’t be unusual to walk into any bar or café in North America and hear people echoing Masterson quotes such as: “When a man becomes so throughly disgusted with his own country that he wants to leave it and never return, conditions are certainly in a deplorable state.” Or his “Political liberty has become a ghastly joke and the end is nowhere in sight.”

Or even “The time is not far distant when red-blooded men will get guns and use them, too. They’ll either have to do that or turn the country over to the modern witch-burners... [for] hypocrisy, rascality and cowardice have supplanted liberty, bravery and integrity.”

Masterson could opine about such matters without fear of being branded a hypocrite or poseur, given that he comes as close as any lawman to exemplifying both integrity and independence. For the most part, he functioned like a true Peace Officer in the best sense of the term, and did it in resplendent style just as a character of the Western imagination should. And yet, the fellow who once rejected his birth name, Bartholomew, because it sounded too formal and civilized, seems to have never suffered any great

Middle: Pictured Ed Masterson (center)sporting typical period garb for the well-dash-to-do lawman

nostalgia for the frontier he helped to transform. He was happy to move someplace where the streets were cleaned, intellect valued, and good theater always close at hand. “To hell with the West,” he once went so far as to say, when asked for the umpteenth time if he was aching to go back.

He nonetheless remained a true Westerner in the attitude he displayed and approach he preferred.

“The man who will back up what he says with a fight if necessary is to be respected,” he wrote, in anything but New York diction, “while the one who assails character and then seeks refuge behind the law deserves nothing but contempt.”

Such frontier values do not preclude allowing the rube to look the fool, however, and Bat’s later in life pranks included buying old Colts from nearby pawn shops, adding suggestive notches, and selling them for a mint to people as the “one” he carried in the old days wearing a badge. Curiously, one of these foolhardy buyers was the same Fred Sutton who set the number of Bat’s kills at 38.

The line between inspiring mythos and despicable lie, between suggestion and fact, fiction and history can be a fine one. With only the slightest of hints, all too many of us are quick to imagine what it is we long to see or hear... an advantage easily exploited by writers as well as stage magicians, manipulative politicians and survival-minded ex-gunfighters.

A telling case in point occurred in the lobby of the WaldorfAstoria hotel in June of 1906, when an aging Bat confronted a Texas book publisher and his reputed to be famous author. The author, calling himself Col. Dick Plunkett, had been showing off a hog-leg Colt with more notches carved into it than on any Masterson prepped and sold gun, telling tales of daring-do to an assembled crowd, while lambasting Bat as a fraud and a phony. As might be expected, an indignant Bat soon made his appearance on the scene, drawing his big fist back and duly knocked the offending editor to the hard marble floor. Turning to face the armed Plunkett, he thrust his gun hand into his pocket, reportedly prompting someone to yell “Lookout, Bat’s going to flash his cannon!” The crowded room then emptied out quicker than anyone could have believed possible, with the supposed “Colonel” among the first pilgrims out the door.

Such antics were of course frowned upon in the city, even back then, and the policemen who escorted Masterson outside also wanted to see the heat he was carrying. Bat smiled, and pulled out for the officers what was an apparently amply intimidating silver cigarette case. Based on his reputation, people expected him to have been packing and ready to use his gun, so that is what they pictured. As in nearly all cases of larger than life personas – lawmen or not – it ain’t necessarily facts that determine how people react, but rather, what we’ve come to believe.

Left: Bat Masterson in middle age

Right: Classic comic featuring Gene Barry as Bat Masterson

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combat controlling the knife-wielding attacker.

Member’s Soapbox: The Thin Blue Line

The blood sport of member castigation is nation-wide, fed by ignorance and a finger pointing mentality.

By Jon McCormick

Are you distrustful of law enforcement?

How about the government? Do you believe they are both out to grab your firearms and classify you as a criminal? If so, you are not alone, as many firearms owners, fed up with the constant harangue by urbanites and others ignorant of the issue, have turned their backs on police officers..... unjustly so.

The federal conservatives promise the long gun registry will be history. That will mean your only remaining concern will be your Possession and Acquisition License. Will your skepticism remain or might you consider throwing your support behind those for whom you’ve had a jaundiced eye?

Putting yourself in law enforcers’ boots for a day is seen at www. ruralcrimewatch.com and, humor aside, it reveals the stress, threat and constant danger with which officers live daily.

Force Science Institute’s (www. forcescience.org) Executive Director, Dr. Bill Lewinski believes that a rapid charge at an officer is often the behavior of someone high on chemicals or severely emotionally disturbed and points out that the knife culture is growing, particularly with the homeless, creating an increased threat

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to law enforcers.

How fast can you run twenty-one feet?

If you are acting, rather than reacting, the average is 1.5 seconds. Really!

Twenty-One Feet! That is the minimum distance that a law enforcer needs to keep between herself and a suspect believed to be armed with a knife or other weapon who can run twenty-one feet in 1.5 seconds.

Twenty-one feet! That is 6.4 meters or 7 yards. Walk it out. Stretch your legs as you step and count to seven. Then look back to your starting point. It is about the average distance of a residential hallway.

Now, picture yourself confronted with a knife wielding person bent on causing you bodily harm. If you have a holstered firearm, the attacker will be slashing you before you draw and point your firearm.

Twenty-one feet! It is a safety standard that has been used by law enforcement for decades which I experienced participating in law enforcement defensive tactics training sessions. I can attest to the seriousness of the threat and potential law enforcer death if the officer doesn’t have her service pistol drawn before the charge. Many police instructors are advocating increasing the distance to thirty feet.

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The media were all over the incident with every conceivable provincial ministry getting involved, vowing to investigate the “horrendous” incident of an 11 year old “child” being Tasered. The castigation was instigated without any information regarding the incident. The media and ministries were clamoring for an RCMP rebuke to preempt any citizen outrage.

Twenty-one feet is the standard for employing a service pistol, not a Taser.

Once a knife attacker sprints, the use of a Taser becomes academic because the distance closes too quickly and the target is moving, making it very difficult for the Taser darts to hit a susceptible body part.

That is why an Alberta Mountie, in response to a school altercation, confronted a 12 year old suspect for questioning at the school, only to have the teen pull a knife. The Mountie withdrew to a safe distance pulling his service pistol. The youth dropped the knife and complied with the arresting procedure. Had the youth not complied, or advanced on the member, the suspect would have been shot...twice, which is protocol when an officers’ life is threatened...two shots, center mass. I’m not dramatizing or sensationalizing, simply pointing out the magnitude of knife attacks on police officers.

On April 7, 2011, a Prince George, British Columbia 11 year old male suspect was Tasered when confronted during an investigation of the stabbing of a 37 year old male. The 11 year old was holding a knife when the darts hit.

That member took considerable risk.

Had the “child” advanced, the officer would have been in hand-to-hand www.nfa.ca

This attitude simply feeds the preconceived notion, created by mainstream media, that law enforcers are automatically guilty of some transgression. Reams of criticism have been printed and negative dialog delivered on the major television and radio networks regarding the incident, applauding the ministries for getting

Each One Of Us Is...

An ambassador, a teacher, and a member. One of the most important functions of Canada’s National Firearms Association is making firearms ownership and use relevant to growing numbers of Canadians.

To prosper, we must have a steady flow of new shooters and enthusiasts entering our proud firearms heritage.

Your membership and your donations to Canada’s National Firearms Association are helping us develop the programs Canada needs to make sure our firearms heritage continues to grow.

involved, when, again, there is no information available in an on-going investigation.

This mentality surfaced within hours of the Vancouver Stanley Cup riots, chastising the Vancouver Police Department. Had the department not been reeling from previous criticism (‘97 Apec and ‘94 Stanley Cup riots) they quite likely would have deployed individual Tasers and the Taser Shockwave (an 18 unit riot control Taser system).

Recall Canada’s history of riots; each has been hampered by law enforcement’s inability to take preemptive action against the lawless.

With the soon to be scrapped long gun registry, there is no longer an impetus for firearms owners to feel they may be next to receive an RCMP door knock. The RCMP is not interested in the firearms of law-abiding owners, provided the owners conform to

common sense and legal usage and storage. An “E” Division Inspector with whom I spoke, concurred, stating that members are overwhelmed with investigations and have no time, nor the inclination, to enquire into the firearms ownership of law-abiding citizens.

Law enforcers need to be held to a very high standard but so does the public.

Errant officers need to be vetted for society’s safety and to maintain the highest of law enforcement standards, but we, for whom officers risk their lives, need to maintain an equally high standard of support.

Twenty-one feet. Remember that distance, the rise in violence against our law enforcers, and give them the benefit of the doubt until all the facts are presented.....don’t group all officers by the disparaging acts of a few.

Jon McCormick may be reached at www.bcinternet.net/jm

I want to help Make It Happen!

Here is my contribution to Canada’s

to help protect my rights to own and use firearms.

National Firearms Association

􀁔 $100 􀁔 $50 􀁔 $25 􀁔 $________

􀁔 My Cheque or Money Order enclosed

􀁔 Charge my Visa/MasterCard/AMEX

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our Toll Free Number at 1-877-818-0393

Magen Heinicke (formerly Tandy). An Olympic Athelete and proud member of the NFA www.nfa.ca

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The

2011

federal election...What can I say? Definitely one for the ages; now, before you stop reading, I realize that most of us are “electioned-out” and the euphoria of the Conservative’s historic win has faded somewhat. That too is understandable, but gun owners simply cannot afford to slip back into that comfortable state of narcosis in which so many of us dwelled prior to May 2nd.

The Liberal’s much-hated C-68 Firearms Act is still the law of the land, gun owners are still being maliciously prosecuted for paper “crimes” and spurious charges of “unsafe storage” are still being laid by police. The National Firearms Association is working diligently toward the repeal of these laws and advocating the introduction of a Conservative Firearms Act that respects the rights of lawful gun owners, while promoting natural justice for all Canadian gun owners. Much work still needs to be done; however, the victory we helped secure on May 2nd should not be minimized.

One of the most heartening developments that arose as a consequence of the election call was the resurgence in grassroots activism within our recreational firearms community. I speak in reference to the ad hoc “Turf Mark Holland” movement that was born on the Canadian Internet firearm owners’ forum, www.

CanadianGunNutz.com. Mark Holland is the former Liberal MP for the Ontario riding of Ajax-Pickering, and the man principally responsible for the defeat of Conservative MP Candice Hoeppner’s Bill C-391 last year.

Holland made himself the archenemy of Canadian gun owners when he engineered the bill’s defeat, through parliamentary committee procedures, after the bill passed second reading, -

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normally the most critical vote for any bill on its way to becoming law. Holland and his allies co-opted the committee process, and turned the consultative process into a sideshow that made a mockery of the proceedings. Presenters appearing in support of Bill C-391 were ridiculed, interrupted and generally treated with contempt and disrespect

by Holland and his political cronies.

Holland then added insult to injury by introducing a motion that would prevent a third reading and vote on the bill, effectively killing C-391.

In the days that followed, everywhere gun owners looked, they saw Holland’s smirking face, revelling in his victory, expounding to the media on the great blow that had been struck for law enforcement and public safety in Canada. Through not only his actions, but his overweening displays of pride and arrogance, and the contempt with which he obviously held Canadian gun owners, Holland made himself Public Enemy #1 in their eyes. He became the subject of heated debate in the club houses and firing lines from St. John’s to Vancouver that quickly spilled over to on-line firearms forums.

From the discussion and debate that ensued, several enterprising members of the www.CanadianGunNutz. com forum decided to take a more active role in politics and redirect the anger and frustration that Holland had sparked within the firearms community. Thus was born the “Turf Mark Holland” campaign. A dedicated website followed, and a social media presence was established, with the sole raison d’être of ensuring Mark Holland did not win re-election.

Their efforts were aided by the fact that Holland was being opposed by rising Conservative star, and former ambassador to Afghanistan, Chris Alexander. In addition to being overwhelmed by gun owners/cum-volunteer

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campaign workers, organizers of the “Turf Mark Holland” campaign encouraged gun owners to make direct monetary donations via electronic means, cheque or money order in amounts corresponding to the digits of Bill C-391. Donations of $3.91, $39.10 & $391.00 came flooding into the Alexander campaign from tickedoff gun owners from Newfoundland to British Columbia.

Hundreds of dollars in donations quickly became thousands within days, and then tens of thousands. Well-funded, and enjoying growing grassroots support in the riding, it became apparent that the Alexander campaign posed a serious threat to the Liberal incumbent.

Holland and his campaign team soon lost their trademark smirks. I suppose he and his cronies had been under the presumption that Canadian gun owners would be content to once more allow hypocritical, anti-gun politicians to abuse them with impunity. That they weren’t came as a shock.

It wasn’t long before a tang of desperation was emanating from the Liberal camp. Holland began corralling every news reporter he could find; complaining that the “radical gun lobby” was unfairly targeting him.

To hear Holland tell it, somehow individual citizens and voters taking an active interest in politics, and whom they were choosing to represent their interests, was somehow...un-Canadian, -- and had to be part of some nefarious plot by the “radical gun lobby.”

In the end, Mark Holland lost the election because more voters preferred his opponent to him. Yet, like so many defeated Liberal candidates, Holland refused to accept responsibility for the loss; instead he shifted blame once more to the “radical gun lobby.”

There is no question that Holland was the architect of his own defeat. His arrogance and contempt for firearms

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Each One Of Us Is...

An ambassador, a teacher, and a member. One of the most important functions of the National Firearms Association is making firearms ownership and use relevant to growing numbers of Canadians.

To prosper, we must have a steady flow of new shootersa and enthusiasts entering our proud firearms heritage.

Your membership and your donations to the National Firearms Association are helping us develop the programs Canada needs to make sure our firearms heritage continues to grow.

owners, and voters who supported the right to own guns, was readily apparent to any who heard him pontificate on the firearms issue. He gambled on gun owners continued apathy and lost.

Holland was “turfed,” not by some shadowy American NRA-affiliated “radical gun lobby,” but as a result of pure, grassroots political activism.

It was individual gun owners who unexpectedly remembered that they were also voters, and who opted to send a message that even a Liberal could understand. In the run-up to the May 2nd election, gun owners from across the country made their discontent clear by opening their wallets and donating their time to his Conservative opponent.

They got active. They got engaged.

They took responsibility for their own future, and they made a difference!

I want to help Make It Happen!

Here is my contribution to the

National Firearms Association to help protect my rights to own and use firearms. 􀁔 $100 􀁔 $50 􀁔 $25 􀁔 $________ 􀁔 My Cheque or Money Order enclosed 􀁔 Charge my Visa/MasterCard/AMEX Card #:______________________________ Expiry: ______________ Signature: ________________________________________________ Name: ___________________________________________________ Address: __________________________________________________ City/Town: ________________ Prov:_________ Postal Code: _______ Ph.:__________________________ Fx.: ________________________ E-mail: ___________________________________________________ Mail this form to: National Firearms Association, Box 52183, Edm., AB T6G 2T5 or Call our Toll Free Number at 1-877-818-0393

Unquestionably, both the Liberals and NDP planned further gun bans. Even greater restrictions on semi-automatics and military-style firearms were all but assured had Ignatieff formed a new government. Thankfully, that plan was derailed, just like Mr. Holland’s political career; at least for the next four years. However, in the interim, we can expect the Liberals and NDP to grow even more strident in their ideology, as they’ve effectively ceded the center of the political spectrum to the Conservatives. There will be little place for law-abiding gun owners in the parties that will emerge from that struggle. As such, we must be prepared to face this renewed onslaught when the time comes.

politics and maintain the momentum that was born out of the “Turf Mark Holland” campaign, but to replicate this commitment to grassroots activism in every riding across the country. As gun owners we need to join our local riding associations, we need to become members of the CPC, we need to get to know our local MPs to make sure they are informed on the issues, - and to let them know where we stand as both responsible firearms owners and voters.

As the case of Mark Holland clearly shows, anti-gun MPs may ignore and/ or abuse responsible gun owners at their own peril. They’ve learned the first lesson in humility. It is up to each one us to reinforce it and, in doing so, effect real political change.

That means Canadian gun owners have to not only preserve their interest in

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Pen

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Canvas Hat ..................................Qty. _____ x $15.00 = $__________ T Black T Hunter Orange T Camouage T Clay Oilskin Hat - Brown ....................Qty. _____ x $20.00 = $__________ Leather Hat..................................Qty. _____ x $40.00 = $__________ T Black T Green

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