Canadian Firearms Journal - November 2010 by NAftional Firearms Association

Oct/Nov 2010

CANADIAN

$4.50

Firearms Journal

Lest We Forget... Fully Committed On All Fronts:

Canadaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s National Firearms Association

Inside This Issue

Greeting from Head Office Welcome, NFA Team Members new and old!

impossible for us to include your show in our schedule.

We had a large membership drive in September so to all who just joined: WELCOME! As this is the first Canadian Firearms Journal you have received, we hope you find it both informative and entertaining. Remember it is your Journal and we’ve always got our eye out for new content and contributors.

Also, this Christmas why not give a lasting gift -- a membership in the NFA? You can print an application from our website www. nfa.ca, or purchase one, on-line via our secure site order page (just be sure to send us an E-mail or include a note with the application letting us know it is a gift). You can also give us a call; toll free, from anywhere in Canada: 1-877-818-0393. Once again, thanks to all members who’ve sent in their renewals promptly.

We have a very busy fall schedule ahead of us. As you read this, the fall gun show season should be in full swing. Please don’t forget to stop by the NFA table and say hello. To the clubs and other orgs that donate tables for NFA use, a big thank you once again! Our tables are manned by a great bunch of volunteers, and it is very gratifying to those team members when their efforts are acknowledged by such support. If you will be attending a show in your area and are unsure as to whether or not an NFA rep will be in attendance, please give us a call. We can send you materials to distribute, should it prove

Please try and remember to get your gift memberships in as early as possible so that we may include a bonus issue of Canadian Firearms Journal with the membership package in time for Xmas. On November 11th please join us in a moment of silence to remember our fallen, and to honour those who have taken up the torch. Lest we forget, Freedom is never “free.” Bev, Megan, Ted & Diane

Regulars

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

From The NFA Bookshelf – German Secret Armament Codes Until 1945 ........................ 5 Sheldon Clare

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

Sheldon Clare

On The Cover

Vice President’s Column – Democracy be Damned!..........................................................8-9

Blair Hagen

One of the most poignant moments of my life was my first visit to The Canadian National Vimy Memorial, not far from the French towns of Vimy and Neuville-SaintVaast. The site is one of the few places on the former Western Front where a visitor can still see the trench lines of a First World War battlefield and the related terrain in a preserved natural state. The figure of a cloaked young female stands on top of the front wall of the memorial and overlooks the Douai Plains. The woman has her head bowed, her eyes cast down, and her chin resting in one hand. Below her at ground level of the former battlefield is a sarcophagus, bearing a Brodie helmet, a sword and draped in laurel branches. The saddened figure of Canada Bereft, also known as Mother Canada, is a national personification of the young nation of Canada, mourning her dead. Unlike the other statues on the monument, stonemasons carved Canada Bereft from a single 30 tonne block of stone. The statue is the largest single piece in the monument and serves as a focal point.

Letters to the Editor. ..................................................... 10-11 Preserving Our Firearms Heritage – ................ 12-13

Gary K. Kangas & Sybil Kangas.

Politics & Guns Trust the evidence, not the police......................................18-19 Tyler Vance

Legal Corner.....................................................................31-33

Sean & Grayson Penney

The International Front – Why Governments Must Be Seen to Do Something. ... 28-30

Gary Mauser

Team NFA Update...........................................................34-37 Grayson Penney

Old Western Armoury – The Life and Guns of John Wesley Hardin - Part 1........38-41 Jesse L. “Wolf” Hardin

The Gunsmith’s Bench..................................................42-45 Sean G. Penney

The Last Word. ................................................................46-47

Mission Statement

Grayson Penney

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

Features

The German Secret Armament Codes.................................14-17 By Michael Heidler

Battle Rifles of WW I. .........................................................20-26 Bob Shell & Sean G. Penney

The contents of the Canadian Firearms Journal are copyrighted and may be reproduced only when written permission is obtained from the publisher. 2

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www.nfa.ca

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NFA Book Shelf

From The Editor’s Desk Welcome to another issue of the Canadian Firearms Journal! The historic vote on Bill C-391 is now a matter of history and the fight goes on. This issue had originally been intended to serve as a combined hunting and Remembrance Day issue. However, with a two month lead-time between layout and publication, my co-editor and I had some major last-minute re-tooling to do in light of the failure of C-391. President Sheldon Clare helms the NFA Bookshelf this issue and reviews a new book by German author Michael Heidler. The latter provides one of the best insights into the complex system of secret German military codes I’ve seen. For military history buffs and collectors, Deutsche Fertigungskennzeichen Bis 1945 or German Secret Armament Codes Until 1945 is a must have addition to their library. The book is written in both German and English, so our unilingual readers need not fear! In keeping with our cover theme, Gary & Sybil Kangas profile Sgt. Christopher Heathcote, veteran of the Canadian Mounted Rifles and the Great War. His is a representative story of the countless Canadian servicemen and women who have gone to war on our behalf. We owe them all a priceless debt of gratitude for their service and sacrifice. After reading German Secret Armament Codes Until 1945 I was privileged to make the acquaintance of the book’s author, Michael Heidler. This issue he offers CFJ readers a feature article examining the secret system of German armament codes in use until the end of WW II. The subject is fascinating and worth the read for the historical photos alone. CFJ regular, Tyler Vance, is also back again

with Politics & Guns and his final installment in his ‘police & politics’ trilogy. We’ve gotten tons of positive feedback on the series, including quite a few from serving and retired police officers. The intent of the series is not to criticize or pass judgement on our front-line uniformed officers. They’ve never been the problem; it is the failings of their uniformed political bosses and the choices they make that is the subject of our ire. Next, I partner up with past CFJ contributor Bob Shell, for our exposition on the battle rifles fielded by the Allies of WW I. Rather than focus solely on the guns of the ‘big three,’ we thought it would be more interesting to take a closer look at the lesser-known battle rifles that saw service in the conflict. Bob was the ‘heavy-lifter’ on this treatise and the lion’s share of the credit should go his way. We hope you enjoy it! Professor Mauser, fresh from September’s World Forum meeting in Australia, returns with his commentary on the International Front. I don’t envy Gary the thousands of miles he racks up each year flying around the world on behalf of NFA and our efforts to stem the advance of the international gun control movement. However, his travels permit him to juxtapose our current dilemma with similar struggles from around the globe, and thus offer some additional insights into the firearms issue here in Canada. In the Legal Corner this issue, my co-editor and I look at the growing problem of unilateral reclassification of firearms, and the RCMP. Additional firearms have apparently made the RCMP ‘hit list’ and are undergoing review as this issue goes to print. Reclassification is a slippery slope and every

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Canadian gun owner should be asking where will it stop. Grayson also returns with his exhaustive TEAM NFA Update. It’s great to see all three athletes doing well and excelling in the shooting sports; despite the many obstacles in their path. The ever-popular Jesse Hardin furnishes readers with another edition of Old Western Armoury; with his treatment of famed ‘badman’ John Wesley Hardin. Growing up reading western writers like Louis L’Amour, I couldn’t help but develop a fascination with the man reputed to have backed down Wild Bill Hickok. Both Hickok and Hardin are probably the only two ‘shootists’ whose ‘reality’ and legend come anywhere near those of fictional Hollywood gunfighters. I’m back, as well, with The Gunsmith’s Bench and look at some of the basic tools and equipment no hobby gunsmith can do without. Finally, my co-editor has the Last Word. Grayson changes things up a little this issue and tackles the faux-controversy stirred up by public broadcaster CBC. The latter erroneously reported in the week leading up to the September 22nd vote that the National Rifle Association was taking an active hand in lobby efforts to kill the long gun registry. Readers should be asking themselves are they getting good value for their tax dollars from the CBC’s brand of ‘missionary journalism?’ Enjoy!

www.nfa.ca

By Sheldon Clare

Deutsche Fertigungskennzeichen bis 1945 - German Secret Armament Codes Until 1945. Heidler, Michael. Deutsche Fertigungskennzeichen bis 1945 - German Secret Armament Codes Until 1945.Visier Edition, 2008. ISBN-13: 978-3-9811018-7-4 & ISBN-10: 3-9811018-7-1. 506 pages. Price $67 US, including registered and insured airmail from Germany to the US and Canada. The author of German Secret Armament Codes Until 1945, Michael Heidler began collecting military weapons about twenty years ago. His main field of interest is the development of German automatic weapons until 1945. Since that time he has published many articles in European gun and history magazines, and has supported other authors with documents and information from his comprehensive archive. In 2003 his first book German rifle grenades and launchers was published in German by a Bavarian military museum. During all that time he was researching the secret German manufacturer codes which resulted in finding unknown documents and a long-lost copy of the early number code list. Currently Michael Heidler is working on a new and much more expanded edition of his rifle grenade book. Hopefully this edition will also be offered in English. Mr. Heidler’s reference book is written in both German and English, and is thus designed to appeal to the large English-speaking market of historians, collectors, and museum experts. The book includes a brief bibliography and in-text notes, with some documents reproduced within the book. The first 60 pages are an explanation of the German secret armament codes and the reason that such a practice was adopted. Besides the forward, pages 42 to 60 comprise the English language section. In his preface Mr. Heidler acknowledges the assistance of several individuals who assisted him in his research. In particular he thanks the many collectors from the USA who provided him with documents from American military archives which allowed him to make several corrections which would otherwise have passed as fact. For special attention he singles out Karl E. Pawlas, and also thanks Jan Balcar, Claus Espeholt, Folke Myrvang, Peter Petrusic, Dr. Richard Preuss, Dr. Geoffrey Sturgess, W. Darrin Weaver, and three others for helping make this work possible. www.nfa.ca

The introductory section is important to provide the context for the rest of the reference work. The bulk of this well-crafted reference book includes secret armament code letters, number and abbreviations listed by code, then by company. He also includes the markings of supplier’s Association of Medal Manufacturers (LDO). The last section of his work is called Identity Numbers of the Reichszeugmeisterei of the NSDAP (RZM). Heidler provides helpful tips to assist readers in locating and understanding the information. Mr. Heidler presents tremendous useful research into the meaning of the codes used by the Germans to mislead the allies as to the nature of German rearmament after the Treaty of Versailles. He presents the evolution and application of production codes from 1919, the secret codes used during the time of covert re-armament from 1925–1940, the encoding of production year, and the letter code system in use from 1940-1945. The book includes several tables and illustrations through the text. For English readers, it is useful to peruse the German language section for its interesting images and documents which, unlike the tables, are not included in the English section. Heidler has made a particular effort to correct misleading locations of companies thus correcting long-perpetuated errors. Heidler’s work is a necessary reference to anyone interested in identifying the origin and authenticity of German military products from the interwar and wartime re-armament era. If you are interested in German firearms and any other militaria from that time you need Deutsche Fertigungskennzeichen bis 1945 - German Secret Armament Codes Until 1945. It is a remarkable reference work that will add much detail to the understanding of interwar and wartime German economic and military history. Copies of the book are available directly from the author who will autograph them on request. He may be contacted at GGBuch@web.de.

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Message du Président

President’s Message

Pendant que j’écris ces lignes le Canada est encore plongé dans un débat de société qui déterminera dans quelle sorte de pays nous vivrons.

by Sheldon Clare

As I write this article, Canada is engaged in yet another debate about the kind of country we want, and no surprise, the discussion is centered on the Candice Heoppner’s private members bill C-391 to end the long gun registry. When you read this message the decision will have been made and we will either be entering a new era of increased enforcement and more control, or we will have started the long journey to regain our rights. Ending registration is in no way the end of the matter – as firearms enthusiasts we know all too well that there is much more to be done to fix the problems of the expensive failure that is the Firearms Act. Ending registration is just the beginning, and if it hasn’t ended, there needs to be a major change to increase our collective involvement in politics. The usual suspects have lined in support of continuing to register firearms, and gathering more information about Canadians. The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police under the direction of President William Blair has come down on the side of those seeking more information and control over the people. Chief Blair’s position is consistent – he has often spoken on the need to obtain more information about people and to share communications within police circles. That might seem a worthy goal except that what he is talking about is getting the guns – and not just those of the criminal element, but yours as well. The Canadian Police Association has likewise supported a more control agenda. The Liberals, and Bloq Quebecois, are solidly in favour of a statist agenda, and the federal NDP is publicly divided on the issue. The only federal party supporting the people over

the police is the Conservatives, but it must be remembered that C-391 is not a government bill. The Conservatives will need to be supported to obtain a majority and then reminded about what else needs to be done about the problems with the Firearms Act. The RCMP has published The RCMP Evaluation Report on the Firearms Program. It is an entirely political document that is biased towards an agenda that favours increased police budgets and more control over Canadian society. It bases most of its frightening recommendations and findings upon the views of groups known to be generally opposed to firearms ownership, as well as those whose budgets would benefit from the adoption of the recommendations. The report itself offers nothing new to the debate, which former liberal justice minister Anne McLellan once declared to be over before losing her federal seat in Edmonton. Instead, the report is loaded with self-congratulation for the dubious successes of what is obviously a failed program. The report supports such controversial, expensive, and unnecessary programs such as the UN requirement for marking all firearms with a unique identification number. The apparent aim of that program is to track the country of origin, and is really a wasteful duplication of the serial number. The report laments amnesties for bringing the credibility of the program into disrepute and ridicule. The report attempts to attack the credibility of the law-and-order conservatives by taking a liberal statist line on firearm control. It seem to be

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the desire of the RCMP to actively take a political position on the issue by biasing their study towards certain antifirearm stakeholder groups that support the pre-ordained outcome of this report. Probably one of the most offensive features of this report is that it belittles the Canadian right and cultural tradition of firearms ownership and thus betrays a fundamental lack of understanding of the firearms issue in Canada. It seems that we are in a new era in Canada where the police are no longer the people, but rather an entity above the people that knows best about what is good for the citizenry. Apparently the logic in this report is that if it is good for the police it must be good for society. I beg to differ. Canadians have fought and won wars against such ideology and it is shocking to see it growing on the pages of this report produced by our national police force. So the question remains, what do we do about it? The most important thing that any of us can do is to bear witness to the renewed energy of the statist gun grabbers and report their activities to Canada’s NFA. Challenge them – make the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police respond to questions about their activities and intentions. We must have Zero Tolerance on the police abusing people through improper action on firearms laws. Front line officers should be deserving of respect and co-operation from citizens, not fear and distrust. Let’s make our police forces once again deserve our respect.

www.nfa.ca

Je vous parle bien sûr du débat autour du Projet de Loi C-391 de la Députée Candice Hoeppner pour abolir le registre des armes d’épaules. Quand vous lirez ces lignes la décision aura été prise : Nous serons projetés dans une période de contrôles plus sévères ou nous aurons réussis à faire un petit pas vers la reprise de nos droits. La fin de l’enregistrement des armes longues n’est qu’un début et s’il n’a pas cessé, nous devons faire des changements majeurs pour augmenter notre participation collective dans la politique. Les suspects habituels ont manifestés leur appui pour continuer d’enregistrer les armes à feu et recueillir de plus en plus d’information sur les Canadiens. L’Association Canadienne des Chefs de Police (ACCP), dirigée par le Chef de Police de Toronto Bill Blair s’est positionnée du côté de ceux qui veulent recueillir plus de renseignement et exercer plus de contrôle en les partageant entre les corps policiers. Cet objectif semble valable à première vue sauf qu’il vise la confiscation des armes, pas seulement celles des criminels, les vôtres aussi! L’Association des Policiers Canadiens (ACP) appui aussi un agenda de contrôle accrus. Les Libéraux et le Bloc Québécois veulent un contrôle étatique et le NPD se trouve publiquement divisé sur la question. Les seuls qui appui le peuple plutôt que la police sont les Conservateurs. Mais nous ne devons pas perdre de vu que le Projet de Loi C-391 n’est pas un projet de gouvernement. Pour apporter les changements nécessaires, les Conservateurs devront être réélus avec une majorité et informés des autres problèmes avec la Loi sur les Armes à Feu.

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Le rapport d’évaluation du Programme des Armes à Feu fait par la GRC est de nature remarquablement politique. Il est totalement biaisé et fait dans le but d’augmenter les budgets d’exploitation de la police et d’exercer encore plus de contrôle sur la société Canadienne. Il est d’autant plus effrayant car la plupart de ses découvertes et recommandations sont fondées sur des critères appartenant à des groupes qui sont généralement opposés à la possession d’armes à feu et à ceux des autres qui sont susceptibles de bénéficier d’augmentations budgétaires si jamais elles étaient adoptées. Ce rapport n’apporte aucun fait nouveau au débat. Un débat qui est terminé, à toute fin pratique, selon les dires de la députée fédérale d’Edmonton Anne McLellan, juste avant qu’elle perde ses élections. Le rapport est plutôt resplendissant dans sa félicitation de soi pour des succès douteux d’un programme raté. Le rapport appui certains programmes inutiles, onéreux et controversés tel que le marquage des armes de l’ONU. L’objectif de ce programme est de retracer le pays d’origine d’une arme, ceci est en soi un gaspillage redondant puisque le numéro de série le fait déjà. Le rapport blâme les amnisties accordées par le gouvernement pour la perte de crédibilité du programme des armes à feu. Le rapport de la GRC est un document politique, précisément parce qu’il tente d’attaquer la crédibilité des conservateurs qui ont toujours représenté la loi et l’ordre, en adoptant la ligne étatique libérale sur le contrôle des armes à feu. La GRC nous démontre sa volonté de prendre une position politique sur cet enjeu en menant une étude biaisée qui avantage les désirs de certains partis intéressés qui sont évidemment anti-arme et qui en ont dicté d’avance le résultat.

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Une des parties la plus blessante de ce rapport, est qu’il rabaisse le droit et le patrimoine culturel qu’est la possession d’armes à feu par les Canadiens. Ceci démontre clairement un manque de compréhension flagrant envers l’enjeu des armes à feu au Canada. Il semble que le Canada soit arrivé dans une nouvelle ère où la police n’est plus le peuple mais plutôt une entité plus élevée qui dicte ce qui est le mieux pour les citoyens. À la lecture de ce rapport, force est de constater que ce qui est bon pour la police doit être aussi bon pour la société. Permettez mon désaccord! Les Canadiens se sont battus et ont gagné des guerres contre des principes idéologiques de la sorte et c’est un outrage de les voir pulluler sur les pages de ce rapport déposé par notre police fédérale. Alors qu’allons-nous faire? La chose la plus importante est de constater l’énergie renouvelée des idéologues étatiques envers leurs objectifs de confiscation. Toutes leurs activités doivent être rapportées à l’Association des Propriétaires d’Armes à Feu. Nous devons aussi forcer l’Association Canadienne des Chefs de Polices de dévoiler leurs intentions et leurs programmes. La tolérance zéro doit s’appliquer sur les abus policiers en regard de la Loi sur les Armes à Feu. Les policiers de première ligne devraient normalement être respectés et recevoir la collaboration des citoyens respectueux des lois, ce n’est pas le cas aujourd’hui, où règnent peur et méfiance. La police doit changer pour pouvoir regagner notre confiance et notre respect. Travaillons ensemble vers cet objectif!

Vice President’s Column

The 164 to 137 success of C-391 on 2nd reading put the Liberal’s hallmark firearms legislation in real jeopardy, and brought calls from within and without the Liberal Party for Ignatieff to assert his leader’s prerogative, whip the vote, and democracy be damned.

Democracy be Damned! Blair Hagen, National VP Communications

On June 13th 1995 Bill C-68, the “final solution” to the firearms issue in Canada proposed by the majority government of Jean Chretien, passed 192 to 63. On September 22nd 2010, Bill C-391, a private members bill from Manitoba MP Candice Hoeppner intended to kill the long gun registry, was defeated by a motion from Liberal MP Mark Holland by a vote of 153 to 151; despite having passed the critical second reading the November before with a healthy margin. Between last November and September 22nd, the Liberal and NDP opposition leaders mounted desperate campaigns within their parties to address the politically unpalatable outcome of C-391’s second reading. They were aided by a concerted political propaganda campaign by the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police and the RCMP aimed at saving the firearms registry. Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff proposed to “fix” the failed Canadian Firearms Program: Including making registration “easier,” making the failure to register long guns a regulatory, rather than criminal offense, and promised to introduce undefined measures to “streamline” firearms paperwork and thus make registration “friendlier.”

Ultimately, this became a test of Michael Ignatieff’s leadership. For Liberals, it was one thing to allow a democratic vote on a private member’s bill from a Conservative member that had little hope of passing; but the 164 to 137 success of C-391 on 2nd reading put the Liberal’s hallmark firearms legislation in real jeopardy, and brought calls from within and without the Liberal Party for Ignatieff to assert his leader’s prerogative, whip the vote, and democracy be damned. This he did. The Liberal vote on C-391 would be whipped, party discipline would be enforced, and no Liberal would be allowed to vote his conscience or respect the wishes of his constituents on the firearms bill. Further key roadblocks to C-391 were erected by Liberal parliamentary public safety committee member MP Mark Holland, who in contravention of established custom introduced a motion to dismiss the bill outright. It was this motion that ultimately killed C-391. For the NDP, it was an even more complicated situation. The NDP have a party policy of not whipping votes on private member’s bills. Although their devotion to democracy might be somewhat greater than that of the Liberals, their anti-gun bias remains equally suspect.

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However, unlike the Liberals, the NDP have a not unsubstantial presence in “rural” and western Canada. As such, they should have had a better understanding of the hatred for the Liberal gun control program shared by their constituents. Many such MPs were actually elected on their solemn promise to end the long gun registry. Layton, in the days before the September vote, desperately tried to shore up support within his anti-gun caucus; while still attempting to take into account the concerns of rural NDP members and their constituents. In response, he proposed his own lukewarm “fix” for the failed Firearms Act. Unbelievably, his plan also included further handgun bans, clearly showing that the NDP have learned few lessons from the already spectacular political failure of the Liberal gun control program. Layton’s solution satisfied no one, except those recalcitrant NDP MP’s whom he believed now had a political out or “get out of jail free” card for breaking their promise to their rural constituencies. What Layton was unable to comprehend was that there was only one acceptable compromise on the table for Canadian gun owners and Bill C-391 was it. Regrettably, most of these “conflicted

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“Liberal and NDP MPs opted to break their word and voted against C-391. Grasping at the straws offered by their party leaders, this sorry cadre of disingenuous opposition MPs wholeheartedly accepted their party’s self-serving selection of banal excuses for their legislative artifice; thus ensuring that responsible gun owners would continue to be treated like potential criminals and second-class citizens. Many of these prevaricating Liberals quickly realized their platitudes and pitiful excuses fooled no one. Consequently, the final vote wasn’t even complete before many were pleading for “understanding” in the face of their leader’s demands for a whipped vote, and the threat of party discipline. The even more equivocal NDP members lacked even this facade of a defence. For either group, it is one thing to lie to themselves, but it is quite another to lie to your constituents; which all of these MPs did. In the aftermath of Bill C-391: What now? The fallout from the failure of C-391 brings with it not only political consequences for the opposition, but opportunity; at least for the Conservatives. The contention that substantial firearms law reform can only be effected legislatively under www.nfa.ca

a majority Conservative government now rings all the more true in the aftermath of September 22nd. Clearly, the proposals and “compromises” on firearms law reform presented by the Liberals and the NDP are worthless, effect no real reforms whatsoever, and only continue the same failed firearms regulation and confiscation agenda that has been in place for the last thirty years. Many political pundits, in a blatant attempt to undermine support for the Conservatives, claim that they are using the firearms issue to garner votes. However, truth be told, the opposition parties have given political ownership of the issue to the Conservatives, and they will continue to own it during the next federal election campaign. For the Liberals, their actions on C-391 are proof positive that they’ve essentially ceded the majority of the country outside of their urban strongholds of Toronto and Montreal, along with parts of Vancouver, to their opposition. They chose, perhaps not surprisingly, to cater to special interest groups, gun control advocates, unions, and the political police chiefs; while pretending that their beloved 1995 Firearms Act has not failed all public and practical tests.

difficult position. Jack Layton’s attempt to find a one size fits all solution to somehow save the C-68 Firearms Act and its long gun registry has failed spectacularly. However, his fumbling has served to confuse his caucus and angered everyone concerned, while ultimately satisfying no one. For now, the issue of firearms law reform will have to wait until the next federal election. However, given the age of the current minority government, all experts agree we’ll be going to the polls sometime in the next 12 months; so the wait won’t be too long. This time, not only will voters be demanding an end to the failed long gun registry, the firearms community will be demanding comprehensive firearms law reforms. In the end, the Liberals and NDP may very well wish that they had allowed Bill C-391 to pass.

For the NDP, the whole issue of Bill C-391 has put them in an even more Oct/Nov

Letters to the Editor Dear NFA, I have been listening to the news coverage on the upcoming Registry vote. I also recall hearing that our police chiefs plan on quietly contacting various MPs in order to influence their vote; with the aim of defeating Bill C-391. To me this is lobbying. With your resources perhaps you can determine if such action is considered lobbying under our current laws? To the best of my knowledge, Canadian police chiefs are not above the law, or at least they shouldn’t be. If, in fact, they are directly lobbying MPs without being registered as lobbyists, I feel the public should be informed immediately. I’ve contacted my own MP on this matter, along with my concerns over the fate of Bill C-391. David S. Hello David, Firstly, thank you for taking the important step of getting politically active and contacting your MP. Personal contact with constituents can play a very important role in how they approach a particular issue, especially one as important and polarizing as the long gun registry. To the best of my knowledge, there is no proof that police chiefs are directly lobbying MPs on their own initiative. However, Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair did make an appearance before the Standing Committee on Public Safety this past spring; video archives of his statements to committee members are available on the CPAC website or on YouTube. I would hazard a guess that your confusion may be a result of that appearance, as he strenuously defended the usefulness of the registry. Blair is also head of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, which is in truth and deed, a lobby group; rather than the benign “professional” and unbiased police organization it purports to be.

In the case of the CACP, they currently have several well-paid professional lobbyists on their payroll whose job it is to advance the agenda of their CACP bosses.

carried a Freedom Arms .454 Casull revolver for self-defence purposes. However, I recently got married and moved back East to be closer to my wife’s family.

In that respect, a case can be made that our police chiefs are lobbying government. This situation is of concern to Canada’s National Firearms Association, especially given the fact that the CACP has accepted hundreds of thousands in donations from corporate sponsors, including CGI Group; the company that currently has the contract to maintain the computer and databases systems of the Canadian Firearms Registry.

My new CFO has proven a lot less accommodating than my previous one, and my application for an ATC was rejected out of hand. As a photographer, I have to use my hands a lot, and even though I’ve switched to digital photography, I still have to carry tons of heavy lenses, back-up camera body and basic survival gear for the bush. Every pound counts when you’re hiking 30-40 Km’s into the backcountry.

As was pointed out in previous issues of CFJ, the NFA is not alone in these concerns. Well respected ethicist Dr. John Jones recently resigned from the CACP’s own ethics committee in protest over those large cash donations and other “perks” accepted by CACP directors; including free concert tickets to performers such as Celine Dion, expensive four-star meals and lavish “galas” that were financially backed by corporate donors, such as CGI, during annual CACP conventions. Canada’s National Firearms Association is currently conducting our own investigation into these activities and a number of federal Access to Information requests are on-going to determine just how much direct lobbying has occurred. You can be assured that any further information will be published in the pages of future issues of Canadian Firearms Journal. - Editors Dear NFA I’m currently a free-lance wildlife photographer. My job necessarily requires me to spend a lot of time in some pretty isolated and wild territory, including both Grizzly and Polar Bear country. I used to live out on the West Coast and held an ATC for many years. I regularly

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I own a 12 gauge Remington 870 riot gun, and have been toting that since my old ATC expired. I’ve learned to hate the extra weight, and the shotgun is far more inconvenient to carry on a daily basis. Is there anything I can legally do in order to resolve this impasse with my current CFO? I find it mind-boggling that one provincial CFO doesn’t have a problem with me carrying a revolver for wilderness defence; yet his counterpart a couple of provinces further east won’t issue the same permit under any circumstances! Jack K. Dear Jack, This inter-provincial bureaucratic inconsistency is a very common complaint we hear at head office, and it’s an issue we’ve strenuously lobbied Ministers Day, Van Loan and Toews over. With respect to your specific complaint related to ATCs or Authorizations to Carry I’m afraid there is little anyone can do legally; other than work toward replacing the current Firearms Act. While ATCs seem to have been readily available to individuals residing in the West and northern territories, that hasn’t been the case in the East or the Atlantic provinces.

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In this regard, the Liberals were very careful when writing their legislation to ensure that gun owners were given NO avenue of appeal or alternative application, regardless of legitimate/critical need. Consequently, the vast majority of ATCs in Canada today are issued to uniformed armoured car guards and couriers protecting cash and valuables. As part of the Liberal gun control program, a higher priority has been hypocritically placed on protecting insured cash shipments for big banks rather than human lives. Applications made for reasons of protection of life or self-defence are, in almost every case, dismissed out of hand and said applications rejected. Applicants cannot appeal such decisions at present. Not only is this patently unfair, it contravenes Canadian law. However, former Liberal governments understandably showed little interest in disciplining CFOs who opted to employ their own “interpretations” of the Firearms Act; while the Conservatives have been otherwise occupied in their quest to form a majority government. That said, Canada’s National Firearms Association still urges all gun owners to go ahead and file an ATC application despite the slim chances of positive action on the part of their CFO. By making such an application gun owners obligate Canadian Firearms Program bureaucrats to process them, no matter if they will almost certainly be rejected. By forcing the CFP to process them, the gun control bureaucracy is forced to devote increasingly scarce resources to the task. This creates additional burdens upon the system and increases costs for the entire program; making it that much more difficult for the RCMP to continue to maintain the facade that the gun control program now costs but a few million dollars per year to run. (NFA estimates put actual costs anywhere from $85-$115 Million per year) This fact may help to undermine recent arguments that the Liberal gun control program should be retained as, “the big money has already been spent and it would be a waste to abandon it now.” At the same time, by continuing to file such applications, the gun control bureaucrats are forced to keep records of how many applications are made each year for ATCs. As a result, they won’t be in a position to legitimately argue that so few individual ATCs are issued because nobody wants them. - Editors

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Canadian

Firearms Journal

The Official Magazine of the National Firearms Association

Editor .................................................................... sean@nfa.ca Sean Penney & Grayson Penney Executive VP, Operations .....................................info@nfa.ca Diane Laitila ....................................................... 780-439-1394 Accounts / Membership / General Info .... membership@nfa.ca Legal Inquiries .................................................... legal@nfa.ca

National Executive

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

Regional Directors

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

Canadian National Firearms Association

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

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

Preserving Our Firearms Heritage By Gary and Sybil Kangas

LEST WE FORGET Our firearms heritage exists today due, in large part, to the dedication of men and women from the past: Soldiers, sailors, airmen, and the many others who served our country in uniform. There is no doubt that it was their selfless acts of courage and honour through two world wars, the Korean conflict and even today in the Middle East and Afganistan, that allow us to continue to enjoy rights and freedoms not available in many other countries.

We had the good fortune to know one of many such individuals. A kind, quiet, and industrious man, his name was Christopher Heathcote. Christopher was born December 5th, 1891 in Harlingten, England and passed away some 87 years later, on May 21, 1978, at the Veterans Hospital in Victoria B.C.

German trenches at Vimy Ridge

years old. Being mentioned in dispatches for bravery in the field, Christopher was subsequently promoted to Sergeant. In mid1915, when the war bogged down in trench war, the Mounted Rifles were re-assigned to other units. Christopher was transferred to the Canadian Pioneers, a labour battalion. By 1917 he had been wounded twice, being shot in the left knee and hit by shrapnel in the neck and losing hearing in his left ear. He received a medical discharge the 12th of October.

Christopher emigrated to Canada in 1910 and moved

Christopher was a dedicated and duty bound individual. During our visits and walks at the Veterans Hospital we asked how he was able to cope with the appalling conditions in the trenches. His reply was “IT WAS MY DUTY”.

to Indian Head, Saskatchewan at age 19 to start a new life in his adopted land. However the unforeseen intervened. June 28, 1914 Archduke Ferdinand and his wife Countess Sofia were assassinated in Sarajevo, BosniaHerzegovina. By August 1914 World

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War I was underway and all of Europe was plunged into chaos and conflict. Canada, as part of the British Empire, followed her into battle.

Christopher’s duty was the currency which purchased our continued ability to own firearms and have a firearms heritage. We must defend that heritage and we must never forget.

Christopher volunteered in December of 1914, joining the Canadian Mounted Rifles on December 29th. He was 23

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The German Secret Armament Codes By Michael Heidler

By Michael Heidler

The numerical and alphabetical manufacturer’s codes on German ordnance items have always been a topic of interest to collectors. But what has been the reason for the secretiveness that lasted until 1945? The well-known letter codes of World War II are the result of various marking and encoding attempts that started during the times of covert rearmament. The cause was the acceptance of the Versailles Treaty (28th June 1919) by the Weimar Government. Article 168 states: “The manufacture of arms, ammunition and war equipment of all types may only take place in workshops and factories, of which the location has been made known to and approved by the Governments of the Allied and Associated Powers. These Governments reserve the right to limit the number of workshops and factories. Within three months after effect of the current treaty all establishments for manufacture, preparation and storage of arms or the production of relevant designs shall be closed. The same applies to all arsenals except the ones for storage of the permitted stocks of ammunition. Within the stipulated period the personnel of aforementioned arsenals shall be made redundant.” By acceptance of the ultimatum of the Allied Governments on May 5th 1921 the list of future suppliers of arms, ammunition and war equipment on the part of the German Government was thereafter set according to Article 168 of the Peace Treaty. It contained 13 companies for Army material and 28 companies for Navy material. The permitted armament for the Reichswehr was precisely defined in Article 180 of the Peace Treaty, for instance in terms of small arms, 84,000 rifles (Mauser 98 system), 18,000 carbines (Mauser 98 system) and 1,863 machine guns 14

were allocated. Surplus weapons had to be handed over to the Allies (although they often disappeared) and new weapons development was forbidden. Eminent German armament companies like Mauser had to convert their production to consumer articles, whilst the Allies selected the relatively inexperienced Simson & Co. of Suhl to act as the sole producer of pistols, rifles and machine guns – probably with the deliberate intent to weaken Germany militarily. In the following years German industry was under constant scrutiny by the Allied Control Commissions. Some companies managed to emigrate to or establish branches in neutral countries. For example Rheinmetall-Borsig AG covertly took over the Schweizerische Waffenfabrik Solothurn AG and, from 1929 began new weapons R & D and the production of new, fully automatic weapons using those facilities. Other companies like Henschel, Krupp, Junkers and BMW opened offices in Russian factories as part of Russo-German cooperation pacts. Besides the aforementioned activity abroad, many (former) defence contractors were not idle at home either. Their increasing success in contravening the letter and intent of treaty restrictions was made easier by a steady diminution of Allied influence and control over such industries; as well as a renewed interest from German military circles in modernization and rearmament. A precise date for the start of the secret rearmament process is almost impossible to nail down, but it could be argued that by1925 the German military-industrial capacity had recovered sufficiently well to necessitated the introduction of covert production marks. Confirmation is given by a decree of the Army Weapons Office of 12th December 1925 that begins with the words:

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“By the above referenced decree company markings for nonpermitted arms companies were introduced.” Presumably at that time every officially permitted company was allocated a code marking. Four of these codes, which today are known to have been used as a basis for the covert rearmament programme, are: P for

Ammunition, all types (Polte, Magdeburg)

Rdf for Powder & Explosives

(WASAG, Werk Reinsdorf)

Rhs for Fuses & Fuse bodies (Rheinische Metallwarenfabrik, Werk Sömmerda) S for

Carbine parts (Simson & Co., Suhl)

This basic code letter was supplemented by a code number that stood for the actual – but in fact illegal - manufacturer. Thus, the headstamp code “P131” on a 9mm cartridge case identifies the manufacturer as DWM in Berlin-Borsigwalde and not, as it was intended to overtly indicate, Polte in Magdeburg. The same goes, for instance, for K98k rifles with the codes “S/27.G” and “S/27”, which were actually manufactured by ERMA in Erfurt, and not by Simson & Co. in Suhl. The same 1936 letter from the Army Weapons Office, goes on to indicate that disguise for powder manufacturers no longer seemed necessary. The code numbers were to be substituted by an abbreviation (usually of the manufacturer’s location): “The requirement for covert marking of deliveries of the powder and explosives factories with the Rdf. covert designation, after removal of disguise, is no longer required, therefore the introduction of official company abbreviations www.nfa.ca

Different markings on Karabiner 98k made by ERMA.

takes effect immediately.” With that the requests of the Weapons Office Departments for Evaluation and Acceptance for cancellation of the code marks were granted. After the allocation of code numbers had reached “999”, in April of 1940 a completely new code system was introduced consisting of up to three lower-case letters. This system presumably arose through the allocation of letters to the suppliers of K98k parts, the so-called “Saxony Group” on the 28th of October 1938. Due to the relatively small size of numerous parts, marking with three letter codes was not possible. In these cases the companies concerned were assigned single

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new production marks for powder and explosives manufacturers: “The manufacturing marks for powder and explosives factories are made up like the other production marks of a three letter group of small letters so that these marks do not stick out by appearance amongst the bulk of other coded manufacturing marks. To ease memorizing of these production marks by the qualified personnel they will not be sought out at random as is done for reasons of secrecy for the other production facilities, but will be made up in conjunction with the official denomination of the manufacturing facility.”

letters to be stamped 1.6mm-2.5mm high on metallic and 6mm high on wooden parts. The one letter system appears to have started a whole new encoding system based on code letters. With that the final form of all code systems was determined. A letter from the Army High Command from the 1st of July 1940 gives information about the

Due to secrecy the lists of code assignments were copied in very limited numbers and unfortunately only 15 original volumes remain. The letter combinations “paa” – “zzz” are untraceable and it is doubtful if all combinations were ever used. The remaining volumes were issued as follows: Letter Block Date of Issue aaa -azz November 1940 baa -bzz February 1941 caa -czz March 1941 daa -dzz April 1941 eaa -ezz May 1941 faa -fzz June 1941 gaa -gzz July 1941 haa -hzz August 1941 jaa -jzz September 1941 a -zz October 1941 kaa -kzz June 1942 laa -lzz September 1943 maa -mzz December 1943 naa -nzz August 1944 oaa -ozz October 1944

Subsequent to the first issues, additions, alterations and deletions were made from time to time, but were not all passed on. In some cases the final production or assembly plants began to investigate who their suppliers were, since the code identities were kept secret even from them. In 1944 Mauser execs attempted to find out the identity of its suppliers with the help of a survey, but not all companies answered the questionnaire and so the resulting list showed large gaps. In contrast to the three letter groups the one and two letter codes leave some questions which have yet to be answered. Although the “aaa”-“azz” groups were already issued in November of 1940, the volume containing “a”-“zz” appeared in October of 1941; although the single letter codes of the Saxony Group had been in use since 1938.

Other Code Systems

Beside the aforementioned code systems there were other less common systems, which were not always meant just to deceive. - The Reichsbetriebsnummer A further type of labelling was the Reichsbetriebsnummer (State Manufacturing (Plant) Number), like the RBNr. 0/0020/0053 for the company Oster & Co. in Königsberg or 9/0750/5184 for the Franck’sche Verlagshandlung W. Keller & Co. in Stuttgart.

The origin of these numbers in the late stage of the war is controversial, especially since the term sounds more civilian than military. One reads of different sponsors (from the Luftwaffe to paramilitary formations), but this is only speculation so long as documentary proof is missing. In addition, hardly any of the numbers have been identified. The lowest known numbers were given to companies in Eastern and Western Prussia, followed by Upper and Lower Silesia, Brandenburg, Saxony, Pomerania and the area of Berlin. The further distribution took place without any recognisable order. - The System of the Reichszeugmeisterei of the NSDAP In contrast to the half-hearted attempts of the Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine, to create their own system, the NSDAP was more successful. The Reichszeugmeisterei (State Master of Ordnance) of the NSDAP (Tegernseer Landstr. 210, Munich), which had been founded in 1929, developed its own coding system by the mid-1930s. Launched in March of1935, the new system utilized a branch identity letter, a product group number; a company number and sometimes the production year were labelled on items. The branch identity numbers stand for “A” for equipment manufacturers “B” for cotton fabricators “D” for service-clothing manufacturers “G” for wholesaler “H” for trade representatives “K” for clothes retailers “L” for leather fabricators “M” for metal processors “V” for sales outlets “W” for wool fabricators The metal manufacturers for example were subdivided into 12 groups: M 1: insignias, medals M 2: dependent subsidiaries of bigger manufacturers M 3: emblems, badges, symbols M 4: belt-buckles M 5: accessories for uniforms (stamped eagles, buttons ...) M 6: aluminium products M 7: knives, daggers M 8: metal products M 9: convention badges M 10: musical instruments M 11: NSDAP-awards M 12: NSDAP-miniature-awards Thus, the code “M7/40/38” on an NSKK enlisted man’s dagger, translated, means that the end manufacturer “40” was

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the forge of Carl August Hartkopf in Solingen, the item itself was from the category “M7” knives and daggers, and was produced in 1938. Besides this marking the RZM-logo was also applied. From March 1945 all suppliers to political organisations of the NSDAP were allotted a RZM number that they had to mark on all items delivered instead of their company logos. Because only fragments of this system remain today, only a few codes can be assigned without doubt, and positive identification is made all the more difficult as a result of numerous variations also employed. The most current list is given above. In some cases the codes were supplemented with “SS”, although the first segment of the code may be missing (i.e., 36/40 SS). It is assumed that these items were ordered directly by the SS from the respective manufacturer. It is interesting to note that all companies concerned now had to cope with dual codes in production and depending on the recipient organisation. For example, HJ proficiency badges of the G. Brehmer Co. in Markneukirchen are stamped “M1/101” whilst other items for the Army from this manufacturer dating from the same period have a “eyb” marking.

Reaction of the Allies

The German code system did not stay undetected by the opposing intelligence offices. There are rumours that specially trained allied teams of code-breakers and intelligence officers were formed during the time period and were tasked with discovering the key to decoding the increasingly complex German armament codes of the inter-war era. Their task would have been made all the more difficult by the fact that the codes could not be broken mathematically due to their random assignment. It must be noted that no concrete proof of these decoding attempts actually exists. Undoubtedly, the Allies were intent on learning the locations of critical weapons factories and related munitions facilities within Germany, along with other strategically important centres of heavy industry, i.e., ball bearings, oil, etc... that would be of critical importance should war come. In the latter case, the accuracy of later Allied bombing raids on German heavy industry seems to clearly indicate that they were successful in identifying their physical locations. To what extent the German code system, in conjunction with the relocation of production, was successful and whether it influenced allied actions cannot be judged with any degree of certainty. Too many events and information remain unknown and too many documents have been lost or destroyed in the preceding decades. Howsoever, a strong argument can be made that the introduction of these secret coding systems made the task of breaking them appreciably more difficult for Allied intelligence services. Just how difficult is a question that cannot be answered using declassified intelligence and documents currently available today.

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Politics & Guns by Tyler Vance

Trust the evidence, not the police

By the narrowest of margins, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff and his NDP counterpart Jack Layton won a pyrrhic victory this past September and killed the private member’s bill aimed at dismantling the much hated longgun registry. No matter what the outcome of that vote, C-391 was never seen as anything more than a first engagement in the broader campaign to repeal the Firearms Act in its entirety; something that opposition members seem completely oblivious to. It is indeed unfortunate that the hard-left gun control advocacy movement opted to take the ‘low road,’ as a mature, reasoned debate on the issues could’ve done much to bridge the growing divide between urban and rural Canada. Most disturbing has been the tone and tactics employed by principal gun control standard bearers. Obviously they have no compunctions against fighting ‘dirty.’ In addition to the tactics employed by the opponents of C-391, Liberal party leader Michael Ignatieff has two key individuals to thank for this “win.” I speak, of course, of Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair, who also wears the top hat at the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP), and Charles Momy, head of the Canadian Police Association; an organization allegedly representing the views of front-line police officers.

Now I haven’t pulled too many punches in my previous contributions critiPhoto: Sean Penney

“Canada is a country governed by the rule of law. While I know too well that some in our society have no respect for those laws, the rest of us should not be robbed of our fundamental rights and freedoms because of the actions of a few.” -- Toronto chief of police, Bill Blair

cizing either organization or their hopeless compromised political heads. The evidence is easily available on-line, should any person wish to educate themselves on the issue or the veracity of my past arguments and related statistics. As we drew closer to the critical third reading of C-391, the opposition became increasingly desperate, choosing to haphazardly thrown every argument they could manufacture in support of registration into the fray in hopes that one would gain traction. Ultimately no single argument proved more damaging to the pro-firearms cause, however, than the erroneous claim made by the CACP, and later prominently highlighted in the recent RCMP report on the Canadian Firearms Program, that Canada’s long-gun registry, “As a whole, is an important tool for law enforcement”; “increase[s] accountability of firearm owners for their firearms”; and is “cost effective in reducing firearms related crime and promoting public safety.” When buttressed by Chief Blair’s similar claims and his absurd contention that front-line police officers consult the registry over 11,000 times a day, the opposition finally had an angle that put law-abiding gun owners in the untenable position of going up against the acknowledged enforcers of the law and keepers of order: The police chiefs. Blair and Momy, of the CPA, both represented the “thin blue line;” the bulwark of our civilization and promoters of those long-cherished Canadian values of peace, order and good government. In combination with the emotional pleas of those affected by so-called ‘gun violence’ the deck was effectively stacked against rational debate, common sense and responsible firearms ownership. Gun owners have been here before. The current debate has been built upon an emotional framework that is specifically engineered to cast gun owners in the worst possible light. Consider the historical background surrounding the earlier C-68 debate and the creation of the long-gun registry. As National Post columnist Matt Gurney recently described it, the registry was and is a ‘political monument’ to the 14 murdered women slain during the shooting rampage perpetrated by disturbed gunman Gamil Gharbi at Montreal’s l’ecole Polytechnique. The rights of the other 4-5 million law-abiding Canadian gun owners who didn’t shoot anybody that fateful day were subsequently sacrificed on the altar of political correctness by the Liberal government of Jean Chretien - solely to serve as a tangible demonstration of the Liberal’s disapproval of mass murder and firearms ownership. The power bestowed upon the prime minister by virtue of his party’s overwhelming majority in the Commons meant that the fate of C-68 was never in doubt; universal gun registration

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would happen and the ‘bad’ guns would be removed from Canadian streets by Allan Rock’s legislative ‘solution’ to mental illness. The fact that such a registry could never have prevented Gharbi’s rampage mattered for naught. Then, as now, what the Liberals, the New Democrats, and now the police have failed to realize or remember is that the registry is not, and will never be viewed as some benign force for good that is simply clothed in the form of an arguably innocuous public policy initiative; at least not from the perspective of those being registered. Layton, Ignatieff, and now Blair all fundamentally misunderstand why the registry is so hated by millions of Canadians. This hatred is rooted not in the inconvenience that it causes law-abiding gun owners, or the extra out-of-pocket expenses it entailed, or even the intrusive nature of the myriad of forms that we must fill out before we can even think of purchasing the simplest of firearms for sport and recreation. No, it is because, at its core, the Canadian Firearms Program, and its flagship registry has symbolized the distrust and disdain held by Canada’s urban/liberal elites for anyone so doltish, so backward, so provincial as to own something as repellant and unnecessary as a gun. History has proven the inanity of the Liberal’s original rationale for imposing universal gun control on its citizens. The registry has failed spectacularly to live up to its raison d’être, namely crime prevention. Dawson College, Mayerthorpe and a litany of lesser-known shootings committed since implementation of the registry prove this. Likewise, the righteous indignation of gun owners has had almost no influence on the Liberals; who remain committed to gun control as a key party plank. As a consequence, this former ‘Natural Ruling Party’ of Canada has essentially abandoned any pretence that their policies and political philosophies carry any weight beyond the leftist enclaves of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Frankly, I care little whether or not Jack Layton or Michael Ignatieff chooses to commit political suicide. Far more troubling for me, as a gun owner and staunch proponent of the libertarian ideal is the actions of the RCMP, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, the Canadian Police Association, the Canadian Association of Police Boards and the collective face of allied law-enforcement arrayed against Bill C-391, Toronto Chief of Police, Bill Blair in the lead-up to the September 22nd vote. The Peelian principles of modern polic-

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ing describe the philosophy that Sir Robert Peel developed to define an ethical police force. The principles traditionally ascribed to Peel stress police accountability and the paramount importance of maintaining the trust and respect of the public; hence Peel’s most oft quoted principle: The police are the public and the public are the police. Somewhere along the way Canadian police forces abandoned these simple tenets and somehow an absolutely ruinous ‘bunker mentality’ became entrenched. Without question, there exists in Canada an increasingly toxic police culture adhered to by senior political officers and fostered by their political chiefs. Professor of Criminology Robert Reiner defines this modern ‘cop culture’ as; “A subtle and complex intermingling of police officers’ sense of mission, action-orientated behaviour and cynicism where the emphases on danger, suspicion, isolation, solidarity, pragmatism and authority are the core elements.” Ultimately this has yielded a ‘bunker mentality.’ While I can appreciate the importance of the ‘thin blue line,’ I cannot accept that ‘cops vs. robbers’ has morphed into ‘cops vs. them’ with ‘them’ translating into Canadian gun owners, who for reasons unknown represent a threat in the eyes of police. The problem here and what almost all top cops /political chiefs seem to have forgotten is that unchecked, such a cultural ethos or organizational model can completely undermine their support amongst the general population. Licensed gun owners, by their actions in completing the mandated firearms safety courses (often at a cost of hundreds of dollars), passing their examinations, applying for a firearms license, submitting to police background checks and providing gun control bureaucrats with the names of solid citizens willing to vouch for their character, have already demonstrated, far more so than almost any gun control advocate, their devotion to rule of law. As I’ve argued before, law-abiding gun owners and the police should therefore be natural allies; instead we have been demonized by Liberal and NDP political leaders and been a primary object of distrust and suspicion for police. Columnist Lorne Gunter goes even further, stating pointblank that, “Throughout the life of the registry, but particularly during the last couple of months, police brass have signalled to gun owners that they have little respect for them, that they start from the presumption that all owners are guilty until they can prove themselves innocent. And even then they need to be watched, regulated, regis-

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tered and suspected.” So much for Peel’s philosophy that, ‘the police are the public and the public are the police,’ yet this new reality unquestionably poses significant dangers for the future of Canada as a free and democratic society. Respect for the rule of law is being directly undermined by the behaviour and actions of a select few extremely influential lawenforcement authorities on the gun control issue. Common sense would tell you that in order to do their jobs effectively, the police need the aid and support of the public. There are currently over 2 million licensed gun owners in Canada and some estimates put the actual number at more than double that; once you factor in those individuals who refused to comply with the Liberal’s licensing and registration agenda. That is a substantial cross-section of Canadian society to simply write-off or assign to the ‘bad guys’ column while lacking any sort of valid justification for doing so. Without widespread respect for the rule of law, and those charged with keeping it, police chiefs such as Bill Blair simply could not do their jobs. Unfortunately for Chief Blair and his allies within the RCMP, Canadian Police Association, and Canadian Association of Police Boards, respect is a two-way street. In order to earn the support of the public, gun owners included, chiefs have to maintain at least the pretence of being politically neutral and above all else, maintain the belief that they are fair and completely objective. Astonishingly enough, with the exception of a handful of ethical chiefs such as Calgary’s Rick Hanson or the OPP’s Julian Fantino, Canada’s police chiefs, especially the CACP’s Bill Blair, have dropped all semblance of impartiality and picked a side in what has proven one of the most divisive and long-lasting political battles in Canadian history: gun control! Blair and his cohorts completely tossed aside any facade of neutrality and became active participants in the policy making process and used their power, reputation and positions to not only directly lobby government, but waged a highly questionable and ethically bankrupt propaganda campaign in support of gun control; and thus necessarily against gun owners. Just as disturbing was their complete disregard for truth and their wholehearted willingness to use facts selectively; while employing cheap, puerile political tactics aimed at advancing their side’s interests at all costs. Politics and Guns Continued on Page 27

Battle Rifles of WW I: The Allies By Bob Shell & Sean Penney

The Great War, or as we now know it today World War I, began in 1914 and lasted for four brutal years of attrition warfare. Its origins may be traced to a multitude of political and economic issues that were spawned during the previous century and the age of western European expansion and empire building. Some historians would argue that the stage was set for war many years prior to the initiation of hostilities; while the ostensible justification for war, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was merely a convenient excuse the served as the spark that ignited the hostilities. The assassination of Ferdinand, an otherwise minor player, provided the expansionist Austrians with the justification necessary to attack Serbia and potentially put to rest the continuing ethnic unrest on their southern flank, and thus the war to end all wars was begun. On one side you had Germany and the AustroHungarians, plus Bulgaria, and some additional minor European players allied with, or ruled by either the Germans or Austrians. Further east, there was the Ottoman Empire, consisting of Turkey and various other middle-eastern countries including Iraq, Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon. Opposing these “Central Powers” were the western allies, also known as the “Entente Powers” principally comprised of Great Britain and her Commonwealth, including Canada, Australia & India, to name but a few; along with France, Italy, Russia, Serbia, Montenegro, Belgium, Romania, Portugal and Greece. In the Far East, Japan and China rounded out the alliance. The final partner, the United States did not officially join the fray until 1917, due in large part to the strong isolationist sentiment found throughout much of the country during this period. In addition to the actual combatants from both alliances, there were a number of other ostensible allies that signed on, but took little or no part in the actual fighting. The “Great War,” was to prove a testing ground for the advancement of small arms design, and it was the first major conflict where all sides were armed with truly modern arms, firing smokeless powders. For the most part, long arms used by all sides were of a bolt action design. However, there were some exceptions, such as the Winchester 07 auto loader chambered for the 351 WSL. While machine guns were prevalent on the battlefield, the infantryman’s best friend remained his rifle. Modern weapons design was still in its infancy here, with many different ap-

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proaches and concepts in evidence. While smokeless powder had been around since 1886, bore diameters for WWI era small arms ranged from 6.5 to 11 mm in diameter, as combatants slowly abandoned the round-nose projectiles of the previous century in favour of modern spire point gilded bullets - in a quest for increased velocity and lethality; that recent advances in propellants, weapons design and metallurgy offered. For the first of this series, we will examine the rifles of the Allies during WWI, followed by those of the Central Powers. Despite all the advances made in weapons design, history books often fail to note that old technology was still very much in evidence at the start of hostilities; due primarily to shortages in manufacturing capacity, most combatants were forced to use small arms made by other countries, or rely upon stocks of obsolete weapons already in their depots. As civilian industry was re-tasked for military purposes and production lines spooled up, most of these obsolescent and obsolete rifles and related small arms were re-issued to home guards and reserve units. France used the 8 X 50mm Lebel for a good part of the war. It replaced the potent 11 mm Grass in 1886. The Lebel used a full metal jacketed bullet that was to prove quite effective and was even used to shoot down German observation balloons. While credited as the first smokeless round, the Lebel was semi-obsolete by the time that WW I came about. It used a tubular magazine and round nose bullets at a time when most of the other major powers were using spitzers which give longer range accuracy. The tubular magazine was also slow to reload and the more modern battle rifles of the conflict almost all used some sort of top feed magazine system. The advantages were obvious in speed of reloads and the fact that the rifle’s balance didn’t change, unlike with the Lebel. A replacement was sought, and in 1917 French arms designers came up with the wholly new Berthier rifle and carbine. The Berthier was to prove a well made rifle capable of good accuracy, however, the design was not without its Oct/Nov

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French 8mm Lebel rifle WWI - era Lebel 8 X 50mm cartridges

defects. Troops were quick to point out the most glaring of these, including the lack of a manual safety and the complexity of the bolt mechanism which required that it be taken apart before it could be removed. The caliber was still the 8 X 50mm, but a new pointed spitzer bullet was now standard. The Lebel’s magazine was of a somewhat more practical design, and depending on the model, had a capacity of either 3 or 5 rounds when fully loaded. The design was still considered unconventional by some and its acceptance was at best mixed. Yet, its place in history was assured by the fact that it was the first rifle loaded with a truly modern spitzer boat tail bullet that offered a higher ballistic coefficient, along with greater range and accuracy, than its principal opponents of the day. The carbine version was to prove more popular because of its handiness, although it developed a well-earned reputation for recoil. In additional to the Lebel, some French snipers were armed with a semi auto design known as the RSC or Ribeyrolle, Sutter Chauchat rifle, also chambered in the 8 X 50 Lebel. To a much lesser extent some French units were also equipped with the Winchester model 07 in .351 WSL; which gave good service by all accounts. The Winchester fired a 180 grain bullet at about 1800 fps. Sedate by today’s standards, but not that far off the curve for weapons design at the time.

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French 8 X 50mm Berthier

Close up of Berthier Action Close up of Model 91 Mauser Action

Russia used the 7.62 X 54R Nagant rifle which first entered service in 1891. It fired a rimmed cartridge topped by a 147 grain . 3 1 0 ” d i a m eter bullet which delivered a muzzle velocity of approximately 2800 fps. Initially, it employed a round nose bullet, but the switch to a modern spitzer design was also made in short order. Both the rifle and the round developed a reputation

for being extremely rugged and dependable, albeit much cruder in terms of fit and finish when compared to other battle rifles of the era. Russia was ultimately unable to produce enough rifles for their army, so they contracted with such American firms as Remington to take up the slack. Remington eventually built some 1.5 million rifles, while Westinghouse manufactured another 1.8 million for the Russian Imperial Army. Lack of manufacturing capacity was a problem for many other combatants during the war as well, but the problem was more keenly felt by the Russians. This was due, in part, to the sheer size of the country, but more so because of the size of the Russian Army and the relative backwardness and lack of modern industrial capacity of Russia at the time. Just as in WW II, many Russian infantrymen were sent into battle without an issued rifle; expected to arm themselves by liberating a rifle from the clutches of a fallen comrade or even an enemy combatant! Lack of small arms forced the Russians to use whatever arms that could scrounge. Included in this hodgepodge were a number of obsolescent 10.6mm Russian Berdan rifles; a design that the 1891 Mosin-Nagant was supposed to have replaced in 1891. In desperation, the Russians also purchased some 300,000 American built Winchester Model 95 lever action rifles chambered in 7.62 X 54R, and they even bought about 35,000 Mausers in 7 X 57mm caliber and placed a large order with the Japanese for 6.5mm Arisaka rifles. Like their French allies, the Russians also forced to field a number of Winchester model 07s, albeit in much smaller numbers. Logistics, just as for the French, became a major nightmare for Russian commanders and quartermasters when it came to keeping such diverse small arms supplied with ammunition and small parts. The Greeks, although not as high-profile combatants as the French or Russians, were also major players in the Great War. The Greek Army principally fielded the 6.5 X 54mm Mannlicher-Schönauer as their main battle rifle; however war-time exigencies also forced them to adopt interim small arms, including some Gras rifles. While a relic of the 1870’s, the Gras rifle was reliable and with the 11 mm bullet offered undeniable lethality. The 6.5 Mannlicher design, unlike earlier Greek battle rifles, was quite modern and well

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regarded for its smooth action and innovative spool magazine. Quality control was top notch for a production rifle and machining, fit and finish was quite good. The spool magazine design, once perfected, worked almost flawlessly, even under combat conditions. Accuracy of the design was also quite good for its day, due to its long 160 grain bullet that left the muzzle at a velocity of approximately 2250 fps. This yielded quite good penetration and modest recoil. However, battlefield lethality suffered and the cartridge developed a reputation for less than stellar “stopping power;” a reputation, whether justly or unjustly, shared by many other 6.5mm cartridges of the period. This is perhaps best demonstrated by the many comparisons made to the Italian 6.5mm Carcano round of the same era. 6.5 X 54mm Mannlicher-Schönauer cartridge bears a close resemblance to the Italian 6.5mm Carcano round, but is 1 mm longer and was loaded a little heavier. Greece used it as it official military rifle from 1903 to 1941. Bulgaria, who was a close ally of the Russians, received some 7.62 X 54 rifles in 1913. These were the old pattern rifles which used a round nose bullet, as opposed to the more modern design that used the pointed 147 grain spitzer bullet. They were known as the three line rifles also due to the Russian system of measurement used at that time. The exigencies of war once again forced the Bulgarians, just like their other allies, to adopt substitute long arms to bridge shortfalls in stocks of their primary battle rifles. Of these, the most important was the M 95 Steyr-Mannlicher chambered in the 8 X 50mm Rimmed. At the time, the M 95 was quite popular and was in service with a number of countries. It was a straight pull weapon that was known for its durability and it became quite prevalent on the battlefields of Europe during the Great War. The design was so well thought of that after the war, it was re-chambered to a more powerful 8 X 56mm cartridge starting in 1930. A number of M 95 rifles actually saw service in WW II as a consequence. In the interim, other M 95 rifles were converted to the more widely available 8 X 57mm Mauser round. Such a conversion was by no means easy given the fact that www.nfa.ca

the original round was of a conventional rimmed design and the more modern Mauser cartridge was rimless. A special clip was ultimately utilized to enhance feeding and improve reliability; however, problems persisted, including extractor issues. There was the possibility of catastrophic extractor failure when manipulating the straight-pull bolt to force the bolt head over a previously chambered cartridge; quite often, the extractor would break and the rifle rendered hors de combat. Much more familiar to North American shooters, perhaps due to proximity and the influence of Hollywood war movies, are the principal long arms of the American Expeditionary Force of WW I. The most famous of these, of course, is the famed US Springfield, Model of 1903. The latter rifle first entered service in 1903 using the .30-03 cartridge. The latter cartridge sported a 220 grain round nose bullet and delivered a muzzle velocity of about 2200 fps. In 1906 US Army weapons designers refined the cartridge, shortening the neck and substituting a more modern 150 grain spitzer bullet, which delivered a blistering 2700 fps muzzle velocity. Most ’03 Springfield rifles were immediately thereafter rechambered to accept the new and much improved cartridge. As a consequence, unaltered 1903 Springfields in their original chambering are much sought after by collectors today, and are extremely rare. The step-up in performance, range and accuracy was manifestly obvious and the .3006 was to eventually become legend, as was the rifle that fired it. However, that isn’t to say there weren’t bumps along the way. IronOct/Nov

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Dutch M.95 Mannlicher in 6.5 X 53mm Rimmed

M .95 Stutzen (Short Rifle) 8 x 50mm Rimmed

6.5mm Cartridges of WWI: L-R 6.5 x 53mm Rimmed

6.5 x 52mm Carcano

6.5 x 50mm Japanese

6.5 X 54mm MannlicherSchoenauer 6.5 X 55mm Swede

ically, the 1903 Springfield was such a close copy of the 98 Mauser that the US paid a royalty of $1 on each rifle totaling $200,000 produced prior to WW l. The ‘03 model Springfield was one of the primary long arms employed by the US during WW I, however, due to wartime demands, the US was forced to make use of substitute standard rifles as well. Consequently, many doughboys entered the war armed with American built M1917 Enfields, also chambered in .30-06. The M1917 Enfield, which has subsequently been incorrectly identified as the “P17”, “P1917”, or “Pattern 1917” gave yeoman’s service during the war and was very well liked by the troop so armed. The rifle itself was essentially nothing more than an emergency US modification of the British .303 caliber P14 rifle then in limited production for the United Kingdom during the period 1917-1918.

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Common Cartridges of WWI: L-R .303 British

8 x 50mm Lebel

7.62 x 54mm Rimmed Russian .30-06 SPRG

7.65 X 53mm Mauser

.303 British cartridge with Spitzer bullet & military-grade cordite 6.5 x 52mm Carcano with Stripper Clip

The Springfield was considered the most accurate rifle used during WW I and it too was well liked by both Marines and US Army troopers. Yet, it was not without its faults either. A quality control issue emerged with low numbered Springfields and a number of rifles suffered catastrophic failures when firing overpressure or “hot” rounds. The problem was traced to the heat treating and they went to a double heat treat as opposed to the earlier single stage. That solved the problem making the Springfield as safe as any other battle rifle. The Enfield, by contrast, was a large and strong action which was well made and did not suffer from the Springfield’s earlier teething problems. It was a relatively smooth action that gave good accuracy. The bolt cocked on closing unlike many of the other rifles used in WW l. The large finned rear sight arrangement and humped profile gave it a somewhat odd appearance, however, and few would describe the rifle as being “pretty.” Necessity being the mother of invention, shortages in machine guns also caused US weapons designers to try new things in order to bridge the gap between supply and demand. Though never fielded, designers ac-

tually created a workable device that when installed in a modified Springfield allowed semi-automatic fire. The attachment, known as the Pedersen device, allowed the use of a small .30 caliber intermediate cartridge fed from a box type magazine. In retrospect, the device was of limited practicality and most likely would’ve proven unsuitable to the horrific field conditions of trench warfare on the Western Front, production of the Pedersen device had just ramped up when it became the victim of circumstance; as the war came to an end and plans for further production were shelved. After the war, most devices were put into storage and later destroyed and/ or sold for surplus. Like first generation .3003 chambered Springfields, complete Pedersen devices/rifles remain extremely rare today and are much sought after by collectors. Another unusual long arm to make its debut as a front-line weapon of war was the short barreled trench gun. The American scattergun was a 12 gauge pump action that quickly became dubbed the “Trench Broom” for its ability to “sweep” the trenches clean of enemy combatants. Primarily firing buckshot, the trench gun was to prove very effective at close range. They were good out to about 50 yards and the soldiers who understood that were very effective with them. Many were model 97 Winchesters and they became much hated by Germans soldiers. Trench guns of the era came standard with an 18” barrel and magazine capacity was typically 6 rounds of 00 buck. They also came standard with a bayonet mount and vented heat shield/hand guard to protect the hand against heat from the barrel. They were so reviled by the Germans that the latter went so far as to lodge a formal protest against their use, arguing that they were in contravention of the normal rules of international warfare. Quite ironic, given the fact that the Germans were the first to employ weapons of mass destruction on the battlefields of WWI; with the introduction of poison gas and the first incidence of modern chemical warfare. A variety of chemicals were used, but perhaps the most well-known of these was the hated “Mustard Gas.” Unlike the Second World War, during what combatants were to dub the Great War, the Japanese were allied with the western powers, albeit their role was substantially smaller in scope. The Japanese of the day fielded a

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Model 30 and Model 38 Arisaka rifles, both chambered in 6.5 X 50mm caliber. It was a mild recoiling caliber shooting a 160 grain round nose bullet. Like the other 6.5mm’s it gave lackluster performance on the battlefield and was generally seen as being lacking in stopping power. The Arisaka was crude looking and often very crudely machined by North American and European standards, but it was to prove an extremely robust design and was perhaps the strongest military rifle of WW I. The bolt cocked on closing, much as the Enfield did. Interestingly enough, the Japanese were to eventually secure a number of lucrative munitions contracts and they eventually sold many rifles to allied nations, including Great Britain, who purchased some 150,000 rifles; while Russia bought about 600,000 in 1914. At the start of the war, tiny Belgium’s primary rifle was still the Model 1889, chambered in 7.65 Mauser. For some years they used barrel jackets much as the German Model 88 does, though the last version the M 89/36 eliminated that feature. The ‘89 utilized a single stack magazine feeding the 7.65 X 53mm Mauser cartridge. The latter was one of the earlier rounds introduced by the Mauser firm and many consider it one of their best. The original bullet was a round nose which was typical of that period. Later, spitzer bullets were utilized to much better effect as with so many of their other allies. Like the Japanese, the Italians during the Great War were also an allied nation. They used the 6.5 X 52mm Carcano round which replaced the 10.4 Vetterli in 1891. The rifle was a Mannlicher- Carcano design and was in service for many years. Like most of the other 6.5mm’s of the period, it used a round nose bullet weighing about 156 grains. While having a somewhat checkered reputation, the rifles were battle worthy and durable. The Carcano, in its three chambering, was to enjoy a long service life and was ultimately standard Italian issue from 1891 to 1945 giving some credence to contradictory opinions from some corners that the Carcano’s poor reputation wasn’t entirely deserved. The rifle had an open bottom magazine design that was clip fed like several other designs of the www.nfa.ca

period. Wi t h o u t the proper clip to hold cartridges in place, soldiers were reduced to firing the rifle in a rather awkward and slow single shot manner. This was a design flaw that many detractors jumped on, especially considering the fact that several similar designs still allowed soldiers to produce much higher rates of fire, while even in singleshot mode compared to the Carcano. Soldiers in the Italian military never really warmed up to the rifle, and in addition to its design drawbacks, the lackluster terminal performance of the 6.5mm Carcano round failed to excite much appreciation for either the rifle or the cartridge. To be fair, such failings were essentially true of almost all of the 6.5mm’s of that period. As a side note the 6.5 Carcano was to later gain notoriety as the rifle used by Lee Harvey Oswald to assassinate American President John F. Kennedy in November of 1963. Romania entered the war armed with their Model 1893 Rumanisches Infanterie Repetier Gewehr rifle in the 6.5 X 53mm rimmed; a round also in use by the Netherlands at the time. It was a clip-fed, Mannlicher design bolt action rifle, which boasted a 5 round capacity. Considered to be one of the smoother Oct/Nov

Top to bottom:

Winchester Model 97 Trench Gun Winchester Model 07 .351 WSL

6.5mm Dutch Mannlicher Action & cartridge

Australian Lithgow No. 1 MK III Lee Enfield British No. 1 MK III Lee Enfield

their 10 round detachable box magazine offered the highest capacity of any of the major battle rifles fielded during the war.

1918 National Rifle Factory SMLE No. 1 MK III w./1916 Leather Sling 1945 Australian Lithow SMLE No. 1 MK III* 1945 RFI SMLE No. 1 MK III with Luan Mahogany wood.

Also pictured, period battle maps, helmet & No. 7 Pattern Sword Bayonets

actions of the era, by 1914 Steyr was in the process of finishing up the last of their Romanian contract. Steyr had warehoused some 75,000 Model1893 rifles, which were rushed to completion, and chambered in the original 6.5x53mm Rimmed and designated the 6.5mm M.93 Rumanisches Repetier Gewehr. A few incomplete rifles were later assembled in 8x50mm Rimmed caliber (8mm M.1893 Scharfe Patrone) using new, 8mm barrels and were designated the 8mm M.93 Adaptiertes Rumanisches Repetier Gewehr. These barrels were marked with the standard Austrian acceptance mark above the chamber (hidden under the hand guard) and remain quite rare today. India and other British possessions used basically the same small arms as Great Britain; although they were often not the latest generations. The .303 British caliber replaced the 577/450 Martini, with the introduction of the Lee Metford rifle. It was in use until the improved SMLE or Short Magazine Lee Enfield was officially adopted shortly after the turn of the century. The new Lee-Enfield was adapted to fire the also new .303 British service cartridge, a rimmed, high-powered rifle round. Earlier experiments with cordite and smokeless powders had

proven failures when coupled with the older Lee-Metford design. It had been hoped that the new cartridge would necessitate a simple improvement of the Lee-Metford rifle, however, the heat and pressure gradient of the new propellants proved too much for the shallow, rounded rifling employed in the Metford design and barrel life was unacceptably short. A switch was made to a new square-shaped rifling system designed at the Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield and the modern Lee-Enfield was born. Typically, the more far-flung colonies of the major powers of that period were forced to make-do with older versions of the military weapons of the period, so there were a mix of models and propellants/bullet weights still in use at the start of hostilities. A major effort was made to standardize all small arms in order to ease the logistical burden throughout the war that met with mixed success. The .303 British round itself was extremely well liked by all who were issued it, and the Lee-Enfield design was to go on to prove itself as one of the best battle rifles ever fielded in modern battle. The slick action and high quality of the Lee-Enfields fielded had much to do with their enviable reputation and

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“Tommys” and other colonial troops could deliver 10 aimed shots in such rapid succession that opposing Germans and Austrian troops wondered if British troops were being issued semiauto and even fully automatic weapons en masse! During the “Mad Minute” even the slowest of British troops were capable of delivering up to 25 aimed rounds on target; some could load and fire as many as 40 rounds within those 60 seconds, a feat that allied and enemy soldiers alike could never hope to match given the mechanical limitations of their respective rifle designs. The World War I SMLE design was later refined somewhat and became the No. 4 Lee-Enfield, but the same essential rifle was to remain in British, Canadian and Australian service through to the Korean War and beyond. The No. 4 Lee-Enfield and variants, remains in service today with the indigenous Canadian Rangers of the Canadian Forces and can still be found in regular use by law enforcement and paramilitary forces throughout the Commonwealth and former British colonies the world over. Many experts still opine that the British SMLE or Short Magazine LeeEnfield of WWI was the absolute best battle rifle of the conflict. While not the most accurate or the prettiest or even the most refined, it excelled in its role as a pure battle implement. Accurate enough, it was a robust design that continued to operate in the absolute worst field conditions imaginable and it delivered a round that offered terminal ballistics and performance such that it was subsequently used to cull wild game up to and including African elephants!

Politics and Guns Continued from Page 19

cates up in arms.

More troubling is the open contempt and lack of respect Chief Blair and his allies displayed for heretofore law-abiding gun owners, or any others who dared oppose their register and reclassify agenda; taking the ‘cheap’ way out and choosing to attack the individual rather than the argument. Overtly implying, in essence, that anyone who wanted to kill the registry was either hopelessly naïve, and/or indirectly contributing to the so-called ‘gun crime’ problem. Blair has proven not only as partisan as any Liberal or NDP politician, he has been far more effective at communicating his message by virtue of the respect and legitimacy his rank bestowed upon him.

Some critics of Blair argue that the registry debate and those self-same G20 mass arrests actually offer some explanation for the otherwise illogical and unjustifiable positions assumed by law-enforcement agencies, the political police chiefs and Chief Blair on the firearms issue. Simply put, they contend that: “The police enjoy wielding power. They’re in favour of having more power, and they’re opposed to having less.” Kevin Gaudet of the Canadian Taxpayer’s Association offers a somewhat more rapacious excuse, arguing in a recent editorial that police chiefs like Blair have a vested interest in defending the registry as it has come to serve as a source of additional funding and provides individual police forces with a legitimate excuse to purchase more computers and office equipment and to hire more staff. Long time Conservative firearms critic, MP Garry Breitkreuz, echoed an earlier argument of mine. In his editorial he contended that the registry was never about reducing crime, but rather, it was about ‘public control.’ No arguments here!

Following the vote on September 22nd Blair was one of the first to rush to find reporters to gush over ‘their‘ historic victory in the ‘interests of public safety,‘ and gleefully answered questions; basking in the afterglow of the miscarriage of justice that he’d helped sire. Yet, it isn’t just gun owners who have a problem with Canada’s ostensible ‘top cop.’ His willingness to essentially fabricate fictitious ‘laws’ such as the now infamous ‘5M Law,’ enforced during this summer’s G20 Summit, as well as the unjustified mass arrests authorized under his watch have many civil liberty advo-

In the end, C-391 will undoubtedly prove a pyrrhic victory for the opposition and their law-enforcement allies. Trying to appear conciliatory in the aftermath of the vote, Ig-

natieff, Layton and Blair all offered empty platitudes that it was now time to ‘fix’ the registry and to reach out to gun owners. Such self-serving clap-trap shows just how out of touch with reality the pro-gun control leadership is. There will be no accommodation. Gun owners and an increasing number of average Canadians no longer view the police as the beneficent force for good, whose motives are sacrosanct. Instead, the wilful politicization of Canadian lawenforcement has brought themselves and the very rule of law into disrepute. All too frequently now police are seen as partisan actors pushing their own agenda. The only difference being that they also enjoy a virtual monopoly on the legal use of force. The erosion of popular support and respect for police amongst the ranks of otherwise lawabiding gun owners will have long-term consequences. The ability of police to effectively fulfill their mandate and maintain the continued facade of a ‘thin blue line,’ is in real jeopardy; with real criminals the net beneficiaries. Blair and the other political chiefs seem oblivious to the danger and actually seem to think that their pitiful attempts to mend fences will succeed. These chiefs have demonstrated nothing but contempt for gun owners, and therefore should not be surprised if they find such contempt returned in kind.

Part II of this series on the Battle Rifles of WW I will be continued in the December/January 2011 issue featuring the Battle Rifles of the Central Powers. - Editors

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Over the past 20 years, homicide rates have fallen similarly in Australia (31%) and New Zealand (34%). (Note that New Zealand has examined and decided against a firearm-registration program as strict as that of either Australia or the UK.) Homicide rates have actually increased by almost 6% since the early 1990s in England and Wales. These patterns are due to activities by criminals who own firearms illegally, not variations in licensing schemes for legal firearms owners.

Why governments must be seen to do something By Gary Mauser

In the wake of Derrick Bird’s shooting rampage in Cumbria, the British parliament convened a select committee to review the gun laws. It was the worst multiple shooting in Britain since Dunblane in 1996. I have submitted a critique of British firearms laws to the Home Affairs Select Committee, but Rt. Hon Keith Vaz MP, the committee chair, is a Labour politician and not supportive of the shooting sports. Even stricter rules for law-abiding gun owners are approaching, more in a long sequence of ever-tightening legislation, possibly the most stringent in the Western world. The German government also tightened up firearms laws after school shootings in 2009. Governments seem to need to be seen to do something when confronted with widely publicized and shocking events such as shootings or market meltdowns. If it frightens the citizens, then the government believes it must be seen to act. Even though politicians may realize the futility, they remain determined to prevent the public observing their helplessness. Are politicians acting irrationally? Not at all. The reason for their behaviour, repeated in country after country, can be traced more to public naivety than to facts. Legislation against guns has never reduced the incidence of murder, yet the post-outrage behaviour of policymakers continues in the same vein. Elected officials do what they think will reward them. Despite abundant proof that governments are powerless to stop such hideous crimes too many people

expect government to protect them from danger. Governments are still held responsible for events that are beyond their control. It is inevitable that someone (with or without a gun permit) will occasionally run amok. Each time there is a shooting rampage, firearms owners argue that new laws are unnecessary because they are the most law-abiding of citizens. The government typically agrees but passes new laws or regulations anyway. Firearms regulations have little impact on overall homicide rates. Not only are career criminals responsible for the bulk of criminal violence, but there are many ways to kill someone; many other weapons are readily available. The chair of the UK Home Affairs Select Committee said that the committee “will examine whether or not there is a need for changes to the way in which firearms and/or shotgun certificates are issued, monitored or reviewed as a means of preventing gun violence.” My submission addressed the following points among others: (1) The extent to which legally-held guns are used in criminal activity, (2) The relationship between the Firearms (Amendment) Acts 1997 and the homicide rate; and (3) Proposals to improve sharing of medical information with the police in respect to the procedures surrounding firearm licences.

Legal gun owners are law-abiding to an exceptionally high degree. My research shows that Canadian gun owners are much less likely than other Canadians to commit violent crimes such as homicide. Research in other Commonwealth countries shows that legal owners are rarely accused of murder in other English speaking countries. No properly designed study has been able to show that firearms laws, including the UK Firearms (Amendment) Acts 1997, have been responsible for reducing criminal violence rates or suicide rates in any country in the world (Kates and Mauser, 2007).

Homicide rates have fallen faster in the United States than in Canada in the past 20 years since the introduction of stricter controls on firearms in Canada. Murders plummeted over 40% in the US, compared to just 19% in Canada over the same time. This contrast is important because the trend in the US over the past twenty years has been to relax restrictions on gun ownership for licensed citizens, not make them more restrictive (Mauser 2010). See chart provided on page 26 In Canada, gang-related homicides have increased dramatically since the passage of the latest firearm legislation in 1995 (Beattie 2009).

New Zealand

Australia

Canada

England & Wales

United States

Firearms owners should offer solutions to the problems perceived by government rather than continually protesting their innocence. Pointing out the futility of government proposals is not enough.

3.92

1.83

2.32

1.24

9.20

2005 - 2009

2.57

1.26

1.87

1.31

5.46

Percentage change

-34%

-31%

-19%

-41%

Mean homicide rate, 1990 - 1995

It makes more sense to create a registry of people who should not have firearms, rather than a list of people who should. With public safety the goal, we should focus on the group that poses the greater risk. High-risk people are those who have proved themselves to be

Mean homicide rate,

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Unfortunately, there is no way police, GPs, psychiatrists; nor even psychological testing can reliably predict who will in the future become dangerously violent. Even countries with excessively strict firearms regimes will experience such murderous events. But governments can never admit that. Conclusions

Homicide rate per 100,000 pop

No solid research supports claims that GPs, psychiatrists or police can predict -- with necessary reliability -- who will be dangerous in the future based upon interviews or psychological tests (Mills, 2005). On a practical level, predicting future behaviour is virtually impossible based upon screening. GPs cannot even predict life expectancy. A recent example is the release of the Lockerbie bomber based upon a GP’s predictions of the cancer-afflicted bomber’s life expectancy. Expected to live for no more than three months, the bomber is still alive and being fêted in his home country a year on.

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dangerous or violent. In contrast, gun owners merely have the potential to be dangerous. There are many fewer highrisk people than there are guns or gun owners (Breitkreuz, 2004; Mauser, 2007).

References BBC News (2 June 2010). HYPERLINK “http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/ hi/england/10214661.stm” “Cumbria shooting rampage suspect’s ‘body found’”. Retrieved 2 June 2010. HYPERLINK “http://www. bbc.co.uk/news/10214661” http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10214661. Beattie, Sara (2009). Homicide in Canada, 2008. Juristat, Statistics Canada, Vol 29 (4). Breitkreuz, Garry (2004). ‚ÄúStatistics from the RCMP: Who Police Should be Tracking Instead of Two Million Law-abiding Gun Owners.‚Äù (October 27). Digital document available at HY-PERLINK “http://www.garrybreitkreuz.com” http://www. garrybreitkreuz.com/publications/Article450.htm. Home Affairs Select Committee (2010). HYPERLINK “http:// www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/ commons-select/home-affairs-committee/news/firearms-control/” http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/ commons-select/home-affairs-committee/news/firearms-control/

Mauser, Gary A (2007). Hubris in the North: The Canadian Firearms Registry, Fraser Institute, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Mills, Jeremy F. (2005). Advances in the Assessment and Prediction of Interpersonal Violence. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Vol 20 (2). Wardrup, Murray (2 June 2010). HYPERLINK “http://www. telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/7797376/Cumbria-shootingpolice-hunt-gunman-after-several-shot-dead.html” “Cumbria shooting: police hunt gunman after ‘several shot dead’”. Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2 June 2010. HYPERLINK “http://www. telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/7797376/Cumbria-shootingpolice-hunt-gunman-after-several-shot-dead.html” http://www. telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/7797376/Cumbria-shootingpolice-hunt-gunman-after-several-shot-dead.html.

Kates, Don B. and Gary Mauser (2007). “Would Banning Firearms Reduce Murder and Suicide? A Review of International Evidence and some Domestic Evidence,” Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Spring 2007, Vol. 30 (2), pp 650-694.

Each One Of Us Is...

An ambassador, a teacher, and a member. One of the most important functions of Canada’s National Firearms Association is making firearms ownership and use relevant to growing numbers of Canadians. To prosper, we must have a steady flow of new shooters and enthusiasts entering our proud firearms heritage. Your membership and your donations to Canada’s National Firearms Association are helping us develop the programs Canada needs to make sure our firearms heritage continues to grow.

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Shortly before deadline, Canada’s National Firearms Association learned of three additional pending unilateral reclassifications and on-going status reviews launched by the RCMP. The first two firearms on the RCMPs alleged secret “hit list” are the SSD BD38 and BD-3008, both newly manufactured, semiautomatic only firearms. They are manufactured in Germany by Sport Systeme Dittrich (SSD), which specializes in modern, civilian-legal reproductions of iconic WWII German small arms. SSD firearms are exacting in detail, with one significant difference: their designs specifically incorporate fire control groups (bolts, trigger mechanisms, sears, etc) which are incapable of automatic fire, are not interchangeable with, and remain wholly incompatible with any full-auto parts whatsoever.

Mauser, Gary (2010). “Bill C-391 - Countering Ten Misleading Claims.” Invited presentation to the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security, House of Commons (Canada), 25 May 2010. HYPERLINK “http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers. cfm?abstract_id=1599705” http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers. cfm?abstract_id=1599705

our Toll Free Number at 1-877-818-0393 Oct/Nov

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er kpack c a B l Rossi nless Stee i a in St www.nfa.ca

Unquestionably, the SSD BD-38 & BD-3008 are newly manufactured ‘semi-automatic only’ reproduction firearm whose only fault is that they visually resemble, but do not function as “machine guns.” The SSD line is imported by a well-respected Canadian firearms distributor and until the past week, were not prohibited and may have been purchased by gun owner having a valid Possession and Acquisition Licence with a Restricted Firearm endorsement. As we go to print, the fate of both SSD firearms remains in legal limbo. Both firearms’ unique Firearms Reference Table numbers have been removed from the Canadian Firearms Program on-line database, and all transfers have been suspended. According to the CFC, such transfers have been suspended pending completion of the RCMP’s review and final determination of said firearms’ class. It remains unclear at this point whether these actions were unilaterally undertaken by the RCMP or in response to third-party complaints. Reliable sources report that a disgruntled potential business competitor of the current importer may be at the root of the current controversy. The company in question had previously attempted to bring to market similar Canadian-built firearms, however the RCMP ruled that they failed to comply with current Canadian firearms law and were deemed prohibited and thus unsalable to the public. We are monitoring developments closely and will be sure to report again once more detailed information becomes available. As a firearms enthusiast and military history buff, I sincerely hope that these firearms are not re-classified. They currently offer non-grandfathered Canadian shooters and collectors a unique opportunity to acquire and own functional, albeit cosmetic copies of some of the most famous

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firearms of WWII. Sadly, without grandfathered status, such individuals would otherwise be reduced to collecting deactivated original firearms, i.e., cut-up and welded together nolonger-classified-as-firearms firearms. Wherever the truth may lay, the SSD reclassification cases provide clear examples of just how easily Canadian firearms owners can see themselves stripped of their legally acquired property and their inalienable gun rights protected under English Common Law can be stripped from them by a hostile, anti-firearm bureaucracy. The RCMP has developed a disturbingly anti-gun institutionalized ethos over the past thirty years. Unfortunately, lack of oversight on the part of the Minister of Public Safety, and rather loose interpretations of current firearms laws are now permitting the gun-grabbing elements within the RCMP command structure to prosecute their own anti-gun agenda; with the ultimate losers being law-abiding gun owners. Similarly disturbing is the case of the Rossi “Backpacker” shotgun. It is a simple, robust and inexpensive shotgun that was specifically manufactured with hikers, anglers and trappers in mind who spend a lot of time in wilderness areas and were in need of a self-defence firearm for dangerous game protection. While the factory barrel on the Rossi was in compliance with current Canadian barrel restrictions, official eyebrows were raised due to the fact that it sported a factory pistol grip, rather than a full shoulder stock. The Rossi has been available for purchase for quite some time in Canada and was classified as a non-restricted firearm. This classification permitted owners who spend a lot of time in the backwoods or bear country to legally carry the shotgun in the field. Its short length allowed for it to be carried comfortably in a standard backpack, hence the moniker “Backpacker,” and thus allowed the user to keep his or her hands free for other purposes such as fly fishing or setting traps. To my knowledge, there has never been a single report of the Rossi Backpacker shotgun being used to commit any sort of criminal offence in Canada. It is a simple, affordable tool that allows Canadian sportsmen and women the means to protect their life in wild country and to take the occasional bird or rabbit for the pot when the opportunity presents itself. Like the SSD firearms discussed above, the Rossi is now in legal limbo. Its FRT number has also been pulled and there is an active review in process, with the clear expectation that this firearm will be reclassified in the near future, assuming it hasn’t already been so classified by the time this issue of CFJ sees print. Our sources indicate that the RCMP are now claiming that the Rossi Backpacker is actually built on a handgun receiver, and thus cannot be considered a non-restricted, “long gun.” Certainly such a contention would be plausible, if the Backpacker’s receiver had been specifically redesigned to accept only the OEM handgun grip it is sold with, and not a con32

ventional butt stock, as seen with other shotguns in the Rossi line. In other words, the RCMP’s case would be strengthened if the Backpacker’s receiver was unique to that model only, i.e., the same receiver was not utilized in the manufacture of other “conventional” shotguns in the Rossi catalogue. However, that is not the case and there are no substantial differences between Rossi shotgun receivers in this line of inexpensive shotguns. Any owners who have received notification letters regarding the aforementioned reclassification are urged to contact their nearest provincial court and file a request for a reference hearing. This will buy time and permit National Firearms Association to further investigate, while permitting affected owners to secure competent legal representation, should they decide to challenge the finding if political lobby efforts meet limited success. Presently, the Criminal Code of Canada defines a handgun in Part III (Firearms and other Weapons), Section 84 as: Definitions

again firmly place it within the realm of the non-restricted class as per the CC.

However, perhaps the strongest argument against unilateral RCMP reclassification is the simple fact that the Rossi Backpacker does not meet the legal definition of either a restricted or prohibited firearm under current legislation. The legal definition of restricted and prohibited firearm is again laid out in Section 84 of the CC and reads as follows:

“handgun”

“restricted firearm”

« arme de poing »

« arme à feu à autorisation restreinte »

“handgun” means a firearm that is designed, altered or intended to be aimed and fired by the action of one hand, whether or not it has been redesigned or subsequently altered to be aimed and fired by the action of both hands;

“restricted firearm” means

In practical terms, anyone who has used or shot this firearm will immediately realize that it was specifically designed to be fired with two hands, not one, and it is highly unlikely that anyone would actually try to do so (more than once) outside of a Hollywood action movie. The Backpacker shotgun currently sports a barrel length of 457mm (18”), which places it in the non-restricted class per the CC, since it is a break-action or hinge-action single shot firearm and not a semi-auto. Yes, it has pistol grip stock, however it is an original OEM part that was produced and installed at the factory, and was not cut-down, altered, modified, or otherwise altered after production to arrive at this configuration. As such, this would

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(b) a firearm that is adapted from a rifle or shotgun, whether by sawing, cutting or any other alteration, and that, as so adapted,

While the OAL or “overall length” of the shotgun is less that the semi-magical 660mm or 26” used to restrict certain other types of firearms, it is not applicable and of no consequence in this case. Despite its short length, the Backpacker remains non-restricted because it does not meet the criteria for either a restricted or prohibited firearm at present, and was not, “adapted from a rifle or shotgun, whether by sawing, cutting or any other alteration” to less than 660mm. It was manufactured that way, and that is why it and other compact firearms such as the Winchester “Trapper” lever-action .30-30 is classified as non-restricted.

84. (1) In this Part,

Using this definition, a reasonable person would conclude that the Rossi Backpacker does not meet the legal definition of a handgun under current law because it was never, “designed, altered, or intended to be aimed and fired by the action of one hand,” as laid out in the CC. The only way the Backpacker could possibly meet this standard was if the manufacturer had created a purpose built pistol utilizing or adapting that same shotgun receiver. They did not; therefore it simply does not meet the necessary criteria for determination as a legal handgun.

the rules of the International Shooting Union,

(a) a handgun that is not a prohibited firearm, (b) a firearm that (i) is not a prohibited firearm, (ii) has a barrel less than 470 mm in length, and (iii) is capable of discharging centre-fire ammunition in a semi-automatic manner, (c) a firearm that is designed or adapted to be fired when reduced to a length of less than 660 mm by folding, telescoping or otherwise, or (d) a firearm of any other kind that is prescribed to be a restricted firearm; “prohibited firearm” « arme à feu prohibée » “prohibited firearm” means (a) a handgun that (i) has a barrel equal to or less than 105 mm in length, or (ii) is designed or adapted to discharge a 25 or 32 calibre cartridge, but does not include any such handgun that is prescribed, where the handgun is for use in international sporting competitions governed by www.nfa.ca

(i) is less than 660 mm in length, or (ii) is 660 mm or greater in length and has a barrel less than 457 mm in length, (c) an automatic firearm, whether or not it has been altered to discharge only one projectile with one pressure of the trigger, or (d) any firearm that is prescribed to be a prohibited firearm; Under Canadian law, if the firearm does not fall within either the restricted or prohibited classes, it is, ipso facto, a nonrestricted firearm. The Rossi Backpacker does not meet the legal definition of either a restricted or prohibited firearm and therefore must be a non-restricted firearm. Should this reclassification be finalized, I would hazard a guess that the RCMP will attempt to justify their actions by pointing to subsection (d) of the restricted firearm definition under Section 84 of the CC. An argument may be made that the Rossi Backpacker is a restricted firearm because the RCMP has prescribed it to be one. One gun owner recently commenting on such a scenario opined that there was something, “fundamentally wrong with a system that permits the enforcers of the rules to essentially reclassify themselves so that they now become the maker of the rules as well.” Under the current system, in order to legally register a firearm, it must also be classified. This requirement gives RCMP firearms technicians within the Registry’s FRT laboratory an immense amount of power, since the existence of a prohibited classification now grants them the ability to circumvent the legislative process and the privilege of parliament to ban specific firearms without proper consultation of elected lawmakers or, indeed, much of any official governmental oversight. Such loopholes were not exploited under the program’s former civilian authorities. However, since assuming control of the Canadian Firearms Program, the growing number of firearms being subjected to such reviews and reclassifications has demonstrated an increasing willingness by the RCMP to exploit any and all opportunities to expand their influence. This has allowed them to impose greater restrictions and controls on firearms that do not meet their seemingly arbitrary standards of approval; at least after their “acceptability” as legitimate sporting firearms has been filtered through the entrenched anti-gun institutional bias of the law-enforcement agency.

Oct/Nov

Team NFA Update

Robert “Fang” Engh

By Grayson Penney

Matt Neumann “Rewards come to those who earn it.” – Matt Neumann

Matt at Canada Olympic Park last winter

copious strength training and long slow distance road work (long runs and bike rides) to build solid cardio leading into the summer. It wasn’t unusual for Matt to put 600+ kms on just his road bike per week.

Commenting on his new training regime and recent recovery from surgery, Matt noted that it was the demanding goals he’d set for himself that kept him motivated through the off-season. In September, he hoped to qualify for the IBU Cup at roller ski trials in Canmore, as well as have a top 10 place at the 2010 Junior Summer World Championships. This is Matt’s first year competing as a senior and he is committed to ensuring a smooth transition to what he euphemistically calls, “The Big Leagues.” While he’d love to race in a World Cup this season, he has a strategic plan, and it is his goal to build toward that particular level of international competition. If things go Matt practises in Canmore, Alberta well, Matt will be racing at the 2012 World It is no accident that Matt Neumann is Championships in Ruhpolding, Germany. one of Canada’s most promising young In June, Matt was the recipient of the Pamale biathletes. His dedication and work cific Western Brewery’s Hometown Heethic are second to none and is reflected roes Award. A press conference and prein his competitive performance. We last sentation was held on June 11th in Prince checked in with Matt as the 2009/20010 George, BC. Matt was awarded a commiscompetition season was winding down. sion on Canterbury Beer and Organic EnIn the spring, after an all-too-short six ergy Max energy drink for the following week break, which included a recovery six months. The award was very welcomed period from shoulder surgery, Matt was and Matt said that it felt great for his hard back, hard at work, training hard for the work to be recognized in such a manner; 2010/2011 competition season. adding that he was extremely thankful for Matt is an extremely motivated competitor and he was focused on excelling this season. To keep himself at the top of the Canadian ranks, Matt opted to focus primarily on base training, which entails 34

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the additional aid and the opportunities it would represent for the new competition season. Like all amateur athletes, funding and sponsorships, can make or break an athletic career.

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Matt spent much of the remaining summer season mountain training and endurance training in the Squamish area. Early September saw him head to Canmore, AB for additional training with the National Biathlon Team and marked a change in coaching for Matt. In his first week at the Canmore facility, Matt participated in a 15 km mass-start time competing against the same athletes he’d be racing against for a place on the IBU Cup, and perhaps even the World Cup this season. He turned in a stellar performance, with outstanding shooting, hitting 19 out of 20 targets, missing only the last standing shot on his third of four heats. Great shooting and solid skiing was enough for Matt to take 3rd place. Mid-September saw Matt competing at the 2010 North American Summer Biathlon Championships. Matt had another great meet, turning in a two top ten finishes, placing 2nd in the Men’s 10 km roller-ski Sprint and 10th in the Men’s 12.5 km roller-ski Pursuit. The following weekend marked the start of World Cup and IBU Cup trials. Matt was competing for a single open World Cup place and one of five remaining IBU Cup slots in his division. Unfortunately, he was up against a very competitive field and ended up placing 8th overall, just one place out of position to secure a slot on the IBU Cup circuit. Despite being disappointed about not making the cut, Matt remained philosophical after his loss and saw the trials as a valuable learning experience. As he said, “I was disappointed that all my hard work and training wasn’t rewarded with a place on the 1st tour, but such a reward comes to those who earn it.” Recognizing that he is now competing on a whole new level, Matt vowed to step out of his self-described “comfort zone,” and rededicate himself to improving all aspects of his skill set so that he can ensure that no detail is missed in training or racings that could possibly work to his advantage and help improve his performance on the track. Definitely no pity party for Matt here; as he summed things up, “These are the big leagues and it’s time to go big or go home...and I’m not planning on going home anytime soon!”

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When I last spoke with Rob he was waxing poetic about the beauty of the Harvest Moon shining in through his window during our interview. Perhaps the fantastic competition season he has had may have played a part in his ebullient mood. Despite a tragic family lost, Rob enjoyed a great European tour this spring. As reported in the last issue of CFJ, Rob placed well within a very competitive field that included many of the best shooters on the planet; in the process delivering some of the absolute best shooting performances of his career. Like Matt, Rob viewed his experience in Europe as a valuable learning and training tool. As Rob pointed out to me, “You quickly discover how well you can shoot when you’re competing against the best in the world, and that really improves your game when you come home.” After his return from Europe, Rob hosted Todd Green of pistol-training.com for four days of classes. Rob was effusive in his praise for Green, describing him as simply, “An amazing instructor and one of the most in demand in the US right now.” Green regularly consults with various US federal lawenforcement agencies and recently assisted in the testing and procurement trials for the BATF. Rob is well known at his home range for encouraging new shooters and regularly runs beginners classes and new shooter introductions to the shooting sports. The first two days of the Todd Green course was focused on newer shooters; helping instil proper fundamentals and training habits, and then reinforcing what was learned. Day three and four were aimed at more advanced students and shooters. Rob was an active participant, especially enjoying the “Aim Fast/Hit Fast” classes introduced by Green. As Rob described them, these classes were aimed at not only the advanced student but shooters who could reach the thresholds that Todd required (see his website for more info). In addition to Rob, participants in this aspect of the four-day training regime included many of the best shooters and instructors that civilian and law-enforcement circles in Canada had to offer. In addition to reinforcing the basics to ensure

Candian National Championships 2010 CZ Shooters Left to Right: Rob, Peter, JPD, Nick and Martin

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all were on the same page, the intensity of the training was ramped up exponentially, with the ultimate goal being to get students shooting faster and more accurately in as short a time as possible. This intensity worked and Rob was unrestrained in his praise of Green’s ability to watch and diagnose a shooter on the spot and clearly identify any technical problems they may have or bad habits they may have developed. More importantly, according to Rob, Green is then able to show shooters how to fix it. The final two days of training left Rob feeling that he had improved his shooting game appreciably and was eagerly looking forward to the Nationals and the opportunity to put his new skill set in action. Just before Nationals, Rob attended two matches held in Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island. These matches are particular favourites of Rob’s, as the host club usually goes all out to make the competitions tons of fun, and the club’s range is itself stunning according to Rob, who described it as, “Truly one of the nicest ranges in the country.” As usual the host club put on a great match with lots of props. Some shooters dislike props, perhaps feeling that they are unnecessary since all competitors ‘really need’ are targets and no shoots. Rob, however, is the opposite and always enjoys shoots accentuated with nice props as they, “force you to do things, whereas lines on the ground and written stage briefings tell you to do things.” Day one resulted in a first place finish with Lewis Kwan right on Rob’s heels. The second day of competition saw Lewis and Rob trade slots with Kwan emerging as top gun and Rob in second place. Rob had brought his nephew with him to the shoot (13 yrs old) to see if he was interested in the sport. By the end of the first day of competition he was begging Rob to let him try it out. As a result, Rob held an impromptu skills class at the end of day two, before the scores were announced. Four shooters and his nephew hung around for the informal skills training, and overall Rob and his impromptu students put in about an hour’s worth of practice. According to Rob, we can safely welcome another new shooter to our ranks. Apparently his nephew is now hooked on the shooting sports and looking forward to earning his Black Badge this winter, so he’ll be prepared for the start of next year’s shooting season. Next up after Nanaimo was Nationals, held this year at Thompson Mountain in Pitt Meadows, BC. Nationals were a very important match for Rob personally, having injured himself last year and subsequently placing 11th. The match represented a three-year run of bad luck for Rob, as he’d been unable to shoot them the year before his disappointing 11th place finish and had only managed 4th the year before that as a result of more bad luck! This year Rob was determined to break the jinx, shoot better, and hopefully qualify for the World Shoot team once more. Anybody who knows Rob, are also aware of his great sense of community and volunteer spirit. Not surprising then was Rob’s decision to help sponsor the match, feeling it was important for him to give back to our recreational firearms 36

Manager for a $300,000.00+ renovation and expansion of his home range at the Abbotsford Fish and Game Club. The project has been some 10 years in the offing and will give the club a completely new face; with the final goal being to create one of the nicest indoor ranges in the country. Three new outdoor ranges are also planned, including one devoted to reactive steel that should prove a boon to local action pistol shooters. Work commitments prevented Rob from making it to the BC Provincials this year, but in his “free” time, Rob continues to run his ‘Skills & Drills’ classes and to put in as much trigger time as he can in preparation for next year’s World Shoot. Rob enjoying the Todd Green Aim Fast/Hit Fast Class this past summer community as much as he could. The match directors at Nationals picked two great little stages for Rob and he delivered with some great shooting on stages 10 and 11. Rob knew going into the competition that his biggest challenge was going to be Jean-Philippe Drolet (also known as Jon-Paul to his friends) from Montreal. Jean-Philippe is also a good friend of Rob’s and just about the best Production shooter in the country. His quick rise to the top of Canadian action shooting ranks over the last two years has been pretty amazing. Demonstrating the type of sportsman he is, Rob considered himself lucky to find himself grouped in the same squad with Drolet and a number of other Montreal-based competitors. This “lucky” break, according to Rob, made the entire match for him. In Rob’s own words, “Shooting with friends is always a good time, especially when it pushes you, and makes you take those hard shots, or makes you move that little bit faster.” At the end of an excellent, hard-fought match, with Rob turning in one of the best shooting performances of the entire season, his friend Jean-Philippe emerged top shooter, edging Rob out of first place by just 4.5%! Finishing in the silver at Nationals is nothing to be ashamed of and both Rob and JeanPhilippe were so closely matched that it was anybody’s game right to the end. Certainly displaying no disappointment with the results, Rob was quite enthused over how things played out, noting that taking second place next to Jean-Philippe was, “an honour,” and that he was looking forward to shooting with him again this winter in Montreal. Greece has also been confirmed as the location for the next World Shoot. It is slated to start October 2, 2011 and will run until October 9th. Both Jean-Philippe and Rob will be making the shoot as part of the Canadian team as a result of their performance at Nationals. They’ll be shooting on the historic Isles of Rhodes. This is going to be a very expensive undertaking, so Rob is already making plans to kick his fund-raising activities into over-drive to raise the thousands needed to get him to Greece. Since Nationals, Rob hasn’t let any moss grow under his feet and has stepped into the volunteer role of Assistant Project

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Megan Tandy In our last update we reported that TEAM NFA member Megan Tandy had married long-time beau and coach iLmar Heinicke over the Easter holiday. The happy couple enjoyed a “working” honeymoon in Spain where they mixed the beginning Megan’s training season with some time on the beach. Leisure and training were mixed together for the couple’s time in Spain, as both spent a lot of time road cycling on some fantastic Spanish ‘passroads.’ The cycling allowed Megan to spend more time with her new husband, while also presenting her with an opportunity to put in some long base building hours.

affected by the pregnancy and she was able to stick to her usual regime. However, by her fourth month of pregnancy she had to curtail her training in order to ensure that her heart rate remained under 160 beats per minute. As a result, much of the intensive strength training has been replaced with long bike rides and lots of roller skiing. At the moment, Megan has about two months left to go in her pregnancy. However, she is still sticking to her daily training schedule, albeit a modified one. Training sessions rarely last longer than a couple of hours and she no longer does full body strength workouts. As a result, Megan necessarily shifted more focus to the shooting aspect or her training, spending much of the past summer concentrating on her standing shooting as her pregnancy progressed and the prone position grew uncomfortable. According to Megan, her biggest focus has been the first shot (in biathlon a “bout” consists of 5 shots) this summer. Megan spends endless hours working on refining her ‘range procedure’ and developing muscle memory so that she is as smooth and as fast as possible with the typical competition setup. The ultimate goal for her as a competitor is to deliver a complete shooting bout under the 27 second mark. In order to do this, each movement has to be practiced until it is second nature and can be executed almost without conscious thought. Megan wants to be able to maintain the speed she trained at during competition and shooting with a heart rate between

The rest of the spring and summer were described by Megan as “busy” with more ups and downs than she had anticipated. The BC High Performance Program that she had been training with was unfortunately terminated due to a delay in funding on June 30th. This unanticipated roadblock in her training regime presented Megan with some important decisions to make, which were made all the more complicated by another piece of very important news. I’m happy to report that Megan and iLmar are currently expecting their first child, who is due in late fall! Congratulations to both Megan and iLmar! Obviously, a new baby was a game changer. The couple had planned on having a baby postOlympics, in order to allow for the most training time before 2014 and the next Olympics. However, even Megan and iLmar were surprised and delighted that things had happened so fast. As a first-time mom, Megan’s summer was filled with new experiences and learning how to train as an expecting Olympic-class athlete. Luckily the baby and expectant mom have both been healthy and hearty, and Megan has been able to continue training on a much higher level than had been expected given her pregnancy. According to Megan, her training in the spring was barely www.nfa.ca

Megan mixing her honeymoon in Spain with the beginning of her spring/summer training season, road cycling on some fantastic Spanish passroads.

Team NFA Continued on Page 41

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The Life & Guns of

ohn Wesley Hardin stands tall among the ranks of 19th Century shootists, and while his reputation has suffered from revisionist history-making, he was noted for meeting his adversaries head on... as well as never losing a fight. While reflecting the racist attitude typical of the 1870s in the occupied southern United States, he was simultaneously kind to women and beggars, horses and kids. And characteristically, while he made rash moves and occasional mistakes, he was host to few regrets. He might have wished he hadn’t killed a man for snoring on a certain nightmare filled evening, but seldom did “Wes” Hardin draw blood for personal financial gain. His admirers argue that he lived his life on the edge as he did, not for the rewards granted some modern Knight-errant or to secure social acceptance, but more so to distinguish himself through feats of arms; following the dictates of instinct and heart rather than through some sense of obligation or duty. Nor was he motivated for financial reward; not for dollars or gold, but rather, for the shining rewards of his own selfdefined mission. He was a man of contradictions. He could be relaxed and laughing one minute, tense or solemn the next, quoting Old Testament lines about Hell and brimstone to a “treed” audience, between bouts of intemperate opinion and shots of unholy rotgut whiskey. Interestingly, he encouraged – if not outright instigated – the majority of the upwards of 27 gun battles that he engaged in during his career. The first to fall victim to Hardin’s smoking guns was a beefy ex-slave named Major (“Mage”) Holzhausen. Getting his pride hurt in a wrestling match with 15 year old “Johnny”

John Wesley Hardin - Part I

By Jesse “Wolf” Hardin

Oct/Nov

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John Wesley Hardin as he would have looked at age 14, 3 years after first drawing a fellow student’s blood, and only a few months before launching his career as an expert man killer. Art by Jesse “Wolf” Hardin

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Like many other shootists including Wild Bill Hickock, Hardin started out carrying percussion fired Colt .36 caliber Navy Pistols. Photo courtesy of the author.

Hardin and another boy, Mage sought reparation with burning determination and a stout wood club. When the muscular freedman grabbed the reins of Hardin’s horse some days later, it took five revolver rounds to shoot him loose. Demonstrating at least a degree of ambivalence if not remnant empathy and compassion, the fledgling badman then rode 8 miles to get help for the wounded man. Within a week Mage was dead from his wounds, and Hardin went into hiding, a killer baptized in blood. Much of the gunman’s fame and popularity in Texas was thanks to his frequent battles with despised Federal troops and the State Police. Not long after becoming a fugitive, Hardin got the “drop” on four mounted soldiers his brother Joe believed were out hunting him.... and together his shotgun and revolver raised the teenager’s total to 5. While the majority of his gun battles were stand-up shootings, most were hardly “fair” in the noble or Hollywood sense. Hardin did everything he could to get the upper hand, including religiously practicing his fast draw and marksmanship. His martial skills were unparalleled and in addition to his unerring aim, Hardin was constantly and consciously anticipating the moods of the people around him, having his gun already in hand when expecting trouble, and often being the first to initiate a draw when a poker game or conversation unexpectedly heated up. Nor was he averse to pulling a gun on unarmed antagonists, as he proved with the shooting of Mage, and later when making a threatening gambler named Ben Hinds back down (“As he made for me,” John Wesley writes, “I covered him with my pistol and told him I was a little ‘on the scrap’ myself, the only difference between him and I being that I used lead.”) His object, and the object of most dyed-in-the-wool shootists, was to “get the drop” on his opponent no matter what it took – meaning to be the first person in the room able to cock and point their weapon. And if that wasn’t perceived to be enough, he needed to be the first one to fire a disabling shot. Note that I said “disabling,” meaning the rounds actually connected with flesh, hit the right person or persons (not always easy in crowded saloons), and did sufficient damage to prevent them from being able to return fire; whereas an

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A period portrait of John Wesley, at perhaps around 20 years of age.

assassin’s purpose is to take life. At the moment of conflict, a gunfighter’s intent is not to kill per se, but to prevent himself from getting shot and end the fight to his personal advantage. The best way to do that however is proper bullet placement that yielded an immediate disabling or incapacitating wound. In practical terms, this meant penetration of the head, spine or heart and consequently, death followed almost immediately. For those who failed to expire quickly, the lack of modern medicines and antibiotics dramatically increased the likelihood of the wound becoming infected and the loser dying from infection, gangrene or blood poisoning. In Trinity City, Texas in August 1872, John Wesley was shot by Phil Sublett– a shotgun wielding drunk intent on winning his poker stakes back. While he managed to put a round through Sublett’s shoulder, two buckshot from Sublett’s scattergun ripped through Hardin’s kidney. Badly wounded in the exchange, few expected Hardin to pull though. State policemen long on his trail began closing in, and he arranged for a sickbed surrender to a Sheriff he trusted, Dick Reagon. He apparently felt well enough by the time they moved him to Gonzales in October to cut his way out of jail with a smuggled saw, likely with the deliberate disregard or outright assistance of sympathetic guards. Wanted as a fugitive by the Texas Rangers, Hardin remained visible and active. He took time out of his busy schedule to involve himself in what came to be known as the TaylorSutton feud, in 1873: the year Colt introduced its soon to be famous .45 revolver, and Winchester released the lever action that “won the West.” While it’s understandable that John Wesley would lean towards the Taylors, his participation at such a sensitive time reminds me of the old Irish joke in which a lad, coming upon a barroom brawl, asks “Is this a private fight, or can anyone join?”

Before the Colt 1873 SAA became easily available in the West, many gunmen carried cartridge conversions of percussion revolvers such as these ivory handled Colts. Photo courtesy of Jim Supica.

oak thickets and holing up in the barns of the few distant relatives not already under active surveillance. Whether he goaded Webb into drawing or merely fired in self defense, he now found the crucial support of the local populous fading away. Earlier he’d received kudos and applause for killing DeWitt County Sheriff Jack Helm, but Jack was a hated Union loyalist known to be hard on ex-Confederates, whereas Webb was generally liked by everyone who knew him. This fateful and unfortunate incident, more than any before it, would prove to be John Wesley’s undoing. In August of 1877 Hardin’s erstwhile brother-in-law (and notorious drunkard/thug/thief), Brown Bowen inadvertently exposed John Wesley after coming out the loser in an altercation with William Chipley, the hard-charging superintendant of the Pensacola Railroad. Bowen pulled a gun on Chipley, who prevented the hammer from falling with the web of his hand. Snatching the pistol from Bowen, he proceeded to pistol-whip the thug. The row ended with the battered Bowen vowing to kill Chipley. The authorities, including the Texas Rangers, had already been on Hardin’s trail. At the time, Hardin and his family had been living under the

Taylor returned the favor by joining in pumping bullets into Sheriff Charlie Webb during a gunfight in 1874. Hardin claims the officer drew on him, before he pulled his own ivory stocked Smith & Wesson First Model Russian from underneath his vest. Now the hunt by the Rangers was on in earnest, and he found The Colt SAA .45 quickly became popular with John Wesley, as it did among a himself once again hiding outside in the live majority of Western pistoleros. Photo by Jesse “Wolf” Hardin. 40

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surname Swain. The Bowen altercation drew unwanted attention to both Bowen and ‘Swain,’ whom some local newspapers mistakenly named as the instigator of the fight. The Bowen fight, along with the newspaper attention it attracted, and the large cash bounty on Hardin was enough to inspire the piqued authorities to promptly set a trap – minus the legal formality of an arrest warrant for Hardin; but heavily-armed with hardware appropriate to their time and task. Bill Chipley, Florida Sheriff William Hutchinson and some twenty other deputies made the arrest as Hardin boarded a train on August 23rd 1877. Hardin was viciously pistol-whipped as he struggled to pull a hidden Colt .44 that he’d secured all too well underneath his leather suspenders. Had he been able to draw before being clubbed unconscious, he’d most likely have been killed. By nature a free and self reliant man, he was thoroughly terrified by the thought of incarceration... and even more so by the possibility of being seized by a mob like his brother Joe was, shackled and unable to react in his own defense. “I had the glad consciousness, however,” John Wesley wrote, “of knowing that I had done all that courage and strength could do, and that I had kept my oath never to surrender at the point of a pistol.” Extradited back to Comanche to stand trial for the killing of Webb, Hardin was on his way to what would prove to be a lengthy stint in the Texas Penitentiary in Huntsville. He was subsequently sentenced to twenty-five years at hard labor, at only twentyfour years and three months of age. Needless to say the individualistic Hardin didn’t adjust very well to confinement, as evidenced by his repeated escape attempts despite the severe floggings and solitary confinement that inevitably followed. After being punished numerous times for “attempted escape, mutinous behavior, conspiracy, insubordination,” and numerous lesser offenses, John Wesley settled down sufficiently to study law and actually pass his bar examination. His letters to his wife became sporadic and often emotionally distant, though he insisted she was never far from his mind. “Do you think that it would be impossible for me to forget you,” he asks her in a letter from prison, “one who you well know I love and adore above all others....?” He closed with “I remain your true and devoted husband. Until death.”

Team NFA Continued from Page 37

Rollersking in BC during training.

165 and 170. She was happy this summer to train up to a point where she was able to deliver her first shot in standing position between 9 and 10 seconds. This meant that from the time she touched the shooting mat, put down her ski poles, removed her rifle from the slung position on her back, opened the sight covers on her rifle, completed a magazine change, swapping an empty magazine for a fully charged one, then work the action and assume the proper shooting stance -- less than 10 seconds had expired! Remember too, we’re talking precision target rifles with extremely light target triggers. Yet Megan has been able to break the 8.5 second mark for first shot set-up. She can now complete the bout (of 5 aimed shots) in about 23 seconds starting with the moment she touches the mat, to the time she steps off it. According to Megan, these drills are both frustrating and satisfying, but the ultimate satisfaction will come in competition when she can successfully bring together everything she has been working on this past training season.

Hardin served a total of 16 long years in that Texas prison, from 1878 until February of 1894. While he was pacing in the yard and reading law books in his cell, America witnessed the introduction of smokeless powder cartridges, Browning’s improved Winchesters, and a general end to the Indian Wars, plus electric street lights and motors, the subway, the Kodak camera, cross country skis, the pneumatic tire and bingo. Dvorak and Tchaikovsky experienced heady competition from Gilbert & Sullivan, and Henry Ford built his first car.

Presently, Megan is in Germany where she and iLmar plan on having the baby. Megan informs me that they plan on staying until after the Christmas holidays, since her biathlon program in BC has ceased to exist. Baby or no, Megan told me that she plans on returning to full-time training as soon as possible after the baby arrives, and if everything goes smoothly, hopes to be competing again by February! Biathlon has a much higher profile in Europe than in Canada and there is far greater access to top training facilities. According to Megan, with everything so centralized (in terms of biathlon training and competition sites) in Europe she expects that it will be much easier for her and iLmar to combine training and parenthood on the continent, while the baby is too young to fly.

Watch for Part II - The Life and Guns of John Wesley Hardin in our next issue.

As we go to print, all reports indicated that Megan and baby are doing quite well. We wish Megan, iLmar and baby all the best and look forward to her speedy return to the competition field.

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Oct/Nov

Hammers

The Gunsmith’s Bench Gunsmithing Tools: The Basics By Sean G. Penney I began working on my own guns out of necessity. The straw that broke the figurative camel’s back for me was the butcher job a “backyard bubba,” did on a commercial Mauser action of mine while trying to drill & tap it a number of years ago. The holes were ovaled, off-center and improperly tapped. Knowing that there was no way I could’ve turned out such shoddy work, I resolved to handle such jobs myself in the future. The next day I ordered several good books on basic gunsmithing and began assembling the tools of the trade that would allow me to complete basic gunsmithing tasks such as changing iron sights, drilling & tapping actions for scope bases and installing recoil pads. Most of the key power tools such as drill presses and belt/disc sanders, etc... probably already reside in the garage or workshop of most weekend hobbyists and do-it-yourselfers. While power tools certainly have their place, there are a number of simple hand tools that the hobby gunsmith cannot do without and which will permit him or her to complete many simple repairs; these are the subject of the current article. Now while I love a deal as well as the next guy, probably the most important qualification for basic gunsmith tools is quality. Buy the best quality you can afford. Cutting corners here is a case of being penny wise and pound foolish. Inferior, discount house tools often have improperly hardened steels that can shatter at the most inopportune times or are so soft that they slip and ultimately gouge your firearm’s finish. Learn from my experience, having a broken Chinese screwdriver blade puncture your hand smarts!

Screwdrivers Common screwdriver blades such as those sold at any hardware store taper and are designed to be do-all tools that will fit most any screw head, while not fitting any one size well. This is the reason we see so many buggered screw heads that have been damaged by their owners wielding ill-fitting screwdrivers. More often than not, such tapered blades will turn themselves out of the slot, thus damaging the screw head and gouging the firearms stock or finish to boot. You simply won’t find proper gunsmith screwdrivers in your local hardware store, as gun screws typically have straight, parallel slot sides that do not taper. Gunsmith screwdriver blades are hollow-ground by necessity to give them parallel sides that properly grip the slot. The best are manufactured from high-quality tool steel and then tempered so they do not bend or break easily. I’m not a tool snob, and realize that not everyone has the disposable income to drop $150.00 on the top-of-the-line set from Brownells. There are less expensive alternatives on the market today and companies such as Chapman, Wheeler Engineering, B-Square and Pachmayr offer perfectly serviceable sets at reasonable prices. I actually keep a cased Chapman set in my range bag just in case I run into a problem while at the range. Necessity being the mother of invention, your garden variety tapered screwdriver can be hollow ground using a little sweat and some strategic file work if you find that you don’t have the correct driver bit in your set. If you absolutely have to go the “Tim Taylor” route and use a bench grinder, sander or Dremel tool to grind the desired profile, go slow and take care that you don’t overheat the blade and remove the temper. In a pinch, you can grind almost any standard blade to perfectly fit a particular screw. Afterward, take care to label the tool and make sure it is stored separately from general mechanics or carpentry tools as it may come in handy in the future. Older European rifles and shotguns, with their often hand turned screws and fasteners, most often require the grinding of a specific blade profile in my experience.

by gunsmith is my bench vise. I am a firm adherent to the school of thought that bigger is better when it comes to your bench vise. Forget using any of the clamp-on vises on the market today for serious gunsmith work. A quality 4” to 6” vise will handle almost any gunsmithing chore you’ll encounter as a hobby gunsmith. Your buck will go much further if you try and pick up a used professional machinist vise from a local liquidation center or commercial tool auction, however, there are a number of quality offshore manufactured tools on the Canadian market at present that seem to offer acceptable quality at a reasonable price. If your budget permits, I’ve found it most convenient to acquire both a fixed bench vise and a companion swivel model that permits me to adjust the angle of the work piece, as work space is at a premium in my little garage workshop. Not to contradict myself, but there are occasions when I have employed a clamp-on type wood working vise when doing some stock work and similar tasks. Two hardwood oak faces were secured to the jaws by quality bolts that were countersunk to ensure that they would not come in contact with firearm surfaces. The jaws can also be padded with pieces of scrap leather or soft shop cloth where necessary to prevent marring (same goes for permanent bench vise).

As a hobby gunsmith, you’re probably going to encounter tough pins, rusted and/or frozen parts that are going to require you to whack them, even after the liberal application of penetrating oil and other lubricants. Your standard 16 oz carpenter’s hammer is not the ideal tool for this application. Generally there are three types of hammer that I use on a regular basis, non-marring brass, plastic and hard nylon. The former is usually in the form of some sort of modified ballpeen shape scaled down appropriately, while the latter two typically are flat faced and screw on/off the hammer head for ease of replacement. There a times when even this coterie will not suffice and for these most difficult of jobs a quality steel ball-peen hammer can prove useful, but care and judgement should be exercised when turning to this tool. It is generally only resorted to when there is no other choice and the part/area to be worked is hidden or in a place where metal or wood damage is of limited concern. Hammer weights for gunsmith work typically range from 2-16oz, but for the most part, my 7-8oz brass hammers usually get the most use; in concert with brass pin punches and/ or where direct hammer to gunmetal is likely. The brass of the hammer will distort should it contact the harder steel of the firearm, thus preventing inadvertent damage to your expensive firearm. Just as conveniently, with a little work the tool face can be peened back into shape and the tool put back into service. The plastic or nylon hammers come in handy when you want to ensure that there is zero chance of metal/ finish damage and when only “light persuasion” is required, such as when using a nylon drift punch, etc...

Gunsmith Punches It is a toss-up which “repair” job I most often encounter via my circle of shooting and hunting buddies. Other than bore sighting and scope mounting, adjusting dovetailed iron sights so that they shoot to point of aim and dismantling heavily used and abused firearms for proper cleaning and refinishing are probably tops. To effect the latter adjustments or re-

Bench Vise Probably the second most used tool in my arsenal as a hob42

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pair, you need a quality set of gunsmith punches or a specialized tool called a sight pusher. Precision punch sets are useful for removing the myriad of roll and taper pins used in the manufacture of firearms and their associate sub-assemblies such as trigger groups, etc... Punches, like hammers, are also commonly available in steel, brass and nylon, and they can be purchased in sets or individually to fit the particular firearm undergoing repair. The tip or face of these types of punches are designed to grip the surface of the pin so that when the punch is struck it will not slip or slide off and potentially damage the firearm.

Parts Tray By design, many gun parts, pins and springs are tiny and easily lost or misplaced while you are working on other tasks. In recent years, the advent of affordable magnetized parts trays has helped me keep track of loose parts during firearm repair and assembly. An added bonus is that since these trays are magnetized, you can lay out each part in the order of disassembly, aiding greatly in the reassembly of an unfamiliar firearm. It will help save you money and keep the local professional smith from having to deal with what I euphemistically call a “bag gun,” - a gun that is dropped off in a plastic shopping bag consisting of nothing more than a mass of disassembled parts, screws, springs and pins, with a request to put it back together, and often accompanied by an embarrassed “story” about how the owner would do it himself, but because of work/family commitments he didn’t have time to get to it. Interestingly enough, it is almost always the “dumb brother” or “dumb brother-in-law” who invariably must accept blame for the current condition of the firearm in question. Un-huh!

Measuring The other tools that I use quite often are my dial caliper and micrometer. Taking accurate measurements are a must and

when looking at the miniature scale of many firearms parts, pins and screws, you simply cannot accurately measure them using a tape measure or ruler. I generally find that you get what you pay for in terms of calipers and micrometers, as they are precision tools. The latter tool, while handy, is not 100% necessary as your calipers can often do double duty.

Bench Blocks Another invaluable tool I use very frequently is my bench block(s). These are solid blocks or ovals of plastic, nylon, brass or even steel that have a variety of holes and channels cut or machined into their surfaces that permit a gunsmith to work on a firearm without the gun or part slipping or rolling away from them. There are special blocks manufactured for working on specific types of firearms, such as 1911 pistols or AR-15 rifles, but you can generally get by with general models designed to work with a broad spectrum of firearm types or models. In a pinch, you can improvise and use a block or piece(s) of hardwood stud or plank.

Gunsmith Files Finally, no hobby gunsmith’s basic took kit would be complete without a selection of proper gunsmithing files. In the days before mechanization, a quality file was essentially a handdriven milling machine and even today,

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many high-end receivers are turned out by prestige gunmakers, such as the famed London gunmakers Purdey and Holland and Holland, they are shaped by hand using your basic gunsmith file. A good rule of thumb when it comes to files is to purchase the best you can afford and always use a big file for big jobs and a small file for small jobs. Somewhat simplistic, yes; but experience has borne out the wisdom of the above rule. Brownells is a great source of quality files, but your higher end hardware stores may offer a decent selection as well. The most useful file for general gunsmith work that I use is an 8” file in #2 Swiss cut, also known as an American Smooth Cut file, in an extra-narrow pillar profile. This type of profile has two smooth edges opposite each other and really comes in handy when cutting slots, etc., as you will not inadvertently cut the sides of the slot while working. I find it quite adaptable and it can remove significant metal quickly, yet still is capable of relatively fine work as well. I usually back up the 8” model with a larger 10” and keep a Swiss #4 cut for finer work that an emery cloth can’t handle. You’ll also find a quality set of smaller “needle files” to really come in handy for doing especially fine work. They are available in a variety of cuts

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and shapes and can be purchased with or without handles. If yours come in the latter configuration, buy handles or make your own out of hardwood doweling. Handles improve your control and prevent you from accidentally stabbing yourself in case of a slip.

the accumulation of pins. I typically chalk my file immediately before use and will stop, clean the file as necessary and re-chalk while in the process of completing a cut. Take care of your files and they’ll take care of you and ensure fewer headaches.

Finally, make sure to purchase at least one quality three-sided file with at least one smooth or “safe” edge. This type of file is absolutely necessary for installing sights and cutting correct dovetails. Like all tools, your files work best with proper care and maintenance. Be sure to order a “file card;” a useful tool that will allow you to clean the cutting surfaces of your files from metal filings. Without regular cleaning, filings can become stuck or embedded in the teeth of the file, clogging it and reducing its ability to cut. At the same time, these filings or “pins” can damage the work piece and cause deep scratches and gouges in the work surface. File chalk, available from you local hardware store, is another useful product that will help extend the life of your files, maintain their cutting ability and reduce the incidence of clogging or

Safety If you assemble a workbench stocked with the above tools, you should be able to handle almost any of the run-of-themill small or mid-sized jobs normally tackled by the hobby gunsmith. Of course, safety should always be your first concern, so wear safety glasses and make sure you have plenty of light in your work area. Eye strain isn’t fun, so keep an extra lamp or two on hand. Recently I’ve started using a new magnifying visor with its own dual, side mounted lights. The new visor both lights and magnify the work piece for me and also serve as a safety glass as well. I’ve seen them available in local hobby shops and thus far have been a welcome addition to my bench.

BRING YOUR FRIENDS AND WIN a Tikka T3 30 – 06

Ask your friends and family to become NFA Members and you could WIN a Tikka T3 30 – 06. Includes Scope, rings, bases, and soft gun case with leather carry strap. Prize supplied by Warehouse Sports 780-645-HOOK (4665) St. Paul, AB Draw date has been extended to November 19, 2010!

Ask your friends and family to fill out a membership on line at www.nfa.ca or call 1-877-818-0393 or mail the application below to Canada’s National Firearms Association at Box 52183, Edmonton AB, Canada T6G 2T5 As a not-for-profit organization made up of volunteers from across the country, your generosity and support has helped us to become a strong leader in protecting firearms rights in Canada. NOW MORE THAN EVER we need to build our membership to let Ottawa know that we are becoming an even stronger voice that demands to be listened too.

qYES! I would like to become a member of Canada’s National Firearms Association q Individual Regular ($35/year) q Life Regular ($850) q Individual Senior 65+ ($30/year) q Life Senior 65+ ($500) q Family* ( $45/yr) *Family Membership consists of 2 adults and anyone under 18, living under one roof. q NFA Liability Insurance: $9.95 / person covered, per year. $5 million coverage._____ people covered x $9.95 = _____ q Enclosed is a list of individuals covered. Payment Information Total Payment: $ ___________ q Cheque or Money Order enclosed q Visa/Mastercard/AMEX Credit Card #:______________________________________________________Expiry: ___________________________ Signature: __________________________________________________________________________________________ Name of Member: Address: Postal Code: Phone Number: Email Address:

Please note: Canada’s National Firearms Association is a not for profit organization and abides by all privacy laws and rules. While you may receive additional marketing and general information from Canada’s National Firearms Association, our members information is protected . We do not sell or provide list information to private, corporate or government organizations.

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I’ve

spent a lot of time over the past number of weeks talking about guns and politics. Not surprising, I suppose, given the ever so critical votes that had been scheduled in the House of Commons on Bill C-391. The fact that hunting season was just around the corner probably played a role as well. I was frankly disappointed that we didn’t see a more positive outcome on Ms. Hoeppner’s bill. In the spring, many gun owners, myself included, had been quite self-congratulatory, as the vote on C-391 would coincide with the start of the hunting season. I heard lots of opinions offered at the local coffee shop that the timing essentially could not be better, as there was no way the Liberals would dare slap hunters and gun owners in the face - just as they were heading to the duck blind or tree stand! What those neophyte coffee-shop pundits didn’t count on was the fact that good ‘ol ‘Iffy’ would finally grow a pair and take a stand; albeit he had to flip-flop once more on yet another major public policy issue in order to do so, -- but stand he did. Nobody, myself included, really expected that the fight would get as nasty as it did, nor as quickly as it did. However, given that there were still a few old-school Chretien apparatchiks floating around the fringes of the Liberal party, I really shouldn’t have been as surprised, in retrospect. These guys are brilliant campaigners and they turned dirty politics into an art form during the 1990s and early 2000s. You don’t have to like them, or even respect them, but you can’t deny they get results and are pretty much willing to do whatever it takes to achieve their objectives. Most certainly, the Liberals were aided immeasurably by their allies within

the law-enforcement establishment; the instant cachet and legitimacy that Bill Blair brought to the table as both chief of the Toronto Police Service and as head of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police cannot be discounted. I’ll leave the crucial ethics debate concerning the appropriateness of Canadian police stepping into the role of public policy maker to others. However, I also cannot forget that gun grabbers enjoyed the advantage of a figurative ‘sixth man’ on the court, as the endgame wound down to the final buzzer. Okay, I can hear readers asking themselves how the heck basketball metaphors and references to a ‘sixth man’ can possibly have any relevance to the seemingly never-ending gun control debate in Canada. Think about it, the latest anti-gun alliance arrayed against C-391 consisted of all three opposition parties, that’s the politicos, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, the Canadian Police Association, the Canadian Association of Police Boards and Wendy Cukier’s Coalition for Gun Control. That’s five major players. So who’s the ‘sixth man’ you may ask – simple, the Fourth Estate, Canada’s notoriously left-wing ‘mainstream’ media, or more specifically, our public broadcaster, the CBC. The CBC, even more so than the other two major networks, has consistently portrayed hunters and gun owners in a negative light, and in their commentary, CBC ‘journalists’ have been openly derisive of those wishing to see the Liberals long-gun registry. However, the evidence supporting the usefulness of the registry simply wasn’t there and Canadians weren’t buying the tired, old arguments that had been used to good effect during the original fight over C-68. Seemingly unable to sway viewers opinion by attacking the math or the

arguments put forth by organizations such as National Firearms Association in support of C-391; the CBC took the bold, although ethically bankrupt, step of making the ‘facts’ fit their own ‘interpretation’ of the net societal benefits of gun control in Canada. Rather than simply report the news, the decided to invent it, fabricating their own stories aimed at undermining the legitimate pro-firearms lobby in Canada. Other than digging up Adolf Hitler, the most visceral device or hobgoblin the talking heads at the CBC could think of to frighten and polarize the gun control debate even further was to raise the spectre of ‘outside’ forces interfering with internal Canadian matters. Cashing in on the anti-American bias held by many Canadians as a consequence of some 30+ years of Liberal socialre-engineering, the CBC went so far as to actually manufacture a story that the American National Rifle Association was somehow funding the fight to dismantle the Liberal’s failed long-gun registry! The CBC hammered away on this ‘issue’ for almost the entire week immediately prior to the September 22nd vote on Liberal MP Mark Holland’s motion to abandon C-391. It didn’t take long for our sister org, the Canadian Shooting Sports Association, or Canada’s National Firearms Association to set the record straight. The NRA is unquestionably one of the most powerful and successful lobby groups on the planet, however, their constitution specifically precludes them from becoming involved in ‘foreign’ internal political disputes. They have played no role in this fight. Period. Canadians pride themselves on being a fair and honest people, with a highly developed sense of justice. I can’t think of a single one of us who doesn’t de-

By Grayson Penney

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test being lied to, regardless of the situation or circumstance. This is all the more true when it is our public broadcaster doing the lying. Whether you call me a cynic or a realist, I recognize that ethics and integrity are two commodities that are in all too short a supply in Canadian journalism. Some critics of the CBC’s ‘NRA-in-Canada Campaign’ have likened their actions to some of the worst excesses of the Nazi propaganda-machine under Goebbels, or that of the old Soviet Union’s state-run Pravada. I view the CBC’s role in this as an example of ‘Missionary Journalism’ at its worst. To paraphrase contrarian Danish journalist Lars Hedegaard, who has voiced many of the same complaints about mainstream European media, the CBC seems to have decided that it isn’t their job to merely enlighten people about what’s going on in the world or politics; they’re out to educate, and save us from ourselves. Thus we get to “enjoy” the publicly-funded CBC ‘finishing school,’ under headmaster Peter Mansbridge, whose job it is to teach us ‘commoners’ how to behave and think in polite society. Speaking on behalf of the ‘heathens,’ the actions and biased ‘reporting’ of CBC ‘missionaries’ in their quest to save the long-gun registry, represents one of the worst cases of ‘yellow journalism’ I’ve seen in recent times. It is obvious that the news org stepped over the line with their NRA-in-Canada series of reports; so much so that rival CTV and Global News reporters were openly derisive of the CBC reporting and took unconcealed pleasure in the fact that their principal rival ended up with egg on its face. The technical ability of the CBC to package out-of-context facts and to take obviously dated information and combine them with the addition of inflammatory half-truths, strategic fabrications, and a healthy dose of elitist innuendo is unparalleled and was in the best traditions of Hearst or Goebbels. Even partisan activists gave pause over the coverage. Yet, even if I did not own a single firearm, I would hope that I would have common sense enough to question the incred-

ible sense of moral superiority, indeed the sheer audacity that such patently obvious attempts at directly shaping public opinion represents. It certainly marks another example of the lows to which the anti-gun movement in Canada is willing to stoop; especially by opting to exploit the inherent antiAmerican bias long-held by most left-of-center liberal and social-democrats in Canada. Obviously, Canada’s recreational firearms community now finds itself in the middle of a media war not of its own manufacture; with the deck firmly stacked against us. Over the past weeks and months even the most absurd ‘statistics,’ opinions and arguments have been aired or printed as if they were gospel. Actual facts have been deliberately obfuscated or conveniently forgotten. Rather than have an honest debate on the issue, the Liberals and NDP have sought to stir up urban Canadian voters using crass political scare tactics, with the full complicity of our mainstream media; cloaking their partisan manipulations with an aura of legitimacy -- courtesy of the CACP and Chief Bill and the other political chiefs who chose to champion the registry as an’ effective and necessary tool’ in their law-enforcement arsenal. It would be easy for pro-registry advocates to dismiss my claims as nothing more than the ranting of one of ‘those’ people...the gun-toting, uneducated, backwoods bumpkins who, although they can shoot a gun, would be hard pressed to actually spell it; or alternatively dismiss me as nothing more than some ill-informed political shill who is being used by the Conservatives to further their ‘hidden agenda.’ I’m none of those things, nor do I need ‘saving’ from my own valid personal political ideology and beliefs that I’ve acquired over a lifetime as a university educated husband, father, community volunteer and responsible sportsman. Real facts do not lie, and neither should our public broadcaster. The CBC receives $34 of my tax dollars every year to inform, not preach at, or convert me to their unapologetically left-wing corporate culture.

The Last Word...

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Pen

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

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