Canadian Firearms Journal - November 2009

Oct/Nov 2009

$4.50

Newfoundland Moose Hunt!

Homemade Bore Cleaner!

Politics & Guns

Canada’s National Firearms Association Working for firearms owners in Ottawa, across Canada and Internationally

Tel: (780) 426-4866

Phase IV

Fax: (780) 426-4867

West Edmonton Mall

www.shootingcentre.com

Edmonton, Alberta

Handguns

Shotguns

Ruger Single Six ................. $495 & up

Mossberg c/w pistol grip ........................................................................$475 & up

Ruger MK III SS ............... $450 & up

Beretta Extreme I ......................................................................................... $1680

Ruger SRH 480 ........................... $850

Benelli M2 MX4 Camo ............................................................................... $1569

Springfield Armory GI 45 ......................

Springfield Armory XD 40, 9 45 ............................................ $825 & up Baby Eagle Hardchrome ............. $899 Glock 17 ...................................... $825 Beretta NEO’s ............................. $395 HK USP ................................... $1295 Sig Sauer P226 ......................... $1195

Rifles Stevens Model 200 ...................... $365 Tikka T3 Synthetic DM .... $675 & up Savage 111 c/w 3-9x40 DM ............................................ $695 & up Sako 95M Synthetic SS DM.... $1499

Canadian

Firearms Journal Greetings from Head Office It has been some time since we have let you know what is going on here at home.

It has been an exciting summer and looks like fall will be much the same. We had some computer problems for awhile but all is cleared up now. The new database and server are on-line and our new web site should be up by the time you are reading this!

Also, we have just mailed the October renewals and we’re hopeful that all recipients will get their returns back quickly so there is no lapse in your insurance.

The proposed new bylaws and ballots are also now in the mail. Just a reminder - any ballots not received by October 30, 2009 will NOT be counted. Make sure to have your say by getting the ballots back right away!

Diane has attended, or will attend, 6 gun shows between Sept.

12 and Oct. 10. Thanks to all that come up and say hello.

Hopefully each of you had a great summer and a bountiful harvest.

Bev, Megan, Simone, Ted and Diane.

Diane - Office Manager National Firearms Association Phone: 780-439-1394, Fax: 780-439-4091

Inside this issue Regulars From the Editor’s Desk ...............................................................6 Sean G. Penney & Grayson Penney President’s Column .....................................................................8 Blair Hagen Vice President’s Column ...........................................................10 Sean G. Penney Letters to the Editor ..................................................................12 Politics & Guns - Registration Does Equal Confiscation! ........14 Sean G. Penney The International Front - The Attraction of Guns .....................18 Dr. Gary Mauser Preserving Our Firearms Heritage - BMF Match was a Blast ..21 Gary Kangas Team NFA Update ....................................................................22 Legal Corner - A Critique of the Heenskerk & Davies Report .28 Sheldon Clare

On the Cover

Gunsmith Q & A - “Ed’s Red” Formula ...................................38 C. E. “Ed” Harris

One of the most popular hunting and varmint rifles created in the last half century, the Ruger Mini-14 is a perennial favourite of sportsmen across North America.

Youth Development - Of Blades & Boy Scouts........................42 Sean G. Penney

Image provided by Oleg Volk volkstudio.com

The Last Word ..........................................................................46 Grayson Penney

Gun Culture - David A. Tomlinson Memorial Award ..............44 Wm. R. Rantz

Mission Statement 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.

The contents of the Canadian Firearms Journal are copyrighted and may be reproduced only when written permission is obtained from the publisher.

Features What Makes a Modern Sporting Rifle? ....................................24 Sean G. Penney Privacy & the Canadian Firearms Registry ..............................32 Grayson Penney Last Chance Moose ...................................................................34 Sean G. Penney 2009 Standard Catalogue of Firearms - Book Review .............45 Wm. R. Rantz

by Sean G. Penney & Grayson Penney

W

elcome to our annual fall “hunting” issue of the Canadian Firearms Journal.

As you can tell, we’ve made a number of changes to the magazine since our last issue.

Before getting into the meat of things, I’d like to first thank outgoing editor-in-chief, Mr. Christopher di Armani for all his hard work and dedication to the magazine and to the National Firearms Association.

Christopher is involved professionally in the movie business in his home province, so “free time” comes at a premium for him. Having gained some insight into just how much work goes into producing a magazine like the Canadian Firearms Journal, I have new respect and appreciation for all he contributed to making our magazine such a success. Thanks Chris and we wish you great success in your future endeavors!

In Politics & Guns, I discuss the ramifications of “Project Safe City,” a questionable new initiative implemented by the Toronto Police Service that directly targets fellow responsible firearms owners.

We ask the question, “Does registration now equal confiscation in Canada?”

Having been asked to assume the position of editor I quickly realized that I was going to need help, as I was already stretched pretty thin between my own business, family and responsibilities as your National Vice-President, Communications. My pater familias, or “Dad” as he is better known, agreed to come on board as co-editor. He is a retired educator and high school administrator, and the man who bought me my first gun. Growing up, as a child, he was my hero, as I guess most father’s are to their sons.

I’m proud and extremely pleased to finally have an opportunity to work with him on a professional basis.

In Letters to the Editor, Blair steps in to pinch-hit for me and fields several interesting questions from readers, including one on the still controversial “Anastasia’s Law” that is causing some real problems for gun owners in the province of Quebec.

Even though this is our “hunting” issue, you’ll find lots of familiar features also included in the pages following.

In Gun Culture, we pay homage to Mr. Bob Chapman, one of the true stalwarts of Canada’s profirearms rights movement and a man responsible for educating, informing and motivating an entire generation of shooters as membership chair of our Ontario chapter and having served as the National Coordinator of our Field Officer Program. Bob was chosen as the first recipient of the David A. Tomlinson Memorial Award that recognizes outstanding service and contribution to our cause.

With the 2010 Vancouver Olympics just around the corner, we thought it an ideal time to give our readers an update on TEAM NFA. Megan Tandy and Matt Neumann, both extremely talented athletes, have enjoyed great success over the past year and I’m sure we’ll be seeing both on many podiums in the coming years.

Professor Gary Mauser is back once again. This time he is discussing the issue of hunting within the international context. I think most readers will find his contribution extremely interesting and enlightening.

In the Legal Corner, BC President, Sheldon Clare offers his critique of the recent Heemskerk and Davies Report on the

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CanadianFirearmsJournal.com

www.nfa.ca

Hello Folks, Illegal Movement of Firearms in British Columbia prepared for the government of Gordon Campbell. Sheldon definitely provides some interesting food for thought. Plus we deal with the issue of the now infamous RCMP EKOS poll.

As this is our hunting oriented issue, you’ll also find my own submission, “Last Chance Moose” that describes one of my most memorable hunting experiences here on “The Rock.” I hope you enjoy it.

Gary Kangas is back to share his experiences at a recent shoot organized by members of the British Military Forum, whose members enjoy shooting, collecting and discussing firearms and accessories from the Victorian Era. It looks like a great time was had by all.

Also back by popular demand is our Gunsmithing features. We’re reprinted Ed Harris’ well known recipe for Ed’s Red Bore Cleaner. It should appeal to all you do-ityourselfer’s out there, and in this economy, being able to make gallons of your own bore cleaner for pennies on the dollar of commercial products is something we all can appreciate.

In closing, my fellow co-editor will share with you his Last Word, along with some great pictures and documents from the WWII era. Boy how have times changed.

I hope you all have as much fun reading this issue as we had putting it together. Any issues, typos or other screw-ups are completely my own and all I can say is please bear with me…I’ll get better! Promise!

Regards,

Sean

Let me start by saying how much I appreciate the faith, Sean, and the rest of the National Executive have placed in my hands by offering me this position. As a lifelong hunter and lover of firearms I had the utmost respect for the fantastic work gentlemen such as David Tomlinson, Ray Laycock, Bob Chapman and now Blair Hagen and my son, Sean, have done and continue to do on behalf of Canadian gun owners.

I hope you’ll excuse the more than ample rough edges, warts and plain ‘ol goofs that I’m sure you’ll find in this, our premier issue as co-editors of the Canadian Firearms Journal. I’ve discovered that publishing a magazine of this type is similar to raising a child. It is messy, hectic and there is no avoiding the “growing pains.” I hope you’ll all bear with us as we experience those growth spurts and continue to work to bring you the very best magazine we can.

We love hearing from our readers, so please don’t hesitate to offer comments, suggestions or to make requests. If you have an interesting story to tell or picture to share, don’t hesitate to send them along. We’re always on the look out for new material. Oh, and look out for returning contributor Jesse L. Hardin in upcoming issues, along with additional updates on the Bruce Montague Case, articles on self-defense, Guns & Kids and more!

Grayson

by: Blair Hagen, National President

President’s Column Gun Politics and the Canadian Political Paradigm

F

all is here and threats of election once again threaten to send Canadians to the polls. This time courtesy of present Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, who has declared he will under no circumstances support the CPC government. With the lack of an appetite for another federal election scarcely a year after the previous one among Canadian voters, and Ignatieff’s failure to ignite excitement for his leadership and for his moribund Liberal Party, it’s not certain whether he will force Canadians back to the polls and suffer a possible backlask from voters. But the fact is there will be another election sooner rather than later as a minority Conservative government can hardly count on the enthusiastic support of the Bloc Quebecois and the NDP. So now might be a good time to re visit the main federal party policies and histories on firearms.

Liberal Party policy on firearms has scarcely changed since 1995, when they foisted their failed C68 Firearms Act and universal firearms registry on Canadians.

Most of you will remember that in the federal election of 2006, then Prime Minister Paul Martin promised a nationwide handgun ban

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October / November 2009

as a solution to criminal violence in Canadian cities. This would have been facilitated through the use of the Canadian Firearms Registry, which now includes the old handgun registry, later the RCMP “restricted” firearms registry which has been in existence since 1934.

The Liberals were defeated in that election, and the fledgling Conservative Party elected. National Firearms Association advised the firearms community that based on their consistent support for firearms law reform through their various incarnations, and the Liberal Party’s continuing war on the firearms community, Conservative were worthy of support. Conservatives were elected to government in 2006 Since their defeat in 2006, Liberal Party policy on firearms and firearms law reform has not evolved.

There has been no retraction of the handgun ban proposal. Official Liberal Party policy is to continue the failed C68 Firearms Act and firearms registry, but make it more “user friendly”. There has been no explanation on just what that means.

Furthermore, the Liberal Party proposed a ban on semi automatic rifles in the 2008 election as a reaction to the Dawson College shootings of September 2006, based on the fallacy that “they are not used

in hunting”. Federal Liberal Party Policy #47 calls for semi auto’s to be banned, as they are in Australia.

During the controversy over Bill C-301, Liberal MP’s who had promised constituents that they would support firearms law reform withdrew support for the bill after the Coalition for Gun Control and the political police chiefs association manufactured an exit strategy for them in the form of the canards that Bill C-301 would “put machine guns on the street” and “make it easier to get handguns”. As the firearms community knows, the bill would have done neither. The Liberal Party continues to support the mandatory firearms license for simple ownership of a firearm.

The personal views of current Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff on firearms are unknown. Efforts

by National Firearms Association to dialogue with the Liberal Party on the firearms issue have been rebuffed. Liberal Party policy on firearms is now to resist reform of firearms laws, and continue a negative legislative and regulatory agenda against the firearms community.

The NDP have become increasingly hostile to the concept of private firearms ownership. There has been

Canadian Firearms Journal

www.nfa.ca

some counter balance in the NDP in the form of rural MP’s who have some understanding of firearms issues, but today those MP’s are a small minority with little influence or representation in that party.

Rural NDP MP’s have been given permission to vote against party policy on firearms, but have given mixed messages on their support for firearms law reform.

Like the Liberals, NDP MP’s who had promised constituents that they would support firearms law reform withdrew any support for C-301 for the same manufactured reasons; that Bill C-301 would “put machine guns on the street” and “make it easier to get handguns”.

As the firearms community knows, that bill would have done neither.

The NDP also support a mandatory firearms license for simple ownership of a firearm.

Party leader Jack Layton has publicly endorsed handgun bans as a solution to criminal violence in Canadian cities and semi automatic bans as a reaction to the Dawson College shootings of September 2006. NDP policies on these subjects are confused, at times advocating giving provinces, cities and municipalities the political means to ban guns, other times echoing Liberal calls for national bans. NDP policy on the C68 Firearms Act and universal firearms registry are identical to the Liberal Party policy; make it more “user friendly”, and hope the firearms community goes back to sleep politically. Sorry, Jack. That’s not going to happen.

In light of their performance in regards to Bills C-301, NDP policy on firearms must be regarded as to resist reform of firearms laws, and continue a negative legislative and regulatory agenda against the firearms community.

www.nfa.ca

The Bloc Quebecois also advocate maintaining the Liberal C-68 Firearms Act and universal firearms registry. The Bloc has advocated for handguns bans, semi automatic bans, and also supports an extremely negative legislative and regulatory environment for the Quebec firearms community.

The Conservative Party of Canada has had perhaps the most supportive policies for the firearms community and the Canadian cultural tradition of firearms ownership, but has done little to keep party platform promises since their election to government in 2006.

There are reasons for this. A minority government is hardly conducive to bringing forth major legislation, and the nature of this government’s minority and it’s opposition give good indication as to why the Liberal C-68 Firearms Act is still the law of the land.

However, the Conservatives have done little more than bring in and extend amnesties for licensing and registration. Shielding from criminal charge firearms owners who find themselves in non compliance with our broken firearms control system, but encouraging them to comply with it nonetheless. There have been no changes to firearms related Orders in Council (OIC’s), or regulatory amendments to relieve the burden of the Byzantine-like regulations the firearms community continues to labour under.

Two government bills, C-21 and C-24, in its first parliament purported to do little about reforming firearms laws. Private member’s Bill C-301 courtesy of MP Garry Breitkreuz proposed substantial Firearms Act amendment reforms, but hit a brick wall in Parliament. Senate Bill S-5 came out of left field and

Canadian Firearms Journal

completely muddied the waters.

The current private member’s bill C-391 from MP Candace Hoeppner has refocused the issue from the government side, but is limited in its scope; it only proposes to end the requirement to hold a registration for a non-restricted long gun. Reforming Canada’s broken firearms control system is about more than that.

It’s said that the election of a majority Conservative government would break this log jam and facilitate major firearms law reforms. That may be. But it’s also asked why the this government hasn’t gone at systemic and regulatory reform to the Firearms Act in aid of alleviating the plight of the firearms community, the way previous Liberal governments were want to do in regulating against the firearms community.

Still, the Conservative Party counts among its number some of the most enlightened MP’s in Parliament who understand the necessity of keeping that promise made over a decade ago in regards to the Liberal Firearms Act, and who completely understand the failure of and the need to reform Canada’s firearms laws.

Have the Conservatives sold out the firearms community through their relative inaction on firearms law reform since 2006?

No. Given the limitations of the political situation in Ottawa, this conclusion cannot be arrived at. All politics aside, if real firearms law reform is to come it will come from the Conservative side of the house, and they need to form government if that is to happen. Remember the C-68 Firearms Act when you vote.

October / November 2009

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by Sean G. Penney, National VP Communications

Vice President’s Column Looking To the Future 2.0

A

s I write this, I just received news that one of the highest profile gun grabbers in the country is calling it quits. That’s right; Toronto Mayor David Miller has announced that he will not be seeking re-election in next year’s municipal elections. Score one for the good guys! Miller was always a political opportunist, and proved time and again that he was far more concerned with being politically correct than actually increasing public safety in his city. I sincerely hope that his replacement will choose to focus his or her energies on more productive pursuits such as targeting the gangs and other sundry criminals that have been turning Toronto into a cesspit for the past several decades.

For fellow gun owners in the Greater Toronto Area, now is a perfect opportunity for you to start making preparations to get out and support a mayoral candidate that supports you, the responsible firearms owner. You need to do your homework before the election race ever begins and do your best to get your fellow hunting buddies, shooters and gun clubs involved. Political candidates are always short of reliable volunteers 10

October / November 2009

and campaign contributions. Now is the time to get active and help set the agenda for your mayoral candidate pick.

Politics aside, this is my favorite time of the year to get out and enjoy the great outdoors. Thinking about it the other day, I realized just how lucky I am to live where I do. No smog, no pollution, game galore and posted property and NO HUNTING signs are few and far between. Those thoughts popped into my head as I was tidying up the reloading bench, after loading up a batch of cartridges, as my little nephew wandered into my reloading room in search of company.

At just four years old, Ryan knows a heck of a lot about firearms and more importantly, firearms safety.

I had to wonder though, just what sort of future would he inherit as I looked down on tousled head of hair? Would his childhood be filled with memories of plinking with his dad, of taking his first partridge on the wing and having his Dad’s eyes fill with pride; or the excitement of harvesting his first moose or caribou, as mine was? Just as importantly, I wondered what firearms he would be

carrying. Would my trusty semi-auto Remington be clutched in his hands, or would he be reduced to using a single shot break-action or double gun as his English cousins are today?

Thinking those thoughts helped reinforce my commitment to protecting our rights as responsible firearms owners. We’re not fighting the gun grabbers like Wendy Cukier to simply preserve our own rights, we’re fighting to protect and defend those of the generations to come.

Our kids and grandkids deserve to enjoy the same rights and freedoms that we were born with. That is why groups like the Coalition for Gun Control, and political entities such as the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democrats, the Green Party and the BQ must never receive another vote from a gun-owning Canadian!

Despite our millions, only a bare handful of our fellow gun owners actually “vote their sport.” It boggles my mind when I hear from fellow hunters and gun owners that they actually voted Liberal or NDP in the last election; and when quizzed why, often simply reply that was the way they had always voted and never really gave it much thought. It

Canadian Firearms Journal

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is “habits” like that which must be changed. “One-gun” hunters vastly outnumber more politically active gunowning groups like Benchrest, Trap, IPSC or Service Rifle shooters, etc… I also know that many gun “snobs” turn their nose up at these hunters/shooters and label them “Fudds”, referencing, of course, the hapless and clueless hunter, Elmer Fudd of Looney Tunes cartoon fame. Such attitudes are counter-productive and also have to change.

We have to stop judging fellow gun owners based on appearances and what firearms they own or enjoy. It is plain stupid! At the end of the day, we’re all law-abiding gun owners. Gun grabbers don’t differentiate. Their ultimate aim is to ban all firearms and they don’t really care if it is a hunting rifle or a handgun; and as their tactics have shown the world over, they aren’t above lying and twisting the truth to serve their needs. You can count on the fact that should gun grabbers like Wendy Cukier succeed in banning hand guns or semi-automatic rifles and shotguns, - that scoped bolt action hunting rifle, or pistol-gripped turkey shotgun hanging on the wall of sportsmen’s homes across the nation will become a deadly “sniper rifle” or people-killing “streetsweeper” overnight. It’s been done before in Great Britain and Australia and they’re trying to do it right here!

Accepting this as fact, we also all have an obligation to pass along to the next generation the skills and knowledge they’ll need to carry on this fight. My brother and I grew up in a house full of firearms and we learned to use them from an early age. Our dad taught us gun safety from the start and in doing so, removed all the mystery that cloaked them. Thus, we never felt the need to surreptitiously sneak a peek. If we wanted to examine a gun, all we had to do was ask. Not surprisingly, both my home and my brother’s today, hold many more firearms, ranging from treasured family heirlooms to uber expensive Swiss military style rifles and carbines of the latest design.

As I said, our father never hid his firearms from us, just as there is no hiding our firearms from young Ryan and his sibling Caleb. They have literally grown up surrounded by firearms (all properly trigger locked and stored of course) and consequently have no fear of them. However, they do respect them and even at age four, young Ryan is well aware of the “Do’s” and “Don’ts” of proper gun handling. That point was driven home the other day when his mother picked up one of his father’s hunting rifles (unloaded and bolt removed) that was sitting in a gun vise on the living room coffee table. She almost instinctively slipped her finger inside the trigger guard as she shifted the gun to put down some newspapers to soak up any excess fluids, locking compound, etc…that could possibly be spilled (and thus www.nfa.ca

ruining her coffee table!). She immediately received a stern warning and lecture about not touching firearms without permission and making sure they were safe; including keeping her finger out of the trigger guard!

Right down to furrowed brow full of all the righteous indignation a four year old can muster, Ryan delivered a lecture worthy of the best range officer! I only wish I’d had the camera rolling at the time. It would’ve broken all records if uploaded onto YouTube; it was that good!

All joking aside, the ranks of both hunters and gun owners are on the decline. Excessive red tape and an overly bureaucratic system are succeeding in keeping young people from joining our fraternity. The costs involved in obtaining a firearms license and purchasing a new firearm are also major obstacles for many youths.

It is up to us to help them overcome those barriers. Get active in your neighbourhood. Organize free junior or youth rimfire shoots at your local club and teach kids to shoot. Why not try and raise funds to help cover the costs associated with completing the Canadian Firearms Safety Course and drop a cheque in the mail with their license application for kids of limited means in your area?

Clichéd as it may be, children really are our future. What we do today will determine what type of future they will inherit. Get educated. Get Active and Get Involved!

They are counting on us!

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October / November 2009

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Letters to the Dear NFA,

I’m a big pistol fan, but am new to the shooting sports.

I’m from Ontario and after doing some investigating, it really seems that the current firearms laws are unnecessarily restrictive on pistol ownership for lawabiding Canadians. (And all guns it would seem), I wasn’t sure if there was any sort of pro-firearms organizations or groups to join until I found your website. I’m really interested in helping reform laws but I’m not sure how to start. Is there any particular sites or books I should be checking out to learn more about it?

I have a Smith & Wesson hand gun which I bought for target shooting a few years ago. I had been a member of a Quebec gun club for two years, but have not gone back to the club for a few years now, and I am now getting harassed by the government (by phone). They’re arguing that my original permit was strictly for target shooting, but since I am not active anymore in this sport, I am now an illegal owner and do not have the right to keep the gun.

If I don’t go back to target shooting they may eventually have to arrest me since my hand gun is not legal (according to them) but the hand gun has been registered with them since I purchased it. They say that they will not renew my firearms permit when it expires. Is this right and what are my options? Thanks

Chris F.

Pierre M.

Chris,

Pierre,

National Firearms Association was formed specifically to address the types of problems you mentioned; problems that face all legitimate firearms owners in Canada.

Your current situation is the result of Quebec’s “Bill 9”.

Dear NFA,

The regulations facing those who own handguns in Ontario are needlessly and unnecessarily harsh. If the resources the provincial government of Ontario, the city of Toronto, and its police force are currently using to harass people with registered firearms were tasked toward stopping the criminal misuse of firearms, Ontario would be much safer. That goes for all of Canada, too.

If you wish to become lawfully involved with firearms in Canada, you should get copies of the Criminal Code of Canada, and the Firearms Act. No, they do not make for exciting reading, they’re sometimes torturous and confusing, but they are essential to understanding the rights and obligations of owning and using firearms in Canada. I’ve seen both available on-line, or you may contact the Queen’s Printer. You local MP may also be able to furnish copies for you.

12

Under “Bill 9”, if you are registered as a “target shooter” you must be a member of a gun club, have an authorization to transport restricted firearms to that club, and you must attend that club at least once a year.

This is not federal law. The Firearms Act does not require any of these things. It is a Quebec provincial “law” which is now being enforced. If you do not agree to their demands, they may attempt to bully or cajole you into surrendering your gun. They cannot confiscate it as they have no legal grounds for that. They will however harass you when it comes time to renew your firearms license.

The SQ/CFO may refuse to renew your license, and if that happens you will have to ask for a reference hearing to challenge the refusal, or else you certainly will not be allowed to keep the gun.

National Firearms Association will continue to push government for legislation to replace the current 1995 Firearms Act. Keep checking our website, www.nfa. ca, for updates and info, and consider this a personal invitation from me to join the membership of National Firearms Association and assist us in doing this.

Again, all of this is Quebec provincial “law”, and is not in force in the rest of the country. You can ignore them and continue to be harassed, but they cannot confiscate the gun or arrest you. You are breaking no real laws.

The problem comes when you try and renew your license. Without a valid firearms license, you cannot be in possession of the gun. In that respect, you’ll have to let your common sense and best judgment be your guide. Good luck!

Blair Hagen

Blair Hagen

October / November 2009

CanadianFirearmsJournal.com

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Editor

Canadian

Firearms Journal The Official Magazine of the

National Firearms Association Editor..............................................................................natvpc@nfa.ca Sean Penney & Grayson Penney

Dear NFA, Is it true that the Canadian Firearms Centre has released information on firearm owners to EKOS Research so they could conduct a poll of firearm owners? If they did, is this not illegal as all information at the CFC should be confidential? If so, should you not notify all members to not participate in this research?

What is the agenda behind this research?

Sincerely, Harold B.

Advertising..................... Advertising@CanadianFirearmsJournal.com Clive Edwards (604) 250-7910 Accounts / Membership / General Info ................ membership@nfa.ca Legal Inquiries ................................................................. legal@nfa.ca

National Executive National President .........................................................(780) 439-1394 Blair Hagen natpres@nfa.ca National Vice-President Communication......................(780) 439-1394 Sean Penney natvpc@nfa.ca

Harold, I contacted EKOS last week about the poll and was informed that it was developed by CFC as a “client satisfaction survey�. Participation is voluntary, and its existence is another example of the arrogance of the CFC in its treatment of the firearms community.

EKOS advised that it was done within the parameters of the Privacy Act and security checks by RCMP. The Minister of Public Safety has been advised about the concerns of the firearms community in regards to this poll, and is now investigating.

Also check out the feature article by our editor, Grayson Penney on just that topic.

Blair Hagen

National Vice-President Finance...................................(780) 439-1394 Henry Atkinson natvpf@nfa.ca

Provincial Contacts British Columbia ............................................................bcpres@nfa.ca Sheldon Clare (250) 563-2804 Alberta................................................................................info@nfa.ca (780) 439-1394 Saskatchewan ................................................................. skpres@nfa.ca Dan Lupichuk (306) 332-3907 Manitoba .................................................................mvormeng@nfa.ca Mike Vormeng (204) 886-2667 Ontario ...........................................................................onpres@nfa.ca Bill Rantz (705) 385-2636 Quebec ...........................................................................pqpres@nfa.ca Phil Simard (514) 365-0685 Vice-President sab@nfa.ca Stephen Buddo (450) 430-0786 Nova Scotia .................................................................... nspres@nfa.ca Dave Udle (902) 567-3600

Questions?

Do you have a question? Something you want clarified? Please send us a letter or an e-mail. We would love to hear from you.

Letters should be directed to the Editor. Legal and political questions should be directed to the NFA Legal Department. Letters must include the Name, Address, and Phone Number of the sender.

P.O. Box 52183 Edmonton, AB Canada T6G 2T5

New Brunswick......................................................................................

Harland Cook (506) 459-7416 Newfoundland ................................................................natvpc@nfa.ca Sean Penney (709) 598-2040 Cathy Keane (709) 368-3920 Publication Sales Agreement 40050578

National Firearms Association Box 52183 Edmonton, Alberta Canada T6G 2T5

Tel: (780) 439-1394 Fax: (780) 439-4091 info@nfa.ca www.nfa.ca

e-mail: info@nfa.ca www.nfa.ca f

CanadianFirearmsJournal.com

October / November 2009

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by Sean G. Penney

“The Firearms Act is about licensing and registration, not confiscation.”

- Former Justice Minister Anne McLellan, July 31, 1998.

“Let us not hear that the registration system will cost $100 per firearm.

Let us not hear that it is a prelude to confiscation by the government of hunting rifles and shotguns. Let us not contend that it will cost $1.5 billion to put in place. That is the way to distort the discussion.

That is the way to frighten people.” - Former Liberal Justice Minister Alan Rock, Hansard, February 16, 1995.

“This is not about confiscating guns. I resent the implication and the mythology that is portrayed by using that statement, because it is incorrect.” - Lynn Myers, MP. Parliamentary Secretary to the Solicitor General of Canada, November 8, 2001 14

October / November 2009

Registration Does Equal Confiscation!

O

ne of the mantra’s that most pro-firearm rights advocates take to heart is, “Registration Equals Confiscation.” Always. The former Liberal governments of Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin assured Canadians that their $2 Billion Dollar gun control scheme would not end in the confiscation of firearms. Even then, as a still relatively un-jaded university student I took those promises with a large grain of salt.

A Liberal politician’s promise should be trusted just about as far as one can physically throw the individual making the commitment; so that is not far at all!

Recent events in the city of Toronto, specifically the Toronto Police’s “Project Safe City” directly contradicts those Liberal promises. Amazingly enough, Chief Bill Blair took to the air waves this past week to sing the praises of his department’s ground-breaking law enforcement initiative; proudly displaying folding tables strewn with over 400 “illegal” firearms that were removed from the streets- thanks to the hard work and dedication of the Toronto Police Service.

Now I’m not anti-police, ask anyone who knows me. Some of my best friends are serving officers and I have a number of LEOs in my extended family. However, this latest dog & pony show really irritated me. I can accept politicians lying to the public, simply because it is in their nature, but I’ve always held law enforcement to a higher standard. They were our protectors and ultimately the keepers of the gate – true public servants. I guess that view is more than a little dated, as evidenced by the ongoing rash of scandals rocking the RCMP and now Chief Blair’s latest “coup.” I suppose in order to become chief of a major metropolitan police force you have to be just as much politician as you do cop; something Chief Blair certainly proved this week.

Under “Project Safe City” the Toronto Police opted to divert badly needed police resources away from notorious gang problem areas such as Jane & Finch, and instead target individual “criminals” who they knew were in illegal possession of firearms!

Sounds good on paper, but then you have to ask, exactly who these alleged “criminals” were and how exactly the police knew where to find them and what firearms they had in their possession. If the police could succeed in taking hundreds of guns off the street in only the matter of days, why then couldn’t the do this all the time? In fact, why haven’t they been doing this for years? If they were that efficient, why then has Toronto been witness to over 200+ shootings in the last year with well over 20+ fatalities?

That is the crux of “Project Safe City” and Toronto’s guuu….I mean GANG problem!

In reality, instead of targeting actual criminals; the gang bangers, drug dealers, arsonists and home invaders that Toronto is notorious for, Chief Blair and his merry band opted to

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go after elderly collectors, widows, and the occasional target shooter who was perhaps a little absent-minded.

Individuals that even the police described as “law-abiding.”

Thus the 400 firearms put on public display were not “taken off the streets,” but rather out of the hands of average, every-day Canadian citizens and gun owners who had simply forgotten to renew their firearms license, or because they were overwhelmed by the complexity and red tape involved in the Liberal gun control program, and had failed to properly register their firearms. In some cases, the Canadian Firearms Centre simply lost their application. It happened to me more than once. Just check with MP Garry Breitkreuz about all the problems and errors associated with the CFC, the firearms registry and the processing of license applications.

Everything from individuals receiving licenses with the wrong picture on it, to waiting 5-7 years for a registration certificate, to guns properly sold and re-registered years ago, somehow ending up still in the seller’s name.

I’ve heard and seen ‘em all!

register hundreds of thousands, if not millions of beef and dairy cattle for pennies a year and have a database that is instantly accessible, and can not only identify that particular animal, where it is located, and what bloodlines it came from, but the exact place where it was born almost instantly. Yet, the error rate is so low to not even warrant comment. Go figure!

Then juxtapose that example of efficiency with the Canadian Firearms Program and the comedy of errors that is their day to day operations. I had high hopes that the RCMP would be able to turn things around after it was placed under their authority, but as the back-to-back string of scandals that have rocked the RCMP over the past couple of years indicate, the RCMP haven’t been bringing their “A” Game to much of anything lately. That’s a shame, as things have gotten worse, not better, as this failed government make-work project continues to bleed money; while further cutbacks have seen failures to send out timely notices to licensed gun owners and registration certificate holders.

With the state of the economy, people being laid off, mass unemployment, retirement savings being wiped out overnight, it is certainly easy to understand if Mr. Jones, the elderly retiree on a fixed pension or Mrs. Smith, the widowed single mother of three forgot to renew their firearms license or properly transfer into their name the firearms left by their deceased spouse. Obviously, these acts of “criminality” were not deliberate actions, but rather acts of omission.

There was no intent to break the law.

However, as the National Firearms Association has warned from the very first day Bill C-68 was introduced in Parliament, this fatally flawed gun control program would do nothing to improve public safety. Instead, it was all about promoting political correctness and creating paper criminals. Toronto’s “Project Safe City” is a case in point.

Indeed, the dangerous “threats” to the public good that Chief Blair and his posse rounded up, were simple gun owners who forgot to renew their licenses or keep their paperwork in proper order. It is ironic that given the

Honestly, it would boggle the mind of anyone to know just how error ridden this entire program is. The evidence is available to anyone willing to put in the computer time, or do an “Access to Information” request. On a more personal note, I always find it extremely amusing, being involved professionally in the agricultural field, that Canadians can www.nfa.ca

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approximate 80% error rate associated with the Canadian Firearms Registry, the police and government chose to hold the public to a higher standard of care and diligence than they themselves are capable of!

The scenario that played out probably went something like this. One or two “smart” bean counters in the Chief’s office thought about it long and hard and figured out that it would be easier to go after honest gun owners for a cheap and fast public relations coup- than it was to continue trying to deal with the hot-button, and ever so politically sensitive issues of sub par socio-economic status of disaffected urban youth, unchecked urban decay and drug gangs plaguing the city. In truth, Toronto has never had an actual “gun” problem; but rather, a “gang” problem. That problem has manifested itself in a wholly criminal urban “thug culture” that venerates the carrying of unregistered, illegal, and almost always smuggled firearms that originated south of the border.

I find it difficult to believe that in Vancouver, a city with its own massive problem with gangs and drugs, that over 90% of firearms seized by police (Vancouver Police Dept. statistics) are traced back to illegal smuggling; but in Toronto, it is the honest gun owners who allow their legal guns to be stolen at the root of a majority of gun crime in central Canada! C’mon! As I said before, if guns were at the root of the problem, why then aren’t the streets of my hometown not running red with blood just like Toronto?

Think about it. On a per capita basis, Newfoundlanders own more guns than anyone else; in much of rural Newfoundland unemployment rates seem permanently fixed 16

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at 20%, and there hasn’t been a recreation center, games arcade or boy & girls club in operation in my area in at least 20 years. Why then haven’t local teens and young adults started packing “gats” (street slang for gun) and established our own pattern of drive-by shootings and random street violence such as seen in Toronto? Nothing to “do,” no job in sight and few prospects, they certainly couldn’t be blamed for knocking over the odd liquor store for kicks and some spending money right?

Maybe the reason is that most Newfoundland kids grow up with an intimate familiarity with firearms and share in a rich and long established hunting heritage? Strong familial ties and a typically large extended family support system probably also help, but for the main part, we made our own fun. After school we trailed “slips” or snares for snowshoe hare, “rabbits,” and ruffed grouse; usually toting along a beat-up old Cooey or Winchester single-shot break action 12 or 16 gauge “just in case.” We shot a lot of .22s growing up as well. Unfortunately, due to some bone-headed laws at the time, we weren’t allowed to use them on small game, so we usually limited their use to shooting old trap floats and bottles we scavenged from wherever. A couple of boxes of .22 shorts cost a couple of bucks at the local hardware store and we were set for an afternoon of shooting.

It really didn’t matter to anyone in the community that we were “underage” at 12 and 13 years of age. By that time it was a given that our folks had already taught us to respect firearms and to use them safely. If we fooled around or were caught at horse-play, punishment came swift and sure.

Nobody wanted to lose their rifle for a full season, so we

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learned and obeyed without question.

Funny how none of the dozen or so kids I ran with back then ever managed to shoot themselves, each other or use their guns to commit any sort of violent crime. Every single one of us was unlicensed and there wasn’t a single registered gun in the lot of us, and believe me, there were a lot of guns. Yet we grew up safe and went to bed with unlocked doors. Go figure!

It makes me shake my head sometimes just how much our society has changed in just 20 years. I graduated from Grade 12 in 1990, so the 80s were my “Wonder Years,” so to speak.

We regularly brought our hunting firearms to school with us and, in fact, my principal and math teacher held “hunter safety” classes in the basement after hours. That’s how I got my provincial “Outdoor Identification Card” and as a safe hunter, didn’t have to take the written exam when it came time to apply for my first big game license. I only had to pass the shooting test that required the prospective hunter to place at least two out of three bullets into the vital area of a reduced size Caribou/Deer target at 50M. It is a shame the old course and shooting test were supplanted by the joint CFSC/ Hunter Education Course that is now required.

I would hazard a guess that kids growing up in the inner-city of Toronto had a somewhat different childhood, despite the common barriers of unemployment and poverty they shared with many rural Newfoundland children. Perhaps rather than teaching these kids right from wrong and giving them responsibility, our social welfare system has created a poisoned environment that no politician is willing to address due to issues of skin colour and ethnicity? Keep up public appearances at all costs while allowing these kids and young men to continue killing one another over drug turf and non-existent issues of “respect” and street “cred.” It is insane, yet instead of tackling this problem, the Toronto Police are wasting time and resources reviewing over 17,000 additional www.nfa.ca

gun owners’ files in an effort to bully owners with expired licenses to turn over their legal guns for destruction or face arrest.

These aren’t the guns being found in the hands of the thugs and pushers.

These are the forgotten family heirlooms, long neglected and covered in dust, tucked away in the back of a linen closet or behind the hot water boiler. If these guns were really at the root of even a third of the gun violence being propagated in Toronto today as is claimed, wouldn’t the police have a moral obligation to charge such owners immediately in order to protect the public safety? Since they didn’t, I think that fact speaks volumes as to the true nature and efficacy of “Project Safe City.” I sincerely believe that the inmates are running the asylum that is the City of Toronto.

Obviously, in the above case, the Liberal politicos lied to Canadians when they promised that registration would not equal confiscation. Review the quotes printed above. Pretty unequivocal, yet, the police, with the complete support and acquiescence of local liberal government and the province, opted to break that promise and totally warp the original intent of the gun control program to focus on the one group that should be the natural allies of the police, the law-abiding gun owner. As Thomas Jefferson once said: “…laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes....Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.”

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- Thomas Jefferson’s “Commonplace Book,” 1774-1776, quoting 18th century criminologist Cesare Beccaria, of “On Crimes and Punishment,” 1764.

Pretty much sums up modern day Toronto don’t you think? If Toronto is to ever know peace we have to stop wasting hundreds of millions on registering legal firearms. Registration doesn’t work. The criminals don’t register theirs, so really, what is the point? We also have to stop wasting finite police resources harassing otherwise law-abiding gun owners because of improper paperwork and failing to comply with every single requirement under a poorly written Firearms Act within a system the Auditor General of Canada, herself called, “overly bureaucratic”; and one that the police themselves have difficulty adhering to!

If Mayor Miller and his political cronies want to keep the Glocks and Tec-9s out of the hands of their at-risk youth, then they need to follow the advice of former Chief Justice Roy McMurtry and his co-author former legislative speaker, Mr. Alvin Curling who recommended that Toronto focus on social and recreational programs that would occupy and challenge such kids; and thus help keep them off the street. The current system cannot work, and if it is allowed to continue, illegal guns will continue to find their way into the hands of teenagers, and syringes into their arms. When will common sense prevail?

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by: Dr. Gary Mauser

The Attraction of Guns

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hy do people want to own a gun? The short answer is that guns are useful. The longer answer is more interesting.

An estimated 400 million civilians around the world own guns. By “civilians� I mean normal people who are not in the police or military service.

One of the driving forces behind efforts by the United Nations to disarm civilians is the widespread belief among the chattering classes that general access to guns will destabilize governments.

Perhaps the world would be safer if the UN shifted its efforts towards disarming rogue governments. In previous articles I have explained the workings of the UN, but in this article I want to examine the question of why normal people want guns in the first place.

Does civilian gun ownership contribute to or undermine civil society? One of the reasons that people - virtually anywhere in the world - most often say they want a gun is for hunting. Hunting is a challenging activity that teaches people about individual responsibility as well as fostering a love of the outdoors. Modern urban dwellers have no understanding of the personal challenges involved in attempting to find and kill a wild animal, particularly big game such as deer or moose. Then, once that is accomplished, to field dress the carcass, and carry the 150 pounds (or more) of meat home so that they can butcher it prior to storing it (usually freezing it) for the family to eat over the winter. These are formidable 18

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challenges that the hunter has mastered.

As someone who came to hunting in my 40s, I was surprised at the incredible body of knowledge required. Just as impressive was that so many of the hunters I met at the local gun club took all of this knowledge for granted.

Why do people hunt?

Hunting can put meat on the table as well as help manage wildlife populations. Animals don’t believe in birth control, so the best way to keep wildlife from outgrowing their habitat is to harvest a small percentage every year. When animals do exceed the carrying capacity of their habitat, (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrying_ capacity) the natural result is starvation and disease affecting not only the quarry species but other species in the same habitat. We all enjoy seeing wildlife, even if we do not hunt. Wildlife viewing is an important aspect of tourism and a valuable glimpse into another world - a world beyond the normal urban world.

Wildlife conservation is important and no one wants to see once vibrant wildlife populations become threatened or endangered. Nevertheless, wildlife must be managed or serious negative consequences ensue. Excess deer populations can ravage crops as well as create hazards for travelers. Trains in BC kill more moose than do hunters, and automobile collisions with wildlife kill more people annually than bear attacks.

Census of Hunters in Europe

Albania Austria Belgium Bosnia - H bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Rep Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hungary Ireland Italy latvia Lithuania Luxembour Malta Moldova Montenegro Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Romania Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Switzerland Sweden Turkey UK

totals

# of hunters

total pop. [million]

17,000 115,000 20,000 50,000 110,000 55,000 45,000 110,000 165,000 15,000 305,000 1,313,000 348,000 270,000 54,500 350,000 750,000 25,000 32,000 2,000 15,000 0 0 26,500 190,000 106,000 230,000 60,000 80,000 55,000 22,000 980,000 30,000 290,000 300,000 800,000 7,336,000

3.6 8.2 10.4 4.6 7.7 4.5 0.8 10.2 5.4 1.3 5.2 60.5 82.7 11.1 10.1 4.1 58.1 2.3 3.6 0.4 0.4 4.3 0.7 16.1 4.6 38.5 10.6 22.3 10.1 5.4 2.0 43.1 7.6 9.0 71.2 59.7 600.4

Source: FACE, in Shoooting Sports Survey. 2008, p 73-74

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A brief survey of hunting internationally demonstrates the importance of hunting around the world. Given the variety of situations and continents, the reasons for hunting vary, from subsistence to sport, even occasionally commercial. Even though it is difficult to get reliable statistics for many countries, particularly in Asia and Africa, data are available for many others.

In an effort to provide decision-makers with sciencebased information, the World Forum (WFSA) held an international symposium in Windhoek, Namibia, September 2009 on the benefits of hunting (see: http:// www.wfsa.net/), Hunting is widely popular in North America, both for trophy animals and for the pot. Canadians as well as Americans enjoy the best system of wildlife management in the world thanks to the farsightedness of US President Teddy Roosevelt and Canadian Prime Minister Wilfred Laurier who established a continental conservation model based on blue-collar hunters and anglers. According to Professor Valerius Geist, North America is the only continent where wildlife is more abundant now than 100 years ago and this is testimony to the success of the North American model. In 2006 the US Fish and Wildlife Service National Survey found that 12.5 million people 16 years old and older enjoyed hunting a variety of animals within the United States.

Hunting expenditures totaled $22.9 billion USD. In 1994, Canada, the most recent survey conducted by the Canadian Wildlife Service, found that 1.5 million Canadians hunted and spent an estimated $1.2 billion CAD on transportation, food, lodging and equipment on their hunting trips. www.nfa.ca

Hunting around the world Hunting in Europe is not as widely popular as it is in North America; instead hunting appeals primarily to economic and social elites. It is not uncommon to see $100,000 shotguns at European gun shows. In Europe, FACE (Federation of Associations for Hunting and Conservation in Europe) has compiled a survey of countries in Europe and found that there are over 7 million hunters in 36 European countries. European hunters are ardent conservationists as illustrated by the recent symposium on sustainable hunting and conservation that was put on by the International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation (see http://www.cic-wildlife.org/).

In Africa, hunting provides both food and income. Subsistence hunting is important in many African countries, although it is difficult to find reliable statistics about how many people are involved. More information is available for sport hunting, but even then statistics are quite sketchy and available for only a few countries. Of fifty countries in Africa, about twenty have developed a hunting tourism industry. Sport hunting in Africa is predominantly for big game and certainly upscale, i.e., safaris are expensive and limited to relatively well-off hunters. Nevertheless, it is estimated that there are about 10,000 hunters per year and it is known that such hunting tourism provides substantial income for Africans - both to individuals, to villages, and to African governments. The biological impact is quite limited, because of the small number of hunters and also because the animals hunted are primarily trophy animals, which are usually only old males. In Tanzania, one typical sport-hunting season yielded CAD $15 million to the government in taxes alone. In Zimbabwe, hunting safaris in some regions accounts for the bulk of revenue earned.

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CAMPFIRE (Community Areas Management Program for Indigenous Resources) in Zimbabwe is an impressive example of managing hunting tourism with the express goal of generating direct financial benefit for local communities where allowing hunting safaris are carried out.

Hunting in Australia and New Zealand is quite broadly based. There are an estimated 1.2 million hunters in Australia, or about 7% of the adult population, while in New Zealand hunters account for an even larger share of the adult population, around 11%.

In both countries, there is a wide variety of game, as well as feral animals. Hunting remains very popular in New Zealand but is becoming increasingly controversial in Australia, probably because of the changing values following increasing urbanization.

While waterfowl hunting is popular in Victoria and the sparsely inhabited Northern Territory, and still conducted in Tasmania and South Australia, it is officially banned in New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia. Apparently, hunting is seen as being cruel. Deer hunting has a core of support in both countries. Of course, feral animals, such as rabbits and goats, have lower status in the bureaucratic mind. In Australia, hunters are much more politically correct if they concentrate their efforts on pest elimination.

Conclusions Hunters are not the kind of citizens who destabilizes government. Hunting make important contributions to society by putting food on the table for families, by contributing to the maintenance of healthy wildlife populations, and by stimulating the economy.

Hunters, whether they are the cultured elite of Europe or the hoi polloi of North America, Australia or New Zealand, chose hunting because of their love of nature and to bring home some of their own food.

Most are very apolitical, to their cost.

Firearms in the hands of hunters do not feed criminals or terrorists.

Research shows that criminals overwhelmingly get their guns through smuggling networks, and terrorists typically are clandestinely provided with arms by rogue governments (such as Iran shipping RPGs to Hamas in Gaza). As I have shown previously, targeting civilian firearms through owner licensing or firearms registration programs is misguided and ineffective.

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For further research: Child, Brian. “Building the Campfire Paradigm: Helping villagers protect African wildlife.” Property and Environment Research Center. June 2004. http://www.perc.org/articles/ article138.php English, A. W. “Conservation Biology and the Utilization of Wildlife in Australia.” Game Council of New South Wales. Presented at Nihon University, 26 Nov 2008. http://www.gamecouncil.nsw.gov.au/ portal.asp?p=newsletterintro Geist, Valerius. “The North American Model of Wildlife Conservation as Means of Creating Wealth, Protecting Public Health while Generating Biodiversity.” In Gaining Ground: In Pursuit of Ecological Sustainability. (Ed) David M. Lavigne. IFAH. University of Limerick, Ireland, 2006. http:// www.ifaw.org/Publications/Regional_ Publications/CANADA/asset_upload_ file203_16764.pdf FACE. “Shooting Sports in the European Union,” in Shooting Sports Survey, Conservation and Sport, Gottlieb, J. V. (ed). Merril Press, Bellevue, WA. (2008).

Filion, F. L. et al. The importance of wildlife to Canadians: The economic significance of wildlife related recreational activities in 1991, Canadian Wildlife Service, 1994. . http://www. ec.gc.ca/nature/index_e.htm Mauser, Gary. “Hunters are the mainstay of provincial wildlife management programs in Canada.” International Hunting Education Association Journal, Vol. 3, No. 3, Winter 2004.

Mauser, Gary and Don B. Kates. Would Banning Firearms Reduce Murder and Suicide? A Review of International Evidence. Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy. http://www.garymauser. net/ Thorp, T.M. Review of Firearms Control in New Zealand. Report of an Independent Inquiry Commissioned by the Minister of Police, Wellington, New Zealand. June 1997 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Hunting Statistics and Economics. News report on the results of the 2006 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation. http:// www.fws.gov/hunting/huntstat.html The International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation. Best Practices in Sustainable Hunting: A Guide to Best Practices From Around the World (2008). http://www.cic-wildlife.org/ index.php?id=119

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By: Gary Kangas

BMF

Match Was A

Blast BMF

is the British Military Forum, a site frequented by individuals who enjoy discussing, collecting and shooting Victorian era British Military Firearms.

Gary & Sybil Kangas have produced Wild West shows, videos and stage productions. Their writing has been Magazine, published in: Trails End Magazine g , Guns & Ammo and the Cowboyy Chronicle plus various newspapers and journals. They are international competitors in Cowboy Action Shooting, life members of the Single Action Shooting Society (SASS) and long time members of the National Firearms Association.

The British Military enthusiasts get together at informal matches at various locals and such was the one I attended in mid-June of this year held in Central Alberta. Although the events are informal they are connected by a postal match for Victorian Military firearms.

The organizers pick a theme connected to the British Empire and shoot targets with firearms related to the theme. The firearms of the event I attended were related to the Rebellion/Resistance of 1885.

Firearms at the shoot were incredible. Handguns were Webley’s, RIC’s, Adams and I used a number .38 S&W. Rifles were original Sniders and Martini’s.

I shot a reproduction ’76 Winchester. They even organized a bayonet charge!

Sandwiches were served for lunch and Saturday dinner featured a buffalo roast (how authentic is that?) Participants dressed in period outfits, punched paper and rang steel at various distances with rifle and revolver.

Anyone who is interested in the British Military forum can access the site at http:// britishmilitariaforums.yuku.com/directory r and for the general format at http://britishmilitariaforums.yuku. com/topic/8131

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We’re all very proud of both Megan and Matt and the poise with which they have so ably represented Team NFA for us!

Megan Tandy is training hard to be ready for the Vancouver Olympics.

At twenty, she is one of the youngest members on the Canadian team.

Megan’s training program is rigorous and demanding. At the end of September she raced in a four person Junior Mixed Relay and was the second fasted female athlete in the race and lead skier for the Canadian team!

Megan also raced in the 7.5 km sprint at the Summer World Biathlon Championships in Oberhof, Germany and she shot well to take two gold medals, so she will end her junior career as a Junior World Champion.

Megan has been pleased with her results as she continues to hone her skills so as to be peaking when she skies and shoots for Canada at Whistler in 2010.

Rollerblading, cycling and shooting as well as the gym keep Megan fully occupied as she focuses on becoming one of the best female biathletes in the world.

Megan was featured in a recent CTV news segment which you may view at: http:// watch.ctv.ca/news/ctv-national-news/sept-21/#clip215844.

You may wish to visit her web page at http://megantandybiathlete. spaces.live. com/ to be updated on Megan’s progress and race results.

The NFA is very proud to support Megan in reaching her goals, and we ask that you please join us in wishing Megan the very best as she strives to achieve Olympic excellence.

- Sheldon Clare, Team NFA Coordinator

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Sunday, September 27, 2009 World Summer Champs/ European Training Camp Hi Everybody!

For the next four weeks I’ll be continuing my training camp in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. The first race of the camp began in Altenburg, Germany with German National Summer Biathlon Championships (September 19th-20th). I was racing in the senior category against some of Germany’s top biathlon celebrities. In the Saturday 10km sprint, I finished 3:10 behind World Champion Christoph Stephen (Germany).

I started the 12.5km pursuit in 22nd place (3:10 behind the leader) and finished the weekend in 19th place.

Immediately after German Champs the BC Biathlon High Performance Team traveled to Oberholf, Germany for Summer Running Biathlon World Championships. In the first 4km sprint competition I finished in 20th position (out of 46 junior competitors) 1:17 behind the leader. I had a clean prone shooting (5 for 5) but had four misses standing!

I was motivated for improvement the next day. In Sunday’s 6km Pursuit competition, I cleaned my first two prone shootings, moving into 8th for the first standing. I finished with 5 total misses (15/20) and in 13th position. I was happy with a top 15 result at a world championship, but knew I was still capable of a better performance.

This weekend was World Summer Rollerski Biathlon Championships. I had two average races with good skiing and bad shooting. I finished the 10km sprint just inside the top 30, 3 minutes 45 seconds behind the leader. I had the 18th fastest ski time, which I was happy about and was less than a minute from a top 20. In the 12.5km pursuit on Sunday I finish 32nd overall, with 17th fastest ski time and again poor shooting. I finished the week very motivated to improve my shooting, and happy to see that my ski times were competitive with the leaders.

Tomorrow is off and starting on Tuesday, we start a nine day ski camp in Oberholf Germany, where we will be skiing in a man made snow tunnel. I’m excited to continue the camp, and look forward to an awesome next four weeks!

- Matt Neumann

The National Firearms Association has an active and growing membership of shooters and hunters. If you would like to reach each and every one of them, advertise in the

Canadian Firearms Journal.

Interested?

Call us at (604) 250-7910 or e-mail us at Advertising@CanadianFirearmsJournal.com

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By Sean G. Penney

What Makes a Modern Sporting Rifle?

S

itting at the keyboard, as I write my latest column, I can see a family of snowshoe hare nibbling away at the grass in my backyard as they’ve done all summer.

The difference now is that the grass is covered by a nice, thick layer of frost! Our first of the fall! I may be the odd man out, but I always looked forward to the first heavy frost of fall, as that always marked the “official” start of hunting season for me here in Newfoundland. I was lucky enough to be drawn for a Bull Moose license again this year, so the past week has been quite frenetic, getting things finished up around the property so that I can get away for a couple of weeks of pure hunting pleasure.

I’m still packing and haven’t settled on which rifle to take this year. I’ve been waffling

between my trusty custom Remington 700 in 7mm Remington Magnum and my classic Winchester Model 70 “Featherweight” in .308 Winchester. I’ll probably stick with the 700, as I seem to shoot it better, but if I had my druthers, I’d be taking an AR-10 chambered in .308 Winchester or one of the new 6.5mm uppers now available for the AR-15.

The former is a real pussycat to shoot, and with the proper tweaking, has the potential to be a true sub-MOA rifle with quality factory ammo. The 6.5mm examples are sub-MOA just about right out of the box!

Okay! I can already imagine the gasps of outrage and the negative E-mails and letters I’m going to receive for voicing my preference for such a feared and much maligned 24

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“Black Rifle” rather than the more “acceptable” and still politically correct (at least for the moment) traditional bolt action or lever gun. Unfortunately for me current gun control regulations prevent me for going with my top pick.

In fact, the AR-10 and its smaller sibling, the AR-15, are currently classified as “Restricted” firearms and may only be discharged at approved ranges. They even have special storage requirements, just like handguns, and require government permission to simply transport them to and from approved ranges in the form of an “Authorization to Transport.” The latter is basically a permission slip from the Chief Firearms Officer of your home province permitting you to legally transport your rifle to the range for target practice or competition purposes.

This wasn’t always so, however, and there are many Canadian hunters who remember a time when all AR style rifles were completely unrestricted and 100% legal to use for hunting! I’m not talking pre-1970s either. It wasn’t until the early 1990s that the AR-15 and variants were restricted by name under the direction of then Justice Minister Kim Campbell. Prior to that, thousands of ARs were fielded across Canada in pursuit of coyotes, prairie dogs, and even big game such as deer and caribou. In fact, the anodized aluminum receiver and synthetic furniture of the AR-10/15 family of rifles make them ideal hunting guns, as they can handle whatever Mother Nature can throw at them, even the harshest of North Atlantic climates such as Newfoundland & Labrador. There was more than one old harp or hood seal felled by the AR-15 around the bays and harbours of my island home before the gun prohibitionist got in on the act!

My first AR-15 was a classic Colt SP-1 that lacked the forward assist seen on later models and came with the old style triangular hand guards so reminiscent of rifles fielded by the US military during the Vietnam War era. It was purchased, via mail-order, from S.I.R. of Winnipeg, or as my grandfather always insisted on calling it, “Sidney Robinson.” The cost? $765.00! I still have the receipt kicking around somewhere! Although I’m starting to see more gray in my hair than I’d like, I’m far from being a grizzled old graybeard rifle loony at the venerable age of 37! ☺ To paraphrase one of my favourite English authors and former parliamentarian, Sir Edmund Burke, the worst sort of tyranny arises from bad laws and the act restricting these simple, semi-automatic, sporting rifles is a prime example of pointless, tyrannical governmental excess.

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Fellow outdoor writer, Jim Zumbo, almost committed professional suicide a couple of years ago when he attacked “black rifles” like the AR-15 in his blog for Outdoor Life Magazine. In his now infamous blog, Mr. Zumbo really did a fantastic job coalescing into a few sentences the ignorance and misperceptions even dedicated hunters such as he held toward such types of rifles. In his blog, Mr. Zumbo wrote: I must be living in a vacuum. The guides on our hunt tell me that the use of AR and AK rifles have a rapidly growing following among hunters, especially prairie dog hunters.

I had no clue. Only once in my life have I ever seen anyone using one of these firearms. I call them “assault” rifles, which may upset some people. Excuse me, maybe I’m a traditionalist, but I see no place for these weapons among our hunting fraternity. I’ll go so far as to call them “terrorist” rifles. They tell me that some companies are producing assault rifles that are “tackdrivers.” Sorry, folks, in my humble opinion, these things have no place in hunting. We don’t need to be lumped into the group of people who terrorize the world with them, which is an obvious concern. I’ve always been comfortable with the statement that hunters don’t use assault rifles. We’ve always been proud of our “sporting firearms.” This really has me concerned. As hunters, we don’t need the image of walking around the woods carrying one of these weapons.

To most of the public, an assault rifle is a terrifying thing.

Let’s divorce ourselves from them. I say game departments should ban them from the praries [sic] and woods.

Jim Zumbo Blog Entry: “Assault Rifles for Hunters?”

February 16, 2007 - Outdoor Life Magazine As a proponent of firearms rights and having dedicated the past number of years to promoting, supporting and protecting all safe recreational firearms activities, along with promulgating natural justice for the same, I cannot disagree more with Mr. Zumbo’s words more strenuously.

Obviously, tens of thousands of fellow gun owners shared my sentiments, as the barrage of complaints and protests that followed, caused major sponsors such as Remington Arms, Gerber Legendary Blades and Cabela’s to end their relationships with him, while his outdoor hunting show went on indefinite hiatus and the publishers of Outdoor Life removed him as editor of the magazine. Thankfully, Mr. Zumbo has since taken the time to educate himself on this issue and has been “reformed,” in part, through the efforts of legendary rocker and hunting enthusiast Ted Nugent.

Today, almost every major firearms manufacturer in North America is producing some sort of AR-15 rifle, including such diverse companies as Para-Ordnance (formerly located in Scarborough, Ontario), Smith & Wesson, and now even Remington Arms; that’s in addition to a host of other traditional AR manufacturers such as Colt, LMT, Bushmaster, Armalite and DPMS. In fact, Remington’s R-15 and R-25 camo clad AR rifles are two of their best

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selling models and have become a favorite of varmint hunters and big game hunters alike. These rifles appeal to all hunters who enjoy shooting well-made, accurate, ergonomic, soft-recoiling self-loaders that don’t stick out like the proverbial sore thumbs in the woods, yet are still very affordable to own.

Mr. Zumbo, like so many in the liberal media, allowed mere cosmetics to cloud his judgement and based his opinion on ignorance and emotion, rather than logic and fact.

According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the official trade association for the firearms industry, the AR-15 family of firearms remains the fastest selling style of modern sporting rifles in the US. If the number of new AR-15 dealers and distributors that are popping up all over Canada are any indication, it is almost as popular in Canada as well! While we cannot legally use the AR for hunting anymore in Canada, it still remains the most popular rifle used in Dominion of Canada Rifle Association sponsored “Service Rifle” competitions, along with action games such as IPSC “3-Gun Competitions,” and CQB shoots. Without a doubt, they are and continue to be wholly legitimate sporting and target rifles.

With the AR-15 platform finally going “mainstream” perhaps it is time for us to ask our government leaders why exactly the AR-15 and other similar semi-automatic “black rifles” have been restricted, and in some cases outright prohibited, from ownership by Canada’s responsible firearms enthusiasts and hunters? I’ll admit that the AR15 strongly resembles the American M-16 and our own Canadian Forces C-7, however, unlike the latter, it is not and has never been an “assault rifle” or “machinegun” as it is so often incorrectly dubbed by most media sources and more deliberately by gun control advocates. By definition,

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a true “assault weapon” is a select-fire military small arm that is capable of fully automatic fire; meaning that it will fire multiple rounds with a single depression of the firearm’s trigger. Hold the trigger down and the firearm will continue to cycle until all rounds in the rifle’s magazine have been expended.

The AR-15, while admitedly owing its origins to a military progenitor, is decidedly NOT a machine gun or an assault rifle! Rather, it is a self-loading, semi-automatic modern sporting rifle! Other than cosmetics, it functions no differently than that Browning BAR or Remington 7400 semi-automatic rifle that your Uncle Charley might use for deer hunting. To ban or restrict a firearm based solely on cosmetics is insane. How exactly is the public good served by such restrictions?

If you study RCMP crime statistics, there are virtually zero incidences where such legally owned rifles were ever used in the commission of a crime. I can’t recall a single incident off the top of my head. In fact, going even further, I don’t recall a single incident where even fully automatic firearms were misused by their legally entitled owners in modern times. Yet we have Liberal Party leader Michael Ignatieff pontificating in the media that his party opposed removing some of the bureaucratic red tape associated with our current gun control program because it would mean putting machine guns on the streets of Canadian cities!

What balderdash!

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Legally licensed Canadian gun owners have proven themselves the most responsible and absolutely safest demographic in the nation. How else can the National Firearms Association afford to sell a comprehensive $5 Million dollar liability insurance policy to such owners for just $7.95? Compare that to the hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars the average automobile owner has to pay for a simple public liability policy! Which inanimate object, the automobile or the semi-automatic hunting rifle, has proven the biggest danger to public safety on those same streets Mr. Ignatieff mentioned?

Like so much of the gun control “argument,” Mr. Ignatieff’s decision to oppose MP Garry Breitkreuz’s Bill C-301, and more than likely MP Candace Hoepner’s Bill C-391, will have everything to do with being politically correct and absolutely nothing to do with improving public safety. Thus far, our government has wasted over $2 Billion dollars registering hunting rifles and diverted millions of man hours of police time on already law-abiding citizens instead of focusing on actual criminals such as Toronto’s notorious inner-city drug gangs, or Montreal’s outlaw bikers. Today, this failed gun control program continues to hemorage money like there is no tomorrow, with some estimates putting the final figure between $85-$115 Million dollars for 2009 alone! In today’s economy, the Liberals continue to force the Harper Government to essentially flush millions of taxpayer’s money down the toilet for no real purpose other than to placate the likes of Wendy Cukier and the non-

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gun owning, left-wing, latte-quaffing tree-huggers that seem to congregate all too often in key electoral ridings.

While we must continue to work within the framework of a minority Parliament, that doesn’t mean you, our members, and indeed, all responsible firearms owners cannot continue to press for a return to common sense and sensible gun legislation. Like Mr. Zumbo, who is now enjoying a small professional revival, we need all gun owners, including our fellow hunters to put aside their internal prejudices and incorrect perceptions of “black rifles” like the AR-15 and similar military-style semi-automatics and recognize the truth of my argument.

Remember too, for well over a century and a half, small arms of military design have proven extremely popular amongst civilian sportsmen. Hunters and target shooters valued such rifles for much the same reasons as did the military’s that employed them. Simply put, inherent qualities such as accuracy, ruggedness and reliability, were just as important to the Rocky Mountain sheep hunter from Alberta, or the Newfoundland moose hunter as they were to finest regiment in the British Empire. What worked on the battlefield, worked equally well in the field, slung over the shoulder of the expectant hunter.

We can see this civilian to military evolution quite plainly here in Canada as evidenced by the numerous examples of civilian sporting rifles based on the Martini-Henry rifle action of the 19th Century, and more recently in the 20th with the cottage industry that grew out of sporterizing the millions of surplus Lee-Enfield .303 British battle rifles that were sold in every hardware store and department store from St. John’s, Newfoundland to Vancouver, British Columbia throughout the latter half of the last century.

The same pattern can be observed in the United States where surplus bolt action Springfields and Enfields were converted into sporting rifles, or oftentimes, simply used as is by returning servicemen and hunters alike. The M-1 Garand, America’s preeminent semi-automatic battle rifle of WWII, remains extremely popular today and the Civilian Marksmanship Program continues to sell thousands of rifles and millions of rounds of surplus military ammunition directly to their citizens every year.

The same can be said of the M-16, or in our case, the C-7.

While actual fully automatic examples remain in the hands of some collectors, the platform itself was re-engineered to preclude any possibility of the semi-automatic, SPORTING rifle from ever being converted into anything resembling the “machinegun” of action film fame and the bane of gun control proponents such as Liberal Party Leader, Michael Ignatieff, Toronto Mayor, David Miller, disgraced former Ontario Attorney-General, Michael Bryant and Coalition for Gun Control founder, Wendy Cukier. Plain and simple, the AR-15 and similar “black rifles” have been unjustly targeted by the media and gun grabbers alike and ignored

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or misunderstood by more traditional hunters. There are several Canadian firearms manufacturers who continue to produce AR style sporting rifles and a new custom manufacturer just tooled up this past year and is now busy producing one of the finest AR rifles on the planet. (Look for a comprehensive review in an upcoming issue under our new “Made Right Here” feature). Large sporting goods retailers such as Wholesale Sports, LeBarons, Russells and many of the larger independent gun shops that do both retail and mail-order business simply cannot keep ARs in stock and waiting lists can be months long! The situation is even more frenetic in the US as demand outstrips supply and it is common place to see AR-15s sell for hundreds more than the MSRP. I know that my word’s may not have convinced the most hardcore of you traditionalists to go out and buy your own AR-15, but perhaps I’ve made you think about the issue a little more and perhaps recognize the veracity of my argument in some small way. There are no “good” or “bad” guns. The AR-15 platform is not a battlefield assault weapon, but a modern sporting rifle that should most properly be viewed as merely the next logical step in the traditional military-to-civilian evolution of small arms into the implements of modern hunters and target shooters.

Metallic cartridge, breech-loading, Sharps rifles and lever-action Henry rifles bore little resemblance to the smoothbore muskets and muzzle-loading rifles employed by “modern” armies of the 1850s. However, they went on to great success in the hands of civilian buffalo hunters and cowboys in the years following the American Civil War. Then again, the current synthetic stocked, camouflaged hunting rifles so popular today bear little resemblance to the often handmade/assembled richly blued and highly polished examples of the gun makers art that our grandfather’s used a generation or two ago. The same can be said for the AR15. Just because it doesn’t look like a traditional varmint or big game rifle doesn’t automatically disqualify it as a legitimate sporting rifle. Unequivocally, the AR-15 is an extremely popular modern example of what a sporting rifle is. As such, all of us, as fellow hunters, target shooters and simple gun owners need to hang together and support one another to help get bad gun laws scrapped for good. As a responsible, law-abiding citizen, I should have the right to take my AR afield this hunting season. Perhaps, with your help, letters, faxes, E-mails and especially votes, we can once again ensure that “common sense” isn’t so uncommon in the houses of Parliament and I can finally “Get me Moose B’y!”

Visit the Web site at www.nssf.org/MSR to learn more about modern sporting rifles.

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by: Sheldon Clare

Legal Corner A Critique of the Heemskerk & Davies Report on the

Illegal Movement of Firearms in British Columbia Prepared for: John van Dongen, Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General for BC, Wally Oppal, Attorney General of BC

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anada’s National Firearms Association (NFA) has a number of basic concerns with the recently released report on the Illegal Movement of Firearms in British Columbia, as prepared by two former Chief Provincial Firearms Officers of BC. Like others, members of Canada’s professional and recreational firearms community are concerned with violence in any form. We understand the desire of the province to appear to be doing something about gang violence. However, there is little in this report that will directly affect gang violence or deal with its root causes and much that will make the problems for ordinary firearms users much worse.

The NFA advocated for the opting out of administering the federal firearms program back in November 2001 when Rich Coleman was the Solicitor General. The main issue at the time was that the Federal Government was not willing to pay for the high costs of administering the program. There were and are other issues that pose a significant problem for our organization and its members. The report seems to contradict itself in arguing for opting back into the program on page 32, while at the same time pointing out that the relationship between the CFO’s office and other agencies is positive and cooperative.1 If that is so, why the sudden need for more money to be spent on more business inspections and special weapons enforcement teams?

First, we disagree that firearms themselves are or should be considered illegal. It seem that when registration was very limited and licensing was less complex than it is, there was a lot less firearms crime than there appears to be at this time.2 The issue is not the firearm, but rather how it is used.

The real problem appears to be criminal gang

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involvement with firearms and even the most rigid of police states cannot stop all of that sort of activity.

As documented by the Auditor General of Canada, owner licensing and firearms registration has been expensive, open to corruption, and has had no demonstrated effect on criminal violence in Canada.3 Licensing and registration has been demonstrably ineffective against gang violence. It is therefore somewhat surprising to see such a strong emphasis in this report upon increasing regulatory powers rather than on supporting police efforts to investigate crime and developing effective social policy. Perhaps an increased commitment to a truly national police force would be more effective, but it would be even more useful to provide early intervention and additional support for families. Even during good economic times BC has had a child poverty rate of 20% and that circumstance has to have affected involvement in gangs.

In that regard the entire classification system is flawed and problematic for people who would use firearms for legitimate purposes, including for lawful self defence and personal protection. Many of the recommendations seek to increase criminalization of what are actually regulatory offences that should not properly be in the criminal code.

The real offences are crimes against people, not crimes of paperwork. We are especially concerned that replica firearms, which cannot hurt anyone, carry the same offence as using a real firearm – if the crime and penalty is the same regardless if the firearm is real or a replica, then the criminal motivation is clearly to have a working real firearm rather than an imitation or deactivated one. Replicas cannot shoot, so they are dangerous only to those who would use them in crime if confronted by armed resistance or police.4 Second, regardless of the stated intent to crack down on gang activity, the NFA sees many of these recommendations as being a threat to

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people who use firearms for all sorts of perfectly legitimate purposes that are unrelated to gang activity. We have had several complaints in BC of officers acting over-zealously when confronting persons returning from hunting or trips to the range who have firearms in their possession. In several cases officers have displayed ignorance about transportation of firearms regulations and seized property and charged innocent people who had really done nothing illegal.5 The firearms regime proposed in this report is more of a threat to a farmer who owns an unregistered shotgun to shoot predatory wildlife than it is to street gang members in Vancouver. The NFA does not see Ontario or Quebec as paradigms of firearm control to be emulated – in fact the heavy handed firearms control in those provinces is the source of much trouble for ordinary people who happen to own firearms. While the paper appears to like the enforcement model of Ontario there is no evaluation provided as to the effectiveness of that model in terms of reducing violent crime.6 We deal with many cases every year, frequently coming out of Quebec and Ontario, in which people are harassed and prosecuted for actions which are not crimes against people or property, but often crimes of not having their paperwork in order. Requiring mandatory minimum sentences for these sorts of possession and paperwork offences is, in our opinion completely inappropriate.

Third, as an advocacy group for firearms owners, users and businesses, we are very concerned with the characterization of some businesses as engaged in illegal activity – if they are then one would suggest that there should be some evidence produced and appropriate arrests made.7 It is not the proper role of the province to deny legal business opportunity, or further regulate an industry that is increasingly hit by regulation and high costs. Many of the regulations in this report would merely cause more difficulty for already overregulated firearms businesses.

The methodology of this report is at least flawed due to its excessive reliance on consulting government agencies, many of whom would benefit from budgetary increases to the program. Most of the 59 people interviewed in this report are involved in law enforcement, or in bureaucracy supporting the law and are the potential beneficiaries of additional resources associated with a heavier-handed policing model. There were only five non-enforcement persons interviewed; three of these are related to firearms businesses.8 With the exception of Gary Mauser, PhD, a firearms researcher; and Blair Hagen, who besides being employed at Lever Arms is also the NFA national president; there are no other academic researchers or firearms advocacy groups represented. There is no evidence presented that the recommendations made are required. A multi-tiered approach that is not simply law-enforcement based is needed.

researchers in this project. The consultation was mainly aimed at a policing and enforcement perspective without enough input from law-abiding firearms owners or academic criminologists. Clearly this report had an insufficient research base in that many important studies and experts were ignored.9 In that regard it is not surprising that “Among those interviewed, there seemed to be general support for the legislation regarding the licensing and registration of all firearms.”10 Fifth, the UN Firearms Protocol that is proposed for Canada is unworkable, expensive and -what’s worse -- redundant. Firearms currently imported into Canada are already adequately marked by the commercial manufacturers.

Sixth, in terms of solving the root causes of gang violence, one might suspect that a good bit of it is economic and poverty based. Increasing educational opportunities for young people by taking steps to reduce the costs of advanced education would help. Increasing rehabilitation programs to help young people to break cycles of crime could be useful.

Increasing access to programs that get help for young people would also be useful, as would be providing increased support for mental health patients. Some of the recommendations touch on the need to address youth crime and of all the recommendations in the report these are likely the most sensible. However, even these are spoiled by the negative portrayal of “gun culture” when the real wording should have been “crime culture.” The Rochester Study (attached) found that youths of high school age that were involved in hunting or target shooting with their parents were much less likely to get involved in criminal or gang activity than youths who did not have such familiarity with the shooting sports. This is consistent with the view of sociologists who might regard gang attachment as fulfilling a need of youth for belonging that may not be present in their family, despite their socioeconomic status.11 The report does not emphasize sufficiently the importance of coordinating among police agencies. In dealing with the roots of crime, this report does not emphasize sufficiently nor engage in consultation with community leaders. The government needs to work with local leaders to determine which services are most needed to keep youth away from gangs.12

There should have been a much wider canvass of firearm user groups and academic www.nfa.ca

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In previous BC provincial governments, we have seen the use of handguns including pellet pistols, prohibited from use in hunting. Firearms instructors for the CORE and FSET programs have had more and more difficulty in obtaining instructional firearms for use in training new shooters and hunters. We have seen increasing harassment of innocent firearms users and over reaction by police in a number of situations. This report is a recipe for increasing negative interaction between the police and other enforcement agencies, with those who should be their best supporters.

The comment on page 35 that it is not acceptable for a firearms business to be located next to a school is both offensive and a very short step from arguing that there should be gun free zones around schools that would prevent firearms owners from living near schools.13 The assumption for much of the report seems to be that regulation can only be enforced against people who are attempting to comply with the rules by being in the system. This report focuses overmuch on firearms, rather than on the gang problem that it purports to solve; again this is not surprising given the background of the principal authors and most of their interviewees.

Perhaps the province might consider much more vigorous prosecution of offenses against the person rather than offenses related to paperwork and licensing. The report seems to indicate a more vigorous enforcement of licensing and registration provisions. As you may be aware and as the report seems to acknowledge, there are likely many thousands of people in this country who have chosen for reasons of trust, politics and philosophy not to opt in to the federal firearms program. Some of these people have chosen not to obtain licenses; others may have licenses but may have chosen not to register some or any of their firearms. Given the small numbers of guns owned by this segment that end up in the hands of criminals, these people do not pose a significant threat to warrant such an extensive and wasteful use of police resources.

In addition, the experience of people owning prohibited firearms regulated under Criminal Code of Canada Firearms Act section 12(6) in having their legally purchased property stolen from them by legislative act does not give comfort to firearms owners as to the good intentions of the government in terms of regulating firearms in this country.

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In discussing lost guns, the report overlooks the problem of lost, missing or misappropriated guns from the police and other government agencies themselves. This is a shocking omission. In Canada, there is no adequate mechanism for reporting police guns that are lost or missing, so it is difficult to know how many end up as ‘crime guns.’ This is a potentially serious problem because of the large numbers of firearms in government hands.

Without data, it is difficult to know, but one might suspect that more crime guns come from lost or stolen police stock than from private owners with lapsed licenses.

Given the problems with licensing and registration, it is unjustifiable that this report urges more of the same. Why doesn’t the report urge courts and prosecutors to ensure that criminals who are charged with violent crimes will also be charged with firearms crime? It is not a wise use of resources to step up enforcement of people who let their licenses lapse. For the most part these are older and more forgetful if honest citizens. Paper crimes appear to be predominantly prosecuted when they are the only violation involved; however, paper crimes are more important when they accompany violent crimes.

Having a patchwork of administration of the Firearms Act across the country, with more teams of dark-clad enforcers in the role of intimidating honest citizens under the guise of dealing with gang violence are not what this organization sees as desirable. We cannot believe that this is the best way to combat gang violence. It would not be wise to create a Provincial Weapons Enforcement Team for BC; after all, the problem is gangs, not guns.

The report fails to consult widely amongst groups that could provide valuable information that might actually help with the gang problem. Implementing many of the recommendations in this report will lead to more problems for ordinary firearms owners and will have little or no effect on gang violence, and for these reasons the National Firearms Association is firmly opposed to these measures.

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1

In this regard there has been some excellent work done by researchers in the United States on Gang Violence and Urban Delinquency.

Heemskerk, Tony and Eric Davies. A Report on The Illegal Movement of Firearms in British Columbia. (Victoria, BC: Ministry of Public Safety and the Solicitor General for BC, November 2008), 30,32.

2

The Shooting Organizations of Canada. Observations on a OneWay Street; the Canadian Firearm Control Debate. (Ontario Handgun Association, 1994), Chapters 1 and 2. See also Chapter 10 of the December 2002 Auditor General’s Report, as cited below.

3

Canada. Office of the Auditor General of Canada. “Chapter 10 Department of Justice - Costs of Implementing the Canadian Firearms Program,” 2002 December, Report of the Auditor General. December, 2002. http://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/internet/English/parl_lpy_e_1095.html, (Access obtained 16 February 2009). See also Gary Mauser, PhD., Hubris in the North: The Canadian Firearms Registry. (Public Policy Sources, The Fraser Institute, Vancouver BC, June 2007). Professor Mauser presents a well-documented critique of the Firearms Act’s registration and licensing provisions.

4

For a peer-reviewed work on self defence and its affect on violent crime rates, see John R. Lott, Jr., More Guns, Less Crime - Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws, (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1998).

5

In this regard the account of Jim Parfrey and his partner in Dawson Creek is well-known. The author of the report had a similar experience which ended differently in September, 2006. There are a number of other examples, some of which are still before the courts.

6

Heemskerk, Illegal Movement of Firearms, 24-25.

7

Ibid, 33-36.

8

Ibid, 48-51.

9

Heemskerk, 29.

The youth education piece in this report is sorely lacking any kind of evidence-based reasoning; to that end, teaching kids about the dangers of gangs and guns equals bad stuff, is counterproductive, if not harmful to the cause as it may merely encourage interest in gangs and improper use of firearms. According to both American and Canadian researchers ‘scared straight’ programs have been discredited for years. The RCMP’s own gang task force is already working with better models. Some additional consultation with gang specialists, and academic criminologists and sociologists would likely be helpful. For example, the Prince George Aboriginal Gang force was not consulted in this regard; the focus of the report is almost entirely lower mainland with only a brief mention of other communities. Regarding firearms, supporting programs that teach young people about guns at an earlier age and clearly demonstrating positive uses of firearms in conjunction with a supportive family and positive peer groups are clearly better options. The BC Conservation and Outdoor Recreation Education hunter safety program (CORE) is such an example; the Scouting programs and federal army, air and sea cadet programs are others.

11 David Huizinga, PhD., Rolf Loeber, PhD, and Terence P. Thornberry, PhD., Urban Delinquency and Substance Abuse: Initial Findings; Research Summary, (Denver, CO Pittsburgh, PA, and Rochester, NY: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice, March 1994), 14 & 18. (attached) 12

Best Practises to Address Community Gang Problems. (Washington, DC: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, National Youth Gang Centre, 2007), 2-6.

13

Heemskerk, Illegal Movement of Firearms, 35.

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by: Grayson Penney

Privacy and the Canadian Firearms Registry:

Another Broken Promise

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anada’s “national police force,” the RCMP, have once again proven themselves to be wholly irresponsible; and either unwilling, or incapable of following the same rules and regulations they are tasked with enforcing. Over the past week or so, NFA offices and e-mail accounts have been overwhelmed with

complaints from both members and non-members alike. Both groups were incensed that the RCMP, which now controls the Canadian Firearms Registry, saw fit to release the names and contact information of thousands of gun owners to a private, civilian owned and run, polling firm!

We at National Firearms Association shared that outrage and were quick to contact the polling firm in question, EKOS, and the office of Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan. Minister Van Loan, who had been unaware of the rogue actions, expressed his displeasure over what was an unauthorized and wholly ill-advised action by the Mounties. The minister, in an interview with Sun Media, commented on the decision by the RCMP, noting that such a decision was, “…particularly unusual when the stated policy of the government was pretty clear. We want to get rid of the long gun registry.”

The minister opined that spending some $80,000.00 polling gun owners on a program they intended to kill was, “wasteful,” and the final bill for the work itself was overly expensive.

National Firearms Association executives reminded the minister that the release of such information was in direct contravention of public promises made by the Chrétien Government. Both the Prime Minister (Chrétien) and his Justice Minister (Rock) promised gun owners that no unauthorized persons would ever have access to their personal information; 32

October / November 2009

and that the government would safeguard such information fully.

see it actually happening. That further advances their concerns.”

National Firearms Association had warned government prior to the implementation of Bill C-68, what is now the 1995, Firearms Act, that such a registry was ill-advised, wasteful, and could potentially pose a very real public security risk; as the information gathered was invasive, unnecessary, and could be easily mined by less than scrupulous registry employees.

Other pro-firearms organizations and the recreational firearms community agreed with that assessment and from those concerns sprung several very high profile rallies on Parliament Hill that saw tens of thousands of responsible gun owners’ march to voice their displeasure with the deliberate erosion of rights that had been guaranteed by hundreds of years of English Common Law.

While executives in the NFA national office were reassured by the Minister’s responses, this breach of gun owner’s privacy and trust demanded further action on the part of the government.

NFA contacts in the Minister’s office were so informed and shortly thereafter the Minister called on Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart to investigate and determine, unequivocally, if Canada’s privacy laws were breached through the actions of the RCMP and Canadian Firearms Centre. As Minister Van Loan said in an interview with the Toronto Sun,

Van Loan was to admit that those fears and concerns may very well have been justified by the latest unauthorized RCMP “initiative.” As the Minister noted in the same interview, “When the gun registry was originally instituted, one of the concerns of gun owners was that their privacy rights would be invaded, that there would be this kind of intrusiveness. Now they

“There are real concerns about the nature of the information that was turned over, whether that was appropriate and the nature of the questions that were being asked, frankly.

After consulting with a number of firearms owners who had been contacted as part of this initiative, some additional red flags were raised among NFA executives over the nature of the questions being asked and the true efficacy of the registry’s information itself. The NFA has long warned that the colossal error rate

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(as high as 80% for data entry), poorly designed computer database and overly-cumbersome interface has effectively rendered the Canadian Firearms Registry useless and nothing more than a monumental waste of taxpayer’s money. It would seem the Minister also shares those concerns, as he stated in the same interview, that he was, “…bothered by some of the poll questions.” The Minister made the further point that these were, “Questions that you would expect that they would already know. Do you own a gun, why do you own a gun - things like that.”

Given that the liberal gun control program has cost taxpayers over $2 Billion, you would expect that the Canadian Firearms Center’s database would be able to provide such basic answers to their RCMP masters without having to turn confidential information over to an outside, civilian polling firm. What exactly did we get for that much coin? A “registry” of gun owners that can’t tell the police whether or not those same owners (those being surveyed) actually had firearms in their possession? This is so idiotic that it is embarrassing! As Minister Van Loan pointed out, “We aren’t dealing with anonymous individuals; we’re dealing with a very specific narrow population so the intrusiveness of the survey is a matter of concern to us.”

Head of the RCMP’s gun control program, Chief Superintendent Marty Cheliak, responding to loud and widespread public criticism over the release of gun owner’s private information to a private contractor; attempted to deflect both public and ministerial furor over this breach of the public trust. The CFC head stated that all EKOS personnel had the appropriate security clearances for access to gun owner’s private information. When quizzed over the legality of releasing such information to a private contractor, the Chief Supt. noted that the RCMP were of the opinion that their actions were completely legal, as the EKOS firm was acting as, “…an extension of the RCMP.” National Firearms Association is of a differing opinion, as a simple check of the RCMP/Canadian Firearms Program web site addresses these very same concerns.

From the official RCMP/CFP web site: Personal information is provided on certain Firearms Program forms such as names, addresses, and medical information. Where is this information stored and who can view it?

This information is stored in the Canadian Firearms Information System (CFIS), a database controlled by the CFP. The CFP ensures strict procedures that allow only those employees with a need consistent with their duties to view personal information. For example, only a CFO or delegated firearms officer has authority to collect personal information during the course of an investigation in determining licence eligibility. Also, police officers verify www.nfa.ca

firearms information to determine licence status before responding to a call. However, at no time are they able to view names of references, spouses or medical information.

Does the CAFC share personal information collected for the Firearms Program with other agencies or the private sector?

Relevant Firearms Program information is disclosed only to federal and provincial public safety business partners that have legal authority to collect this information consistent with their public safety responsibilities. Program business partners include local and provincial police, the Canada Border Services Agency and International Trade Canada.

The Privacy Act requires that those agencies must have a use consistent with the purpose for which the information was collected. In turn, those non-federal agencies to which firearms information is disclosed are bound by similar requirements under their jurisdictional privacy laws.

Furthermore, firearms information is not shared with any private sector agencies. Some private companies, however, can have access to personal information while under a contracted arrangement for software administration or records management procedures.

Under the terms of those contracts, these companies cannot use or disclose information. Also, employees of private companies are thoroughly screened for security clearance to ensure that personal information is protected at the same level as federal requirements. http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/cfp-pcaf/atip-aiprp-eng.htm#g Interesting, especially considering the fact that the “official” reason for the poll and subsequent release of extremely private and privileged information was to judge gun owner’s “satisfaction” with the RCMP’s gun control program! Good grief! As per the RCMP’s own regulations governing collection and protection of gun owner’s information, where is the overweening “need consistent with their duties,” to turn such information over to private pollsters? As is set out in the Privacy Act, there is a requirement that any such agents have a use that is, “… consistent with the purpose for which the information was collected.”

I thought the registry was supposed to improve public safety by keeping track of law-abiding gun owners and their firearms? (Note, the registry does nothing to track the tens of thousands of illegal guns in the hands of criminals and gang bangers – go figure…the crooks forgot to register their guns!) Finally, all personal information related to gun owners and their firearms is not to be shared with any private sector agencies! The only exception to this rule is if the private contractor is hired for the purpose of, “…software administration or records management procedures.”

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by: Sean G. Penney

Last Chance

Moose Newfoundland

is known for many things, our music, our friendly people, our food…not to mention our Screech (dark rum), but nearest and dearest to my heart is our hunting opportunities.

Moose, Caribou, Black Bear, Snowshoe Hare, Grouse, & Partridge, abound throughout my island home, making Newfoundland a true hunter’s paradise and the guy who first introduced me to the wonder our Newfoundland outdoors offered was my father.

Now, unlike most of the rest of Canada, Newfoundland has managed to retain its centuries old hunting traditions, especially amongst its “Outport” or rural populations. Aside from the northern territories, Newfoundland has the highest per capita hunter participation rate in the country and many still sustenance hunt by choice. Each fall, local hunters eagerly anticipate the coming of that “holy of holies:” Opening Day of Moose Season! As a proud Newfoundlander, I’m no different!

However, this year was to be just a little bit different and a lot more special, as it was to be my first Moose Hunt in several years, and more importantly, the first hunt I was to share with my father, after his diagnosis with a rare form of Cancer. At 62, he remained hale and hearty, although his battle with Waldenstrom’s Macroglobulanemia had slowed him down somewhat, and he tired more easily, but he remained game. At first he was reluctant to join my brother and I on our hunts, as he feared he’d, “…only slow us down.” However, some gentle convincing on our part, finally secured for us our favorite hunting partner!

Opening day for our Moose Management Area (#34 Bay de Verde) fell on October first of that year. It was with great anticipation we readied our gear the night before. This 34

October / November 2009

year I had decided to leave my trusty .308 Win Remington Model 700 at home, trading up for its bigger brother in the Model 700 family, the 7mm Remington Magnum.

I had restocked the original Remington 700, changing out the nicely figured BDL stock for a new laminate LSS stock.

For anyone who’s hunted Newfoundland before, you know the havoc our cold, wet climate can have on traditional hardwood stocks. After having a Walnut stock swell on me during a Caribou hunt in the Glenwood area of Central Newfoundland a few years ago, I had retired all my wood stocked rifles in favor of synthetics from H.S. Precision and McMillan. However, new lamination processes have come a long way in recent years and the new generations of laminate stocks are almost as weatherproof as the best of the fiberglass/ Kevlar/graphite offerings available. As a result, when a new take-off LSS stock came my way I snapped it up!

Factory Remington’s are great rifles, however, like any gun, there is room for improvement. One of the great things about the Remington 700 design is that the factory trigger is easily adjusted by anyone with a modicum of mechanical know how and average hand-eye coordination. In addition to adding the new laminate stock, I had adjusted mine to a crisp 3 lbs, with almost zero creep. I could’ve gone a little lighter, but I would be hunting rough country and 3 lbs is about the minimum I’m comfortable with for a true big game rifle. In addition to

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the new stock and trigger job, I also opted to install a new stainless steel muzzle break to tame the recoil of the stout magnum cartridge.

The addition of the break served to make the rifle more pleasant to shoot, reducing felt recoil to little more than a centerfire .22 caliber.

Unfortunately, the trade off is a very noticeable increase in noise levels. Ordinarily I wouldn’t use one on a hunting rifle; however, the 700 would also be used by my father, who had a pre-existing condition that made him more recoil conscious than the average hunter; so the break was a necessary modification.

With the rifle squared away, we still had to decide upon the “best” load for our use. As we were hunting big boned Moose, we decided that a heavier bullet in 7mm would be warranted; with my own handload using the Barnes 160 grain TSX premium bullet, Remington brass, Winchester magnum primer and RL-22 powder getting the final thumbs up. We opted for the triple shock, as it is a stoutly built bullet that offers a good balance of penetration and expansion and my rifle just seemed to shoot them well. Rifle and ammo straightened out, we made sure our ATV’s were gassed up and ready to go, the skinning knives were sharpened and a coil of stout nylon rope was added to the pack, along with the bone saw in anticipation of a successful hunt.

In the early pre-twilight hours we quickly loaded up our ATVs and bundled up against the crisp October morning. We had been lucky enough to draw tags for our home area, so it was possible for us to actually drive to our favorite hunting grounds from our own home!

With a roar we headed off toward one of our favorite hunting areas simply known as, “Clifty Pond.”

Much of the territory we were hunting was a combination of broken granite hills or “tolts”, barrens, large bogs or marshes the locals called “mashes,” along with many stands of spruce and fir hidden away in valleys or surrounding the multitude of small lakes, ponds and gullies that dot the Bay de Verde Peninsula. In short, prime Moose habitat, although the latter were starting to get pressured by the transplanted herd of Woodland Caribou that had be re-introduced to the area in the mid-1980s. From just a little more than a dozen animals, the Bay de Verde Caribou herd now numbers in the hundreds…one of the true conservation success stories of recent times.

Our focus, however, had to be Moose, not Caribou, so we had decided to head directly toward the highest “tolt” that had a commanding view of the valley bottom just south of Clifty Pond. These tolts or “Newfie tree stands” offer hunters the best glassing opportunities for locating an animal for the freezer. The terrain doesn’t lend itself to the use of tree stands and similar equipment that is successfully used throughout much of mainland Canada, so “spot and stalk” is the primary hunting method utilized, although certain situations will call for a hunter to “push the bush” where short-range, snap shots are the norm and I’m sure are quite familiar to any whitetail hunters from the woods of northern Ontario, New Brunswick or Nova Scotia.

During our pre-season scouting, my brother and I had located several very nice “shooter” bulls. Larger “trophy” bulls were available, but they tended to remain inland, in the more remote parts of the www.nfa.ca

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peninsula that made them almost impervious to hunters. Basically, if we shot our animal in one of those areas, we’d have to bring along our frying pan and sack of onions and eat him there, ‘cause there was no way we’d ever get him out! The point was moot anyway, as we were more interested in a mature 3-4 year old bull that would dress out in the 450-500 lb range.

Good eating and not too tough!

However, luck was not with us for opening day, nor sadly, the days and weeks that followed. We saw many cows, shepherding their new calves along, a few barren cows and a few spike bulls, but nothing that was a shooter. October passed into November and we were still drawing dead.

The weather certainly wasn’t cooperating either, switching from cold, rainy days with a wind enough to chill you to the bone blowing straight down from Labrador to a sudden onset of true winter conditions. Despite it all, Dad and I continued to suit up, making sure to top off the coffee thermos each morning for the days when it was too wet to put in a fire for the traditional Newfoundland “mug-up” of “woods tea” (strong tea, brewed over an open fire, with a good, albeit inadvertent, garnish of spruce and fir needles).

Getting toward the end of our hunting season in late December, we had a partner’s pow-wow and decided that maybe it was time to start considering taking a spike bull or even a “last-year’s calf”…less meat for our two freezers to be sure, but at least we’d still have the opportunity to enjoy a fry or two of fresh moose and still put by a bit to bottle and turn into home-made sausage. We had never been overly concerned about trophies, as we were primarily meat hunters, like most fellow Newfoundlanders, so our earlier decision to pass on spike bulls had far more to do with how heavy the animal would dress out than the size of his “rack.”

A smaller animal meant that we’d have less for our own freezer and less to share with friends and family, but by this time we were getting genuinely worried. Moose season ended the second of January and we only had a few hunting days left. Of course, the weather continued to be contrary and we were forced to brave an endless progression of blustery, snowy days with the temps well below freezing. Finally it was crunch time, the last day of the season and we still hadn’t filled our tags. It was another cold, blustery day, with blowing snow obscuring our vision and keeping most animals bedded down in the thick spruce groves that dotted the region.

Out of all the moose and caribou hunts I’d been on since I was a child, this hunt was the most important to me. It often took several years between licenses to successfully be drawn for tags, and with Dad’s Cancer, I really didn’t know what the future held…was this my last hunt with my best friend and hunting partner? I didn’t know, but I wasn’t going to settle for being shut-out for the first time in our moose hunting career, especially with home ice advantage! In near desperation and with the daylight slowly fading I remembered a tip an old hunting buddy of ours had relayed to me a few days before. He’d been cutting firewood along the Western Bay Line area and had seen a dandy young bull wandering about, feeding on young spruce and birch tips.

Beating through the powder, we made our way to a familiar hill that overlooked the area where the young moose had been spotted. It was a good area that gave us a bird’s eye view of several excellent game trails and during the rut was heavily favored by amorous moose. With nothing left to lose, I gave a few lonely cow calls that really shouldn’t have worked, as the rut was long over, but in the distance we heard the crunch of snow 36

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Continued from page 33 and the unforgettable sound of spruce bough on antler. Suddenly the wind dropped off and the sky brightened a little as the dense cloud cover that had blanketed the sky all day thinned and the last rays of the dying sun broke through.

Frantically glassing with my Steiner binoculars, I glimpsed the young bull in the distance, about 300 yards off and slowly walking toward us! Following my finger, my Dad quickly picked up on the black coat of the moose contrasting nicely against the white of the snow covered barrens. At 150 yards he stopped, sniffing what wind there was to figure out who or what had been making that noise. Seeming to lose interest, or perhaps catching a whiff of our unfamiliar human scent in the swirling eddies of the valley’s floor, the young bull looked ready to bolt. “Do you have him” I asked. Dad, who had already shouldered the 7mm Rem Mag, was gazing intently into the ocular lens of my Leupold Vari-X III 2.5-8X36mm scope. Grinning his all too familiar lop-sided grin, I got my answer and whispered let’s take ‘em!

A single squeeze of the trigger and our marathon moose hunt was over. We had harvested our moose in the very last hour of the last day of the season. If ever an animal had been “earned” we had surely earned this one. Hustling down the hill we discovered that the Barnes Triple Shock had performed magnificently; generating a one-shot kill and spending all of its energy inside the moose, as we later discovered the perfectly mushroomed bullet laying embedded in the hide of the off shoulder.

Calculating up the number of hours we had spent in the woods, the price of the gas for our ATVs, the pair of Sorel Pac boots I wore out and the cost of all the extras we had spent on our hunt, we would’ve been better off buying a complete side of beef – but that isn’t the point. The true worth of the hunt was beyond measure, as I had the opportunity to spend it with my Dad. Pulling off that last minute miracle was great, but I would never have considered our hunt a failure even if we hadn’t fired a single round.

I would’ve loved to have gotten some pictures of that most memorable moose, but darkness overtook us and we discovered that the digital camera had frozen in the sub-zero temperatures! Those moments, however, are indelibly burned into my memory. As for my Dad? He’s now 65, thoroughly enjoying his two grandsons and looking forward to accompanying me on our next hunting adventure this October. He’s still fighting his disease, but there is no give in the man and there isn’t another guy I’d rather have for a hunting partner!

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EKOS may have been acting as an “extension” of the RCMP, but they certainly weren’t carrying out any sort of records management or administration of software procedures! Plain and simple, the RCMP broke their own rules of conduct, they breached the Privacy Act and they betrayed the trust and responsibility given to them by the government. For that, they need to be taken to task.

However, this latest fiasco, is but one in a long list of unauthorized breaches of the registry and CFP computer databases. Over the past few years there have been something on the order of 321 illegal breaches of said computers, with over 120 such security failures remaining unsolved! It isn’t just criminals and hackers doing the breaching either! At present, Monteal Police detective, Mario Lambert, is facing three counts of fraudulent use of police computers. He was arrested in September after it was discovered he allegedly sold confidential information in police databases to known criminal personalities. He isn’t alone either! Cst. Mike McCormack, son of retired Toronto Police Chief Bill McCormack, was convicted recently of illegal breaches of police databases related to some sort of personal vendetta against a well known reporter.

If actual police officers cannot be trusted to use this information appropriately and to obey the law, it certainly isn’t beyond the realm of possiblity that some part-time, poorly trained and under-paid EKOS employee could turn around and sell the names and addresses of Canadian gun owners to local gangs and other sundry criminal elements?

There has emerged, over the past couple of years, a rather disturbing trend of law-abiding gun owners possessing extremely large gun collections having been the targets of home invasions and extremely well-planned break-ins. In once case, thieves showed up with cutting torches, industrial drills and sledge hammers, prepared to cut their way into an industrial class safe one particular Ontario collector was using to store his fireams. It took the thieves a full weekend to achieve their objective, but in the end they got the guns. You have to wonder exactly where those safe-crackers got their information… In the grand scheme of things, Canadians really need to start asking themselves is the current Liberal inspired gun control program actually improving public safety, or making our streets less safe?

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by: C.E. “Ed” Harris

“Ed’s Red” Formula From The Cast Bullet Journal, No. 140, July - August 1999 Dangerously Close to the Beltway “Ed’s Red” -- Revisited By C.E. “Ed” Harris

S

ince I mixed my first “Ed’s Red” (ER) bore cleaner five years ago, hundreds of users have told me that they find it as effective as commercial products. This cleaner has an action similar to military rifle bore cleaner, such as Mil-C-372B. It is highly effective for removing plastic fouling from shotgun bores, caked carbon in semi-automatic rifles or pistols, or leading in revolvers. “ER” is not a “decoppering” solution for fast removal of heavy jacket fouling, but because is more effective in removal of caked carbon and primer residues than most other cleaners, so metal fouling is reduced when “ER” is used.

Claude Copper and I researched the subject rather thoroughly and determined there was no technical reason why an effective firearm bore cleaner couldn’t be mixed using common hardware store ingredients. The resulting cleaner is safe, effective, inexpensive, provides good corrosion protection and adequate residual lubrication.

Routine oiling after cleaning is unnecessary except for storage exceeding 1 year, or in harsh environments, such as salt air exposure. The formula is adapted from Hatcher’s “Frankford Arsenal Cleaner No. 18”, but substitutes equivalent modern materials. Hatcher’s recipe called for equal parts of acetone, turpentine, Pratt’s Astral Oil, land sperm oil, and (optionally) 200 grams of anhydrous lanolin per liter of cleaner.

Some discussion of the ingredients in “ER” is helpful to understand the properties of the cleaner and how it works. Pratts Astral Oil was nothing more than acid free, deodorized kerosene. Today you would ask for “K-1” kerosene of the type sold for use in indoor space heaters.

An inexpensive, effective substitute for sperm oil is Dexron II automatic transmission fluid. Prior to 1950 most ATFs were sperm oil based. During WWII, sperm oil was mostly unavailable, so highly refined, dewaxed hydrofinished

petroleum oils were developed, which had excellent thermal stability. When antioxidants were added to prevent gumming, these worked well in precision instruments.

With the high demand for automatic transmission autos after WWII, sperm oil was no longer practical to produce ATFs in the needed quantities, so the wartime expedients were mass produced. ATFs have been continually improved over the years. The additives contained in Dexron include detergents or other surfactants which are highly suitable for inclusion in an all-purpose cleaner, lubricant and preservative.

Hatcher’s Frankford Arsenal No. 18 used gum spirits of turpentine, but turpentine is both expensive and also highly flammable, so I chose not to use it. Much safer and more inexpensive are “aliphatic mineral spirits”, which are an open-chain organic solvent, rather than the closed-chain, benzene ring structure, common to “aromatics”, such as naptha or “lighter fluid”. Sometimes called “safety solvent”, aliphatic mineral spirits are used for thinning oil based paint, as automotive parts cleaner and is commonly sold under the names “odorless mineral spirits”, “Stoddard Solvent”, or “Varsol”.

We have printed the formula for Ed’d Red Bore Cleaner in years past, however, members requesting a re-print have been fairly vocal, so for those who asked for it, here it is! I couldn’t have explained the process any better, so I’d like to express our thanks once again to Mr. C.E. Harris for generously putting this article in the public domain and permitting us to reprint his words here in the pages of the Canadian Firearms Journal. - Editor 38

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Acetone is included to provide an aggressive, fast-acting solvent for caked smokeless powder residues. Because acetone readily evaporates and the fumes are harmful in high concentrations, it is recommended that it be left out if the cleaner will be used indoors, in soak tanks or in enclosed spaces lacking forced air ventilation. Containers should be kept tightly closed when not in use. “ER” is still effective without acetone, but not as “fast-acting”.

“Ed’s Red” does not chemically dissolve copper fouling in rifle bores, but it does a better job of removing carbon and primer residue than most other cleaners. Many users have told me that frequent and exclusive use of “ER” reduces copper deposits, because it removes the old impacted powder fouling left behind by other cleaners.

This reduces the abrasion and adhesion of jacket metal to the bore, leaving a cleaner surface condition, which reduces subsequent fouling. Experience indicates that “ER” will actually remove metal fouling in bores if it is left to “soak” for a few days so the surfactants will do the job, when followed by a repeat cleaning. You simply have to be patient.

I recommend the lanolin be included if you intend to use the cleaner as a protectant for long-term storage or for a “flush” after water cleaning of black powder firearms or those fired with military chlorate primers. This is because lanolin has a great affinity for water and readily emulsifies so that the bore can be wiped of residual moisture, leaving a protective film. If you inspect your guns and wipe them down twice yearly, you can leave out the lanolin and save about $10 per gallon.

At current retail prices, you can buy all the ingredients to mix “ER”, without the lanolin, for about $12 per gallon. I urge you to mix some yourself. I am confident it will work as well for you as it does for me and hundreds of users who got the “recipe” on the Fidonet Firearms Echo.

Addition of lanolin to “ER” is optional, because the cleaner works perfectly well and gives adequate corrosion protection and lubrication without it. Inclusion of lanolin makes the cleaner easier on the hands, increases its lubricity and film strength and improves corrosion protection if firearms, tools or equipment will be routinely exposed to salt air, water spray, or corrosive urban atmospheres.

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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.

Contents: “Ed’s Red Bore Cleaner” 1 part - Dexron ATF, GM Spec. D-20265 or later.

1 part - Kerosene - deodorized, K1.

1 part - Aliphatic Mineral Spirits CAS #64741-499, or substitute “Stoddard Solvent”, CAS #805241-3, or equivalent.

1 part - Acetone, CAS #67-64-1.

(Optional 1 lb. of Lanolin, Anhydrous, USP per gallon, or OK to substitute Lanolin, Modified, Topical Lubricant, from the drug store.)

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Here is my contribution to the

National Firearms Association to help protect my rights to own and use firearms.

T $100 T $50 T $25 T $________ T My Cheque or Money Order enclosed T 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, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2T5

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Mixing Instructions: Mix outdoors, in good ventilation. Use a clean 1 gallon metal, chemical resistant, heavy gage PET or PVC plastic container. NFPA approved plastic gasoline storage containers are OK. Do NOT use HDPE, which is permeable, because the acetone will slowly evaporate.

Acetone in “ER” will attack HDPE over time, causing the container to collapse, making a heck of a mess!

Add the ATF first. Use the empty ATF container to measure the other components, so that it is thoroughly rinsed. If you incorporate the lanolin into the mixture, melt this carefully in a double boiler, taking precautions against fire.

Pour the melted lanolin into a larger container, rinsing the lanolin container with the bore cleaner mix, and stirring until it is all dissolved. I recommend diverting up to 4 ozs. per quart of the 50-50 ATF/kerosene mix to use as “ERcompatible” gun oil. This can be done without impairing the effectiveness of the remaining mix.

Label and safety warnings follow:

Firearm Bore Cleaner Caution: FLAMMABLE MIXTURE HARMFUL IF SWALLOWED KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN

Contents: petroleum distillates, surfactants, organometallic antioxidants and acetone.

Flammable mixture, keep away from heat, sparks or flame.

First Aid: If swallowed, DO NOT induce vomiting, call physician immediately.

In case of eye contact, immediately flush thoroughly with water and call a physician. For skin contact, wash thoroughly.

Use with adequate ventilation. Avoid breathing vapors or spray mist. It is a violation of Federal law to use this product in a manner inconsistent with its labeling. Reports have associated repeated and prolonged occupational overexposure to solvents with permanent brain damage and nervous system damage. If using in closed armory vaults lacking forced air ventilation, wear respiratory protection meeting NIOSH TC23C or equivalent. Keep container tightly closed when not in use.

Instructions For Use: Open the firearm action and ensure the bore is clear.

Cleaning is most effective when done while the barrel is

still warm from firing. Saturate a cotton patch with bore cleaner, wrap or impale on jag and push it through the bore from breech to muzzle. The patch should be a snug fit. Let the first patch fall off and do not pull it back into the bore.

Wet a second patch, and similarly start it into the bore from the breech, this time scrubbing from the throat area forward in 4-5” strokes and gradually advancing until the patch emerges out the muzzle. Waiting approximately 1 minute to let the bore cleaner to soak will improve its action.

For pitted, heavily carbon-fouled service rifles, leaded revolvers or neglected bores a bronze brush wet with bore cleaner many be used to remove stubborn deposits. This is unnecessary for smooth, target-grade barrels in routine use.

Use a final wet patch pushed straight through the bore to flush out loosened residue dissolved by Ed’s Red. Let the patch fall off the jag without pulling it back through the bore. If you are finished firing, leaving the bore wet will protect it from rust for 1 year under average atmospheric conditions.

If lanolin is incorporated into the mixture, it will protect the firearm from rust for up to two years, even in a humid environment. (For longer storage use Lee Liquid Alox or Cosmoline). “ER” will readily remove hardened Alox or Cosmoline.

Wipe spilled Ed’s Red from exterior surfaces before storing the gun. While Ed’s Red is harmless to blue and nickel finishes, the acetone it contains is harmful to most wood finishes.

Before firing again, push two dry patches through the bore and dry the chamber, using a patch wrapped around a suitably sized brush or jag. First shot point of impact usually will not be disturbed by Ed’s Red if the bore is cleaned as described.

I have determined to my satisfaction that when Ed’s Red is used exclusively and thoroughly, that hot water cleaning is unnecessary after use of Pyrodex or military chlorate primers. However, if bores are not wiped between shots and are heavily caked from black powder fouling, hot water cleaning is recommended first to break up heavy fouling deposits. Water cleaning should be followed by a flush with Ed’s Red to prevent after-rusting which could result from residual moisture. It is ALWAYS a good practice to clean TWICE; TWO DAYS APART whenever using chlorate primed ammunition, just to make sure you get all the corrosive residue out.

This “Recipe” has been placed in the public domain, and may be freely distributed provided that it is done so in its entirety with all current revisions, instructions and safety warnings included herein, and that proper attribution is given to the author 40

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by: Sean G. Penney

Of Blades Boy Scouts

A

s a kid, growing up in Outport Newfoundland, autumn always held a special magic for me.

Looking back, it wasn’t because of the new clothes, new books, or heading back to school, or even reconnecting with old friends that got me excited. Plain and simple, it was the fact that autumn marked the start of two things: hunting season and Scouts!

I still relish the memories of tramping the bogs and barrens with my dad and grandfather; looking to jump a covey of partridge or in search of the perfect moose for our freezer. I still swell a little with pride remembering the first snowshoe hare I harvested on my own. I was eight years old and I had set my snares with the help of a brand-spanking-new Swiss Army Knife that my Dad had given me. It was an unexpected treasure that he delivered into my hands one frosty October morning; along with a lecture about responsibility and a warning to always treat a good knife with respect.

Young though I was I had learned how to properly use a knife while watching my grandfather in his workshop.

A carpenter, boat-builder and fisherman by trade, there wasn’t anything my grandfather couldn’t shape out of raw wood. He taught me that a knife was a tool, the same as any hammer or chisel, and like any tool, if used improperly, could cause great harm.

That year I was the envy of my fellow Cub Scouts at our first pack meeting. I loved being a Cub Scout, probably because I saw it as a fun continuation of the lessons and skills that had already been instilled by my dad. My pack and scout leaders, like my dad, believed that experience was the best teacher. Learning by doing, nature hikes, campouts and other activities taught us self-reliance, developed character and instilled pride.

That old Swiss Army Knife of mine helped create countless cherished memories and remained a tool I relied on throughout my youth, including my scouting career and later as a responsible adult hunter and sportsman. I don’t 42

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remember the number of trout, and rabbits that knife dressed, but it has to be in the thousands. I also cut branches with it for roasting weenies and marshmallows, cut twine while learning to make lashings, opened cans with it and countless other necessary tasks that only a good knife can accomplish. Yet, despite my youth, in all that time I never cut myself and somehow managed to avoid harming any fellow Scouts as well.

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So, it was with shock and disbelief that I recently learned that Scouts in the United Kingdom would no longer be permitted to carry or use knives, even during nature outings and camping trips.

An official spokesman was quoted as saying that Scouting was intended to offer young people an opportunity to, “… experience adventure without the threat of violence…and the need to carry weapons.”

Banning knives, according to the spokesman, would serve to keep scouts “safe.” Good grief! Only in the Nanny State that has become Great Britain, would a simple tool like a Swiss Army Knife become a “weapon!” Using that logic, my eight year old self would’ve been expelled from my Cub Pack for showing up with a concealed “weapon!”

Sadly, I’m not making this up. The core values and principles upon which the Scouting movement was created over a century ago have now been sacrificed upon the altar of political correctness in Britain. While, this insanity has not yet been spread to the Scouting movement here in Canada, it is only a matter of time. Reading some of the commentary in support of this ban, it would cause an individual to wonder how I, and my fellow scouts, ever managed to make it through childhood without committing mass murder or cutting off a limb because we were “armed & dangerous.”

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I’m sorry. Despite what the over-protective, neo-liberal politically correct element within western society would have us believe, confident, self-reliant cubs and scouts “armed” with a Swiss Army Knife aren’t at the root of modern societal ills or urban violence. Banning knives will no more solve Great Britain’s urban violence problem than banning guns did a decade ago.

The fact remains that kids who grow up hunting and fishing, and, yes scouting, don’t grow up to rob, loot and pillage.

Such kids know right from wrong and they learn to be selfreliant, while developing a sense of self-worth, because of the trust placed in them by their folks. This is a truth that far too many have forgotten in our society today.

Photo depicts Michael Martin, book author and firearms trainer (mntactics.com) October / November 2009 CanadianFirearmsJournal.com

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David A. Tomlinson Memorial Award

Bob has always insisted that Rita and he were a team and that they worked together in whatever venture they chose. They have been very active volunteers with the NFA since the early 90s and they also found the time to work extensively for the Reform Party of Canada greatly boosting its membership in the riding of Simcoe North.

At the provincial level Bob and Rita established a network which promoted the initial distribution of the Canadian Firearms Journal. Tens of thousands were circulated over the years in order to allow those not familiar with the NFA the opportunity to examine an issue of the CFJ.

B

ob and Rita Chapman of Orillia, Ontario were recently presented with the David A. Tomlinson Memorial Award by the NFA. This is the first presentation of this award and it was granted with the blessing of Mrs. Judith Tomlinson, widow of the late Dave Tomlinson who was president of the NFA for many years.

“Presented to Bob and Rita Chapman for their many years of dedicated service to the recreational firearms community.”

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Dave Tomlinson knew that if he had a special project requiring extensive hours of work to complete one phone call to Bob would be all that was needed. This support for Mr. Tomlinson’s projects enabled Dave to concentrate his personal efforts on firearm law and Canadian politics.

Several years ago during a discussion with Dave Tomlinson the conversation focused on Bob and Rita and all the work that they had done for firearm owners. I can clearly recall Dave stating “If only we had a hundred more like them!”

The inscription on the plaque reads:

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As NFA Ontario’s membership chairman Bob spent countless hours on the phone assisting anyone who required support. Politicians in his area were well aware of Bob and the tenacity he showed when pursuing answers to his concerns.

Wm. R. Rantz NFA Ontario President

CanadianFirearmsJournal.com

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by David Chappelle

by: Wm. R. Rantz

2009 Standard Catalogue Of

Author - Dan Shideler Publisher – KP Books 1504 Pages, 7500 photos Paperback

G

un enthusiasts greatly value their firearms for several reasons. That old 1895 Savage saddle ring carbine may have been a gift from a friend who is long gone but lives in your memory every day. A long barrelled Winchester may represent generations of family history or perhaps it is the rifle that took your first buck years ago.

Under many circumstances the subjective value of a gun is far greater than any purchaser would pay.

Hopefully, those special firearms stay where they are appreciated for the next generation to enjoy as well.

There is the reality that firearms are often simply a tool or possession. Eventually the day arrives that a rifle or handgun will change hands in either a cash transaction or trade. At this point the value of a firearm will be established by an agreement between the current owner and the prospective purchaser.

Should both parties be knowledgeable we could refer to the price set as fair market value.

The vast number of sporting rifles, handguns and collectable firearms make it simply impossible for even seasoned gun dealers to maintain all values in their heads. Those who are inexperienced may be off in their estimated value by hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

Dan Shideler has assembled a publication which will greatly assist individuals in evaluating their firearms based on the latest market data provided by dealers and auction houses. The “STANDARD CATALOGE OF FIREARMS” lists over 25,000 models in six condition grades. Using this book a buyer or seller can identify most firearms manufactured or imported into North America since 1836. Assessing the

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condition of that gun allows you to see an estimate of its value in the United States. Prices in Canada can vary due to supply, demand and our gun laws.

The book itself consists of clear print on inexpensive paper. It is intended as a reference book that will be replaced every few years to allow the reader to keep up to date with current pricing trends. The 7500 photographs are black and white, less than 4 inches in size but do allow for positive identification.

Listings are based on the manufacturers in alphabetical order. A brief history of the company includes the country and years in which they operated. Each specific model is listed and shown with a photograph and the dollar value rated from excellent to poor condition for older models with a “New in Box” rating for newer specimens. Grading your rifle’s condition is essential for accuracy and the guidelines are clearly explained in the introduction.

The reality is that the final price of any rifle or handgun is determined by agreement between buyer and seller. The “STANDARD CATALOGE OF FIREARMS” will enable both to feel more confident as to a gun’s approximate value which is the purpose of this publication.

The 2010 edition should be available at your local gun dealer or sporting goods store in the coming months. Expect to pay about $50 in Canada, including tax, which is a bargain when the vast knowledge contained between the covers is considered. It may be found for less at some American book dealers but the high cost of shipping would more than offset any savings.

CanadianFirearmsJournal.com

October / November 2009

45

By Grayson Penney

A

friend forwarded the letter below from the Deputy Minister of Munitions and Supply to another patriotic Canadian gun owner during the height of WWII. Sure, here you have a case of our government looking to acquire legally owned firearms from gun owners, but look at the context!

World War II was raging, patriotism wasn’t something to be embarrassed by, and there was a genuine connection between the government of the day and the average gun owner.

Just read the tone of the letter.

The Deputy Minister wrote, or at least signed the letter, with the full expectation that the owner would see it as his patriotic duty to send along his 9mm Luger, as his country desperately needed it. I guess this was still a time when, as Liberal Party Leader Michael Ignatieff disparagingly opined recently, the “Canadian Flag still meant something.” (I know that the current Maple Leaf flag wasn’t adopted until the 1960s, but the sentiment is the same.) Canada had emerged from the hell of the Great War as a full-fledged, proud, and independent nation. Our troops, sailors and airmen performed spectacularly in both conflicts, just as they are doing today in the War on Terror.

Getting back to the letter, I’m pretty sure the gentleman in question gladly forwarded his pistol, as it was in the “vital interests” of the country to do so. Sadly, I seriously doubt that such a request would be acted upon favorably today, especially if the letter originated with either the RCMP or an official agent of the federal government. In the six decades since this letter was penned, there has been a massive disconnect between honest Canadian gun owners and their police and government.

As a life-long gun owner myself, I know that gun owners weren’t the cause! Somewhere along the line, we became the objects of distrust and suspicion. I don’t know…The first fractures probably originated with the election of Pierre Trudeau and his quest to undertake the social re-engineering of Canada.

The consequences of adopting this elitist, left-wing world view has been the erosion of many of the basic rights and privileges so many young men and women

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October / November 2009

sacrificed to protect throughout two World Wars, the Korean Conflict and beyond. Why else were such critical provisions as protection of rights to property deliberately left out of the Charter of Rights that Trudeau created, with the repatriation of the Canadian Constitution in 1982?

To paraphrase Sir Edmund Burke, “…bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.” Unfortunately, successive Liberal governments have saddled responsible gun owners with a whole host of “bad laws.” I decided to include this letter, along with a selection of interesting and fun pics of genuine propaganda posters, etc… from the same era. I hope you enjoy and find imagination enough to wonder what life would be like if there still existed the same level or mutual respect and trust gun owners, police and the government shared with one another during that era. ….And that’s the Last Word!

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