CANADIAN
Firearms Journal March - April 2011
Fully Committed On All Fronts:
Canada’s National Firearms Association
$4.50
Greeting from Head Office Spring is finally here and that means the start of shooting season! Yay! We know that many of our members will be busy taking advantage of the nice weather (hopefully) after a long, cold winter, but please continue to make time to drop us a line! We love hearing from members, so please keep those cards, letters, E-mails and phone calls coming! Your feedback is important to us and helps us serve you better. We’re continuing to make improvements to our online presence and if you are looking to buy or renew your membership, our web site offers members their fastest option. We hate it when members have an interruption in their magazine deliveries, etc...because they forgot to send in their renewal; remember the
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web site is available 24/7 and offers secured checkout. Still, we try and send out timely renewal reminders, but sometimes even those get forgotten in the hustle and bustle of daily life. As you read this, why not take a moment and check to see when your membership expires and renew your membership early? This year’s AGM is also set to be a much more intimate affair and we look forward to getting to know you all. Keep checking www.nfa.ca for updates or give us a call here at the office for more details, toll free: 1-877-818-0393. We hope to see you there! Have a fun and safe start to the shooting season. Diane, Ted, Megan & Bev
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Inside This Issue
Regulars
From the Editor’s Desk ...................................................4 Sean G. Penney
From The NFA Bookshelf – Bullard Firearms ................5
On The Cover
Wm. R. Rantz
Cowboy Action Shooting is one of the fastest growing shooting sports in Canada. One of its great advantages is that it appeals to both male and female shooters almost equally, and has become very much “family friendly.” The classic firearms, the attention to historical detail in costumes and gun leather, and the fun and camaraderie of a well-organized CAS competition is hard to quantify in words without having experienced one first-hand.
President’s Message – Operation Zero Tolerance Update.................................... 6 -7 Sheldon Clare
Vice President’s Column – Operation Zero Tolerance: Phase Two............................. 8- 9 Blair Hagen
Preserving Our Firearms Heritage – The Near Past................................................................ 12-13 Gary K. Kangas
CAS competitors are extremely friendly and out-going folks, so novice shooters need not be intimidated. Everybody was a “newbie” once-upon-a-time, so why not dust off that old Stetson in the attic and head out to your local club the next time they’re hosting a shoot?
Politics & Guns Elections, Democracy & Bill C-60............................... 14-16
The recent addition of “Wild Bunch” style action shooting at Single Action Shooting Society sanctioned events is especially gratifying for fans of the venerable 1911 .45ACP pistol, which incidentally celebrates its 100th birthday this year.
Grayson Penney
“Wild Bunch” shoots allow competitors to compete with firearms typical of those used in the taming of the Old West just after the turn of the 20th century including: Model 1911 semiauto pistols, lever action rifles, and Winchester Model 1897 pump shotguns. The new class should appeal to those whose tastes run a little more “modern” and those on a budget. Many competitors may find they already own one or more SASS approved “Wild Bunch” ready firearms.
Legal Corner............................................................... 17-19 Team NFA Update.............................................. 23, 44-45 Grayson Penney
Made Right Here – Warrior Gear....................... 30-33, 43 Sean G. Penney
The International Front – Multiple Shootings in Canada & the United States...... 38-39 Gary Mauser
Old West Armoury – The Lawmen: Wild Bill Pt.1....................................... ..40-42 Jesse L. “Wolf” Hardin
The Gunsmith’s Bench – Measuring Headspace................................................... 40-43
Cover Photo by Oleg Volk.
Mission Statement
Tyler Vance
Sean G. 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.
The Last Word – Old Books & Magic...................... 46-47 Grayson Penney
Features
Lady Shooters in Profile............................................. 20-22 Charles Schafer
Election 2011 Synopsis ................................................. 24-26
The contents of the Canadian Firearms Journal are copyrighted NFA Executive and may be reproduced only when written permission is Battle Rifles of the Central Powers - Pt. II .............. 27-29 Bob Shell & Sean G. Penney obtained from the publisher. www.nfa.ca
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From The Editor’s Desk Welcome to another issue of Canadian Firearms Journal. Well, the writ has been dropped and we find ourselves dealing with another unwanted federal election. Not fun for me as a bimonthly magazine editor! Over the past couple of days I’ve been scrambling like mad to make last minute revisions to this issue because of the Harper Government’s fall, and subsequent election call. As one commentator has described it, the 2011 federal election should be dubbed the “Seinfeld Election,” since like the acerbic television sitcom, it is an ‘election about nothing.’ For gun owners, however, every election is extremely critical, as the fate of our gun rights are placed in jeopardy should an anti-gun party or coalition form the next government. For us, this election is most assuredly about something. “Nothing” is what we’ll be left with if we don’t get out and vote as lawabiding gun owners on May 2nd! In all honesty, I would’ve liked to have had more time to address key election issues and strategies more fully in this issue, unfortunately we all fell victim to ‘written-in-stone’ publication/printing/ shipping deadlines that simply could not be changed. However, if the stars align properly, Canada Post will get magazines in the hands of our members before Election Day. If not, we hope that you will
forgive us, and still enjoy the issue nonetheless. We’ve tried to put a little something in here for everyone. In that regard, most of the ‘usual suspects’ are back. Perennial reader favourite Jesse Hardin returns with Part I of Western Lawmen: Wild Bill, while Tyler Vance offers his rather unequivocal take on the 2011 election, the Liberals and the death of Bill C-60 in Politics & Guns. Sheldon & Blair weigh in on the ramifications of the ongoing “Operation Zero Tolerance” and what the future may hold for recreational shooters if allowed to continue unchecked. Bill Rantz is back with a fascinating review of G. Scott Jamieson’s “Bullard Firearms” and is joined by our good friend Gary Mauser, who offers his take on the issue of mass shootings and the recent tragedy in Tucson, AZ in The International Front.
my collaboration with Bob Shell on the battle rifles of the Central Powers of WW I, as well as my regular feature, The Gunsmith’s Bench. In this issue I attempt to explain the mysteries of firearm headspacing and how to measure it; while in Made Right Here, I present my review of the great tactical load-bearing kit being produced by Canada’s own Warrior Gear. Finally, my co-editor, Grayson updates us on what the members of Team NFA have been up to since last time, waxes nostalgic about the magic of old books in his Last Word, and I partner up with him for this instalment of Legal Corner. The Cancade decision is in and to say all parties were shocked by the appellate court’s decision is not an exaggeration. We hope you enjoy!
Past contributor Charles Schafer checks in with his feature profile of four pretty awesome lady shooters. Hopefully his article will encourage more lady readers to take a serious look at getting involved in the shooting sports, or encourage the husbands and fathers out there to make more of a concerted effort to introduce the ladies in their families to the joys of hunting and shooting. I’m also pleased to present Part II of
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March - April June/July
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NFA Book Shelf
bullard firearms Author: G. Scott Jamieson Schiffer Publishing Ltd. – 2002 ISBN: 0-7643-1465-3 Hard Cover with Dust jacket (9 x 12 inches) 368 pages Photographs: black/white & colour Scott Jamieson had the good fortune to acquire an original Bullard rifle in 1974. As he searched for information regarding Bullard rifles he soon realized that there was little specific knowledge available. Jamieson began searching for information on James Herbert Bullard, the Bullard Firearms Company and the firearms that they produced. Collectors and dealers from across Canada and the United States assisted Jamieson by providing photos and data on Bullard firearms that they had in their possession. Early catalogues, cartridge boxes, patents and even letters from the factory were discovered. Jamieson soon realized that others would also appreciate the knowledge he had compiled. In 1988 Jamieson published Bullard Arms, Boston Mills Press, Erin, Ontario. Jamieson was quickly established as a known authority on Bullard rifles. Collectors who were previously unknown to Jamieson began contacting him with information on their Bullard rifles which added a great deal of data to Jamieson’s files. In 2002 an updated and much larger book Bullard Firearms was published. Bullard Firearms is the product of over 25 years of extensive research. The reader has easy access to the most up to date information available which in any way relates to James Herbert Bullard or the firearms he produced. In order that we might understand the ingenious nature of Mr. Bullard the first fifty pages relates to his career as an inventor and industrialist. The next four chapters are specific to each the of basic types of firearms produced by Bullard from 1883 to 1891. Production included small and large frame repeaters as well as single shot rifles in both solid frame and detachable-interchangeable barrels. Based on Jamieson’s research, slightly over 2800 Bullard rifles were produced in all models. Calibers ranged from the .223 to the massive .50-115 Bullard cartridge. Today, Bullard rifles remain quite scarce and very few are seen for sale at dealers or gunshows. The following three chapters cover military, experimental models, reloading tools, advertising and catalogues. Providing catalogue reprints allows the reader to study
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information exactly as it was shared with shooters over 120 years ago. Included in Bullard Firearms are over 1000 black and white photographs, plus 150 colour plates. These range from pictures of entire firearms to detailed close-up photos of actions and components. These pictures allow the reader to compare and understand the features of a Bullard rifle. Chapter Eleven: Production Tables by Serial Number is an incredible addition to Bullard Firearms. A total of 470 known Bullard rifles are individually tabulated based on 20 features including serial number, caliber, barrel style/ length and address type. During my search for a copy of Bullard Firearms I was fortunate to make contact with Mr. Jamieson, who lives in the Toronto area. It is hoped that in the near future Mr. Jamieson will publish an article in the CFJ to share his vast knowledge of Bullard rifles with NFA members. While I had a copy of Jamieson’s first book Bullard Arms, I wanted to add a copy of the updated Bullard Firearms to my firearm reference library. Every effort was made to purchase this book from a Canadian dealer, but in the end I had to order a copy directly from the publisher, Schiffer USA. The retail price of $100, plus shipping/ handling totalled $135. Bullard Firearms has all of the qualities of an investment book and is quite likely to increase in value over the years. It is the recognized authority on the topic of Bullard firearms. The book itself is a very high quality publication when paper quality, binding, hard cover and dust jacket are considered. Bullard Firearms belongs in the libraries of gun enthusiasts and historians who have a love for uncommon firearms. Collectors and dealers who stumble upon a Bullard rifle will find this edition most valuable when authenticating and assessing rarity. Anyone fortunate enough to possess a Bullard rifle, of any model, should purchase a copy of this book. This would enable you to fully appreciate and share the history of James Herbert Bullard and the incredible firearms that his company produced.
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President’s Message Zero Tolerance - Update by Sheldon Clare
One of the main reasons for law is that it is intended to change behaviour by providing a penalty for continuing that activity. It is rapidly becoming the case in Canada, a country with high rates of lawful firearms ownership, that our laws penalize the peaceful possession of firearms. It seems that any incident or complaint involving firearms brings down the wrath of the police and the firearms centre, and a corresponding poor treatment of firearms owners. It seems that efforts are being made to make firearms ownership and use an undesired activity. It also appears to be the case that the firearms bureaucrats are less inclined to answer any questions or complaints with a written response. The NFA often receives complaints from people about bizarre decisions by the firearms bureaucracy that have little or no basis in law, but are clearly intended to put greater limits and restrictions upon the possession and use of arms. If you receive such a decision insist on getting it in writing, as a written document is much easier to challenge in legal proceedings if needed. It is not so long ago that competitive handgun shooters would receive permits allowing them to take any and all of their registered restricted firearms to practices and competitions at any range in Canada, if that was what was needed by the shooter. The ability was gradually restricted to regions of Canada, and then to specific provinces. Apparently the current restrictive practice is to force firearms owners to accept taking only specifically listed firearms to only one club. The question arises, what do these restrictions have to do with crime and criminal activity? The answer is nothing – these changes have everything to do with changing behaviour. The apparent goal
is to discourage firearms ownership and to make use of firearms an onerous and bureaucratic process that involves a lot of hassle. It seems that the bureaucratic goal is to make the hassle so great that firearms owners will be discourage from enjoying their activities and prevented from sharing those activities with others. Many people are not aware that minors are allowed to obtain possession licenses for firearms so that they may use them under adult supervision. However, this particular legal privilege only extends to non-restricted firearms, so it is fine for a young person to use rifles or shotguns in competition and for hunting, but not to get a minor Possession License so as to enjoy the use of handguns for competitive purposes - even so, direct supervision still works. It is another area in the law that has little to do with crime prevention and everything to do with discouraging interest and use of firearms for lawful purposes. Many of us have read media accounts of harsh treatment by the authorities directed at citizens who have used or merely displayed firearms or knives in aid of protecting themselves, friends and family, or property. Such treatment of citizens is simply not acceptable in a free society. One of the basic principles of policing in a free society is that the police are the people and the people are the police. It is simply not true that police are somehow separate from society – both police and other citizens and residents are civilians. The practice in vogue by many police officers of referring to citizens as “civilians” is neither accurate nor appropriate – such a reference has more application in a police state society than in one where people are free. What do firearms owners need to do
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to push back? First of all, assert your rights. If you want a Canada wide authorization to transport, then demand one. Don’t back down just because of some bureaucratic policy that has no foundation in law. The peaceful possession of arms is only a crime if firearms owners let it become so. Do not tolerate the creeping bureaucratic growth of restrictive policies. Using firearms in a lawful manner with lawful intent should not ever be a crime, and it should in fact be desirable behaviour. Second, please join your local shooting club and Canada’s National Firearms Association, and just as important, encourage others to do the same. Putting up organized resistance to bad law takes resources that are only available by increasing an informed and active membership. Third, become involved in politics, even if it is just by making an informed vote at elections. Even better, join a political party - work for change in your community by writing letters to the local papers and by putting out your carefully considered thoughts on social media. Those who are against civil firearms ownership must be challenged otherwise they will continue to dominate. The problem is that there are significant elements in our society who do not agree and when those who do not support responsible firearms ownership are in positions of authority, whether elected or otherwise, then they make policies and rules that affect firearms owners and ultimately everyone else. That is a dangerous path to tread and it seems that we are already well along it. If you don’t like what is happening then speak out against it, for it is only through our collective silence that we are forced to change.
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Message du Président
à la mode utilisée fréquemment par plusieurs policiers de décrire les citoyens comme étant des ‘civils’ est erronée et inappropriée. Cette description pour des citoyens est normalement utilisée dans un état policier et non dans une société où les gens sont libre.
Mise à Jour Zero Tolérance Une des intentions principales d’une loi est de changer les comportements. En changeant un comportement on évite la peine qui se rattache à la loi. Étant donné qu’il y a un nombre important de gens qui possèdent des armes à feu pour des fins légitimes, il devient de plus en plus évident que nos lois pénalisent ces citoyens en particulier. Il semble que n’importe quelle plainte ou incident en rapport avec une arme entraine une rage exagérée des corps policiers et du Centre Canadien des Armes à Feu. Il semble que tous les efforts sont fournis pour que la possession et l’usage des armes à feu deviennent des activités indésirables. Il semble aussi que tous les fonctionnaires du système des armes à feu soient devenus moins enclins de répondre par écrit aux questions et aux plaintes qui leurs sont adressées. L’Association Canadienne des Propriétaires d’Armes à Feu reçoit souvent des plaintes de ses membres à propos de décisions bizarres de cette bureaucratie qui n’ont aucuns fondement en droit mais dont l’intention de limiter et de restreindre l’usage et la possession d’armes est évidente. Si jamais vous êtes victime de ce genre de décision insistez de l’obtenir par écrit, car ainsi, c’est beaucoup plus facile de la contester devant les tribunaux si cela devenait nécessaire. Il n’y a pas si longtemps, un tireur sportif pouvait recevoir un permis avec lequel il pouvait transporter toutes ses armes à autorisation restreinte à n’importe quel club de tir au Canada pour des pratiques ou des compétitions. Cette permission a été graduellement réduite à certaines régions et ensuite à certaines provinces. La restriction la plus récente consiste à obliger le tireur de transporter seulement certaines de ses armes telles que spécifiées sur son permis de transport et ce, à seulement un club de tir. La question qui s’impose est : Quelle incidence ces restrictions ont-elles sur la criminalité? La réponse est évidem-
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ment : Aucune! Ces changements dans l’application de la loi sont faits seulement pour changer les comportements. L’objectif est de décourager la possession et la jouissance des armes à feu en créant un système bureaucratique onéreux, compliqué et lourd. L’objectif bureaucratique est de rendre l’usage des armes à feu si compliqué que les tireurs seront découragés (pour ne pas dire écœurés) de jouir de leurs activités et de la partager avec d’autres. Beaucoup de gens ne savent pas que les mineurs ont le droit d’obtenir un Permis de Possession Seulement pour qu’ils puissent se servir d’armes à feu sous la surveillance d’un adulte. Ce privilège légal par contre, s’applique seulement pour des armes sans restrictions, donc il est permis à un jeune de se servir de carabines et de fusils pour chasser et pour participer à des compétitions. Il n’est pas permis à un jeune d’obtenir un Permis de Possession Seulement pour des armes à autorisation restreinte dans le but de participer à des compétitions. Mais il a le droit de se servir d’armes à utilisation restreinte sous la surveillance directe d’un adulte. Voici donc un autre exemple où la loi sert seulement à décourager les sports de tir et l’intérêt envers les armes à feu plutôt que de prévenir le crime. Nous avons tous été témoins via les médias d’information du traitement inhumain porté envers certains citoyens qui ont eu besoin d’utiliser ou même qui n’ont seulement qu’exhibé une arme à feu ou un couteau pour se défendre eux mêmes, leurs familles ou leurs propriété. Un tel traitement envers des citoyens respectueux des lois est tout simplement inacceptable dans une société libre. Un des principes de base de la police dans une société libre est que la police est le peuple et le peuple est la police. Il n’est pas vrai que les policiers existent séparément des citoyens ou autres résidents, tous sont des civils, incluant les policiers. La pratique
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Que doivent faire les propriétaires d’armes à feu pour repousser cet état des choses? En premier lieu vous devez faire valoir vos droits. Si vous voulez une autorisation de transport valide à travers le Canada, demandez-la. Ne reculez pas devant une règle bureaucratique qui n’a aucun fondement en droit. La possession paisible d’armes à feu ne deviendra un crime que si leurs propriétaires le permettent. Ne tolérez pas l’augmentation des règles bureaucratiques restrictives. L’utilisation des armes à feu avec une intention légitime ne devrait jamais être un crime, cela devrait même être un comportement désirable! Deuxièmement : Devenez membre d’un club de tir et de l’Association Canadienne des Propriétaires d’Armes à Feu. Encouragez d’autre à faire comme vous. Organiser une résistance contre de mauvaises lois nécessite des ressources qui deviennent disponibles seulement en nous unissant dans un groupe bien informé et ce groupe doit toujours augmenter. Troisièmement : Impliquez vous en politique, même si cela ce limite à voter de manière éclairée. Encore mieux! Devenez membre d’un parti politique, travaillez pour le changement dans votre communauté en écrivant dans les journaux locaux et en diffusant vos idées bien muries via les médias sociaux. Ceux qui s’opposent à la possession d’armes à feu doivent être confrontés, sinon ils vont continuer de dominer. Le problème actuel est qu’il y a plusieurs éléments qui sont contre nous dans la société et lorsqu’ils se trouvent en position d’autorité, qu’ils soient élus ou pas, ils établissent des règles et des politiques qui affectent les propriétaires d’armes à feu et ultimement tous les citoyens. Ce chemin est extrêmement périlleux et il est malheureusement bien entamé. Si vous n’aimez pas ce qui se passe, dites le, parce que ce n’est que par notre silence collectif que nous serons vaincus. Sheldon Clare Président, Association Canadienne des Propriétaires d’Armes à Feu
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Vice President’s Column Operation Zero Tolerance: Phase Two Blair Hagen, National VP Communications
On February 21st the new chief firearms officer of Alberta and a dozen firearms officers descended on the Edmonton Gun Show to enforce Firearms Act and gun show regulations. Actually, they went above and beyond enforcing current gun show regulations, and instead informed exhibitors that the C-68 gun show regulations, the ones recently delayed until 2012 by the federal government would be enforced as if those regulations were actually in force. The initiative is termed an "educational experience" by the Alberta CFO. Gun show regulations are a social engineering effort created by the 1995 Liberal C-68 Firearms Act to create a docile, unquestioning culture of compliance in the firearms community. The firearms control bureaucrats who wrote the 1995 firearms legislation viewed gun shows in Canada, at best, as venues where the Canadian culture of firearms ownership unfortunately flourished, and at worst a source of guns for criminals and a danger to public safety. They believed "gun shows" were an American manifestation that had to be eliminated in Canada. There was no place in their "culture of safety" for gun shows. The firearms bureaucrats knew there was a lot of political talk and information shared at these shows, and much of the resistance to the Liberal government's draconian gun control laws was fostered through them. During the 1990s, many thousands of dollars were raised to fight the Liberal Firearms Act, and hundreds of thousands of Canadians learned the truth and reality of the Liberal gun law at these gun shows. The Liberals knew they were hotbeds of opposition to their civil disarmament plans, and therefore made plans in their Firearms Act to end gun shows altogether - through regulation. The gun show regulations of C-68 were also written to make the lawful trade in firearms at these shows so difficult that they would no longer be a popular means of buying, selling or trading firearms, and to end the long Canadian tradition and social culture of the gun show once and for all. Another part of the Canadian right and cultural tradition of firearms ownership snuffed out. When they were government during the 1990s and early 2000s, the Liberals delayed the imposition of these regulations in order to facilitate the imposition of other parts of their firearms program. The national opposition and resistance to
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the imposition of the C-68 Firearms Act was so fierce that the Liberals eventually back-pedaled and/or soft-pedaled on much of it to try and soften the resistance to more ‘critical’ parts of their gun control program. But the Liberals have not held power for over five years, and are unlikely to be given the privilege of governing by Canadians for a very long time to come. So the Liberal firearms agenda is stagnant. This is unacceptable to the firearms bureaucracy. With bills in past parliaments to end long gun registration and Conservative Party promises to enact firearms law reform, the future of the program is uncertain. And so, the firearms bureaucracy has decided to redouble their efforts to implement all aspects of the 1995 C-68 Firearms Act once and for all. Done deal, and difficult for even a sitting government to reverse. An important aspect or manifestation of this process is the increasing unilateral actions of provincial CFOs, such as in the case of the Edmonton gun show discussed above; and their continuing drive to acquire even greater powers and influence for their individual offices as provincial chief firearms officers. How can provincial CFOs do this you might ask? Policy. Although the C-68 gun show regulations are not in force, and therefore there can be no possible offences committed in regards to them, provincial CFO's are empowered by the Firearms Act to enact policies and regulations according to their own agendas. And some people think this is just about putting little paper registrations beside long guns. All dealer exhibitors found in non-compliance with CFO policies on gun show regulations can have "conditions" placed on their business firearms licenses as punishment. Those "conditions" can be at the whim of the CFO, but could include anything from the revocation of the business license, to amending the conditions of the BFL to restrict the ability of that dealer to operate his business. It is reasonable to assume that individual gun show exhibitors could face similar sanctions on their personal firearms licenses, such as the refusal of short term ATTs necessary to transport restricted/prohibited firearms to gun shows and elsewhere, or even increased home inspections where facilitated by the
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Firearms Act or provincial CFO policy. In extreme cases, the CFO can even pursue firearms license and registration revocations against those he does not believe should be in possession of any firearms at all. This initiative, already in force in much of eastern Canada, is to be implemented across western Canada as manpower and budgets allow. Part of the "harmonization" of policies of all provincial CFOs based on the Ontario/Quebec models. In past years, firearms owners in western Canada believed they were to be spared the onerous and punitive anti gun policies of the Ontario and Quebec CFOs. Those days are gone. As of now, all provincial firearms CFO regulatory policies will be based on the Ontario and Quebec models. This is to remind you that firearms ownership is a "privilege," and that privilege can be taken away from you very easily. The provincial CFO does not regard your firearms as your personal property and does not accord any "right" in your ownership of them. They are a danger to public safety that must be removed. The 1995 Liberal C-68 Firearms Act was constructed to facilitate this. The powers of the CFOs contained in the Firearms Act facilitate this in the absence of any specific regulation or legislation to do so. If you have a problem with this, you may wish to contact your Conservative MP, Minister of Public Safety Vic Toews, and Prime Minister Stephen Harper himself.
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.
Ask them why the Liberal C-68 Firearms Act continues to be implemented while the Conservatives form government. Ask them why they continue to allow the firearms bureaucracy to continue the agenda of harassing and targeting the firearms community in the continued effort to end the Canadian right and cultural tradition of firearms ownership. The Conservative government has seen fit to put band-aids on certain parts of Canada's broken and misdirected firearms control laws and policies, such as amnesties for licensing and long gun registration and even the delaying of the implementation of the mendacious UN Small Arms Marking regulations. The Liberal C-68 gun show regulations were also delayed by the government, but the actions of the provincial CFOs and the federal firearms bureaucracy to target the Canadian firearms community in the manifest ways provided for by the 1995 Liberal Firearms Act have hardly been addressed. Why ? It’s an honest question, and it deserves an honest answer. Or better yet, action. Much can be done in lieu of government legislation to reform Canada's embarrassing firearms laws, if government has the will to do it. It is up to Canada’s recreational firearms community to remind of this fact and to help them find the political will to do so.
I want to help Make It Happen!
Here is my contribution to Canada’s
to help protect my rights to own and use firearms.
National Firearms Association
$100 $50 $25 $________
My Cheque or Money Order enclosed
Charge my Visa/MasterCard/AMEX
Card #:______________________________ Expiry: ______________ Signature: ________________________________________________ Name: ___________________________________________________ Address: __________________________________________________ City/Town: ________________ Prov:_________ Postal Code: _______ Ph.:__________________________ Fx.: ________________________ E-mail: ___________________________________________________ Mail this form to: Canada’s National Firearms Association, Box 52183, Edm., AB T6G 2T5
or Call
our Toll Free Number at 1-877-818-0393
Magen Heinicke (formerly Tandy). An Olympic Athelete and proud member of the NFA www.nfa.ca
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Letters to the Editor Dear NFA: I’m new to handguns and really want to own a SIG P229 semi-automatic pistol. Looking at their website I realize that the stock pistol has a barrel less than 105mm; making it prohibited under current Canadian law. Looking on the Internet, however, I see that there are a number of P229 pistols in the hands of Canadian shooters. How did they manage the seemingly impossible?
Jacques T.
Dear Jacques, Thanks for your question. I would imagine had you looked closer you would’ve noticed that those particular P229s had an extended aftermarket barrel or perhaps a special order factory barrel. Unfortunately, the way our current law is written, prohibited class firearms cannot be legally imported into Canada. They must be properly brought into compliance to meet restricted classification standards prior to import. In the case of the P229, I would imagine that it had a new barrel of at least 106mm or greater installed in the US before being imported into Canada. Lucky for you there are a number of Canadian companies already importing compliant P229s into Canada. I suggest you check on the dealer forums at www.CanadianGunNutz. com to locate a dealer close to you. You also have the option of arranging for the purchase and installation of a compliant barrel in the US on your own, and arranging for legal export/import. The process is somewhat involved, but can usually be accomplished in 6-8 weeks for most firearms, although times may vary. You’ll need to contact International Trade Canada (ITCan) for an International Import Certificate (IIC) by calling (613) 996-2387 or by faxing your request to (613) 996-9933 and requesting blank application forms. Once completed, the form should be returned to ITCan for processing and certification. Expect this process to take 2-3 weeks. The certified document will then be returned to the applicant for onward delivery to the US exporter. The latter will then need to file an application for an export permit with the US State Department & attach the IIC to it. The firearm can be pre-registered with the CFR and once the export permit is issued it can be legally shipped to Canada by the US Exporter. Once it lands, you will have to pay any duty/taxes owing and observe all safe transport rules and regulations, i.e., trigger lock, obtain short-term ATT, etc... Thereafter you have 30 in which to have the firearm verified and confirmed with the Canadian Firearms Program. There are a number of US FFL gun dealers who specialize in
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exports to Canada and who can greatly expedite the process. However, expect to pay a service premium of several hundred dollars for this service, not including cost of the firearm and new barrel. Best of luck to you, the SIG P229 is a great firearm.
- Editors
Dear NFA: I have a large double-door Stack-On Gun Vault that I currently use to store restricted firearms in. It weighs several hundred lbs., and is securely bolted to the concrete floor of my basement reloading room using hardened steel bolts. I store my small collection of restricted firearms in it, along with my ammunition. I’ve never bothered to put trigger locks on them as it was my understanding that they are not required by the Firearms Act, since I am storing them in a gun “safe.” Incidentally, all of my firearms are stored unloaded, with magazines removed, while the ammunition is kept in factory packaging or in plastic MTM ammo boxes for my reloads in the safe. I’ve been following this practice for the past five years since I obtained my RPAL, and have believed that I was in 100% compliance with current regulations. However, I recently convinced my wife to take the CFSC/ CRFSC and get her firearms license in order to start shooting Cowboy Action with me. Last week she returned home after completing her courses and informed me that according to her firearms instructor no matter where you store restricted firearms at home, they must be disabled by use of a trigger lock or cable lock. She’s got me second-guessing myself and I’m worried that I’ve inadvertently been in contravention of the law all these years! Do I need to rush out and buy a bunch of trigger locks immediately? I had planned on upgrading to a larger, fire-proof gun safe in the future, but cannot afford to do so at present. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
- Mike S.
Dear Mike: No need to panic. You wife’s instructor is mistaken in his assertion. Sadly, this sort of incorrect information is passed around our recreational firearms community as gospel and causes no end of grief for law-abiding gun owners. All that is required of you is that your restricted firearms are: • Unloaded; AND • Unable to be fired:
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• By using a secure locking device; AND • By storing the firearms in a sturdy, securely locked container or room that cannot be easily broken open or into; OR • Securely locked in a safe, vault or room that has been built or adapted for the safe storage of restricted firearms; AND •
In a place where ammunition for the firearms is not easy to obtain. Ammunition can be stored with the firearms if the ammunition is stored:
•
In a securely locked container that cannot be easily broken open (in the container holds both the ammunition and the firearms, they can be stored together in the container); OR
• In a securely locked safe, vault or room built or adapted for the safe storage of restricted firearms. A lot of confusion surrounds what actually constitutes a “safe” or “vault.” Neither term is clearly delineated in the Firearms Act and has proven extremely subjective; leading to a multitude of differing opinions as to what constitutes a legal “safe.” However, the only entity actually empowered to objectively interpret such law are the courts. To use past legal precedent, the courts have accepted that your typical Stack-On gun safe/cabinet meets the requirements of a “safe” for the purposes of safe storage. As such, an owner is therefore deemed to have done their due diligence in terms of safely storing their restricted firearms. Therefore, an additional trigger lock is not required for restricted firearms when locked within such a “safe,” however, it remains your personal prerogative to exceed the minimum legal standards if you so choose. Read the regulations for yourself on-line here: http://laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/SOR-98-209/page2.html#anchorbo-ga:s_6
-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
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Preserving Our Firearms Heritage The Near Past By Gary K. Kangas
Switzerland is an excellent example of a country that fights to preserve its firearms heritage. In February 2011 a referendum was held to put in place registration type gun control. It was firmly rejected by the population. The pro firearm group pointed to 800 years of legal firearms ownership and the incredibly low crime rate to verify their position. So it should be with Canadian firearm owners. Since 1534 Canadians have been a law abiding, peaceful firearms culture. Our firearms heritage is deeply imprinted in Canadian culture. We sometimes overlook firearms use from the past and focus only on today. The pressure exerted by minority factions that spin the beliefs that Canadians have never used firearms and that firearms were never freely available. These ideas are pure myth. Since the first European contact firearms rapidly became part of Canadian culture. First Nations people adopted the new technology with vigor. Firearms were simply tools that are part of life in Canada. It remains so today. I had the great good fortune to thumb through the January 1908 edition of Rod and Gun and Canadian Motor Sports (the Motor Sports refers to motorized boats which were new technology) in Canada. What a refreshing revelation and reminder of our past. Articles on hunting, fishing, hiking and outdoor adventure and railways offered hunting expeditions. The remaining pages filled with wonderful advertisements for firearms of all types, along with ammunition and outdoor gear; all of which, rifles, shotguns, and handguns included, were freely available for purchase through the mail. Current department store giants such as the T. Eaton Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company sold all
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types of firearms and outdoor gear over the counter and by mail; while every corner hardware and general store had firearms and ammunition on hand. Yet, our crime and assault rates were very low! Back then, respect between the ‘Law’ and civilians was still a ‘two-way street.’ The local constable was seen as both friend and protector; an individual who could count on the support of the community when
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faced with crisis and in times of adversity. How the times have changed! Now, current laws restrict lawabiding citizens and their right to own and use their legal firearms, while doing almost nothing to constrain the illegal actions of even the most violent of criminals plaguing our society! Please note the photographs of great ads as a graphic example of our firearms heritage.
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Politics & Guns by Tyler Vance
Elections, Democracy & Bill C-60 The right of self defence is one of the most fundamental basic rights. Life, liberty and property are constitutionally protected values. But who is going to protect these values if the state no longer does? Only oneself. If one has the necessary means and ability.
- Georg Zakrajsek
The recent ill-advised decision by the opposition parties to bring down the Harper Government required some last-minute revisions of my latest article. Obviously, the election was forced for little more than crass political gain by the Liberals. As a student of politics, I know they’ve badly misjudged the Canadian electorate. When your most important concern is finding work or wondering if your plant is going to close because of the on-going global recession, or worrying how you are going to pay your mortgage and keep food on the table with so much month left at the end of your paycheck, - the juvenile political manoeuvrings of self-important, self-centered and disaffected opposition leaders, jockeying for power and prestige warrants nothing more than contempt. It does, however, serve to highlight the ‘disconnect’ these so-called champions of “ordinary” Canadians have from the constituency they purport to best represent. Given current economic and political realities, the Liberals are floundering in search of relevancy. They’re a political dinosaur, stuck in their so-called “glory days” of Trudeau and Chretien, when they believed themselves the ‘natural ruling party’ of Canada. The only problem with that belief is that it is more than a decade out of date. Today they have no new vision to offer and would appear intent on essentially running on the same campaign planks Jean Chretien did 18 years ago, including introducing a ‘national childcare program’ (funny, they had 12 years of majority rule to create such a program and 14
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didn’t), cancelling contracts to purchase critically needed replacement fighter jets for our air force (Last time, the Liberals cancelled the EH-101 helicopter contracts costing taxpayers ½ Billion dollars in cancellation fees, only to turn around and buy a less capable version of the same aircraft for more money, meaning fewer airframes delivered – the end result, the Canadian Forces are still flying the CH-124 Sea King, 48 YEARS after they first entered Canadian service!), and increasing corporate taxes in the midst of the worst economic downturn One of the since the Great Depression.
purports to represent. I am incensed that the Liberals have forced another needless election at the cost of hundreds of millions of tax dollars; solely for crass political gain. The day after his blunder, Ignatieff issued a short statement to the effect that a “formal,” (with emphasis on the “formal”) coalition with the NDP and BQ was off the table, but nothing was said about an “informal” coalition now was it? More weasel words, wrapped in Liberal double-speak.
An argument can be made that none of the above matters to Mr. Ignatieff or Mr. Layton since it would seem the proverbial “fix” is in. Coalition.
Someone needs to tell the Liberal’s non-elected party leader that “democracy” does not mean Canadians must keep voting until the Liberals win, nor did getting himself appointed Liberal leader bring with it an automatic right to govern our country as Prime Minister.
We also need to remember that Mr. Ignatieff is also trying to hold himself out to be a latter-day “defender How many lives must be lost because of democracy” and of “ordinary” of outdated and antiquated equipment Canadians during this election. I’d as our Canadian Forces engage the normally appreciate the comedy enemies of freedom and democracy, involved in such a quest originating with from Afghanistan to Libya and from a man of Mr. Ignatieff’s background: A - Plato (427-347 BC) Somalia to the Balkans? How many rich, entitled, intellectual and former corporate employees must see their jobs Harvard professor of Russian aristocratic outsourced because their company can roots, who holds the hereditary title of no longer afford the crippling tax burden imposed by self- “Count,” and who has spent most of his adult life in the professed ‘tax & spend’ Liberals such as Michael Ignatieff? United States, while being both a self-described “American” How many minimum-wage workers will see more of their and a “Democrat;” while surreptitiously searching for ways modest paycheck eaten up by an increased GST tax favoured to co-opt the will of the Canadian people as the Liberals did by the Liberal leader? little more than a year ago with their first aborted coalition.
penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.
Why else would the Liberals deliberately choose to defeat the Harper Government when they have no chance of forming a majority of their own? Canadians told them point-blank they didn’t want another election, and the polls told them they couldn’t win if they did run. Yet, when asked for a simple yes or no answer as to whether or not his plan to form a coalition government was still on the table, assuming he didn’t win, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff refused to respond with a clear yes or no answer. As the National Post’s John Ivison pointed out, not only was this a political gaffe of epic proportions, Ignatieff, “Knew this [coalition] question was coming and yet he looked as surprised as if he’d just learned the secret of the Crying Game.” Literally 10 minutes into the start of the unofficial election campaign and this is the best the Liberals have to offer? I’m one of those ‘ordinary’ Canadians that Mr. Ignatieff www.nfa.ca
That said, I’ll now return to the original topic of this column: Canadians right to self-defence and the Harper Government’s Bill C-60. The latter, officially entitled “An Act to amend the Criminal Code (Citizen’s arrest and the defences of property and persons,)” was more widely, hailed as the “Citizen’s Arrest and Self-defence Act.” The new bill, announced by the Prime Minister this past February, was introduced in response to growing public outrage over a slew of high-profile prosecutions of lawabiding Canadian citizens. These individuals were guilty of nothing more than attempting to defend themselves and their property when the state was either unwilling or unable to do so. I’ve discussed many of those cases in previous articles, such as those of Toronto grocer David Chen, retired Canadian Forces member Lawrence Manzer, and retired firearms
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instructor and heavy-equipment operator Ian Thompson. Whatever you want to call it, Bill C-60 was a step in the right direction. A small step to be sure, but one that would’ve made it somewhat harder for over-zealous prosecutors and police to subject honest citizens to further, state-directed legal abuse and unjustified criminal prosecution. Bill C-60 had its faults, without question. Probably the greatest of these was the sheer number of criteria that a citizen’s actions were to be judged against in order to meet the new law’s arbitrarily established benchmark of legal acceptability. As written, the “Citizen’s Arrest and Selfdefence Act” established no less than nine criteria that had to be met in order for a citizen’s arrest to be deemed justified.
has enshrined and reaffirmed support for every law-abiding citizen’s right to self-defence in their decision last year to adopt new by-laws. Support for the latter was simply overwhelming. It would have been nice if we could have seen the same rights further protected and recognized on the federal level. Alas, Bill C-60, the “Citizen’s Arrest and Self-defence Act” died on the order paper the moment the opposition parties: The Liberals, NDP and BQ defeated the Harper Government on a confidence motion.
Obviously, as gun owners, the only viable choice open to us is the Conservative Party of Canada. Every other major federal political party is on record in support of further gun bans and imposing even greater controls on our This placed undue onus upon the lawrights as responsible firearms owners. abiding citizen, and left those forced Their actions in defeating Bill C-391 to exercise this power open to future “Self-defense is a part and the political rhetoric they utilized ‘malicious prosecution’ by Crown in order to fear-monger and distort the of the law of nature; prosecutors looking to “make their nor can it be denied truth should offer everyone of you a bones,” or simply interested in pushing their own anti-gun or ‘progressive’ the community, even glimpse into what the future holds for us if an opposition coalition is allowed to agenda. In the light of day, it is far too against the king be born. I don’t care if such a coalition easy for legal ‘armchair-quarterbacks’ himself.” is “formal” or simply involves backroom to second-guess the decision-making political ‘horse-trading.’ Until we return processes of citizens forced to make --William Barclay a majority Conservative government to life and death decisions that required (1546-1608, Scottish jurist) Ottawa, we’re just a single spree-killing, immediate, decisive action in order to or another Montreal “massacre” away ensure their own survival and/or that or from a blanket gun ban. The same can their family. be said for our right to self-defence. Yet, despite its failings, Bill C-60 could Individuals such as Mr. Thompson and have been a starting point or stepping stone for future Mr. Manzer still face criminal charges and Bill C-60 will be reforms. Reforms that would have hopefully led to even of no aid in their fight for justice thanks to the actions of Mr. greater protections for law-abiding citizens forced to protect Ignatieff and Mr. Layton. themselves from the predation of criminals, and/or to effect a citizen’s arrest of those intent upon victimizing them being This election is critical for us. Most Canadians are suffering from severe ‘voter fatigue’ after four federal elections in enshrined into law. seven years. So we are presented with an opportunity to Unfortunately, under our present system “justice” comes capitalize on this fact. The side that gets their “vote out” is with a ruinous financial cost that often bankrupts the accused the side that will win. In this election, Canadian gun owners and once more victimizes the innocent. It is little comfort to must vote their sport! I don’t care if you’re ticked off with the latter that this time their abuser is the Crown, instead of all politicians or turned-off from the whole affair after the crook. To add insult to injury, quite often the criminal watching the juvenile antics of our elected representatives who perpetrated the original assault “cops” to a lesser charge during daily Question Period, or even if you’re mad at the in exchange for his testimony against the victim! We saw Conservatives because they haven’t succeeded in repealing this very clearly happen in the case of Toronto grocer, Mr. C-68 as promised. Every vote counts in this election. Please David Chen. The state must stop colluding with career make sure every single adult in your household votes, get criminals in order to convict the law-abiding of acts that any your family involved, get your hunting buddies off their average Canadian, with even an iota of common sense would duffs, and take an active role in defending your rights as lawinstantly recognize as justified. abiding citizens and gun owners. If we do that I am confident Despite what Liberals and other ‘progressive’ elements that come May 2nd Stephen Harper will still be our Prime in our society would have you believe, there is no dignity Minister and we can finally get down to work addressing the in allowing yourself to be beaten, raped or even killed by inequities of 12 years of Liberal rule. outlaws and bandits. There is no inherent ‘nobility’ in being made a victim. Canada’s National Firearms Association 16
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The Decision Shortly before Canadian Firearms Journal was to go to print a decision was handed down in the appeal of R. v. Cancade. This was an extremely important case for Canada’s recreational firearms community, and one that most court observers believed would almost certainly yield a victory for the pro-firearms side. Unfortunately, the justices hearing the appeal apparently missed the mark completely in their decision, leaving Canadian firearms owners in a wholly unnecessary position that lawmakers, in our opinion, never intended or anticipated that gun owners would find themselves.
Background
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For those unfamiliar with the case, this was an appeal of the judgment of the Honourable Judge Baird Ellan, pronounced on November 14, 2008. The judge found the appellant guilty on counts of importing and possessing a prohibited device on February 19, 2008 under the applicable weapons sections of the Criminal Code. National Firearms Association was involved in this case from the beginning and provided both technical and financial support for the related court challenges. Originally Mr. Cancade, the appellant, was convicted of being in possession of unpinned and stripped cartridge magazine bodies. There were no followers, springs or base plates installed, and it was impossible for the magazine bodies to actually function as a magazine and/or feed rounds of ammunition into the chamber of a functioning firearm. Mr. Cancade had imported the magazine bodies with the intention of properly and permanently limiting magazine capacity to five (5) rounds before final assembly into a functioning cartridge magazine. However, the police/Crown alleged that these heretofore uncontrolled cartridge magazine ‘spare parts’ were, instead, “not fully operational” but still illegal/prohibited cartridge magazine, because the so-called “magazine” had a potential capacity of more than five (5) “bullets.” The fact that Mr. Cancade had legally ordered said magazine bodies from a reputable supplier in the United States and testified in court that it was his intention to alter them by mechanical means to bring them into compliance with Canadian law before final assembly was completely dismissed. The trial judge found him guilty on the basis that the magazine could be rendered operational by the addition of some “easily obtainable” parts that could be installed with no difficulty and therefore constituted a de facto prohibited cartridge magazine.
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Unable to hold, let along feed live ammo, this stripped magazine body (L) is now considered a “prohibited device” as a result of R. v. Cancade, unless permanently altered.
Court of Appeal On appeal it was argued, in addition to the non-operability argument, that there existed an additional basis for allowance of the appeal, - namely that a proper interpretation of the French version of the legislation demonstrated an intention of Parliament that magazines in the condition (non-operable) of this one should be found not to be prohibited.
clearly and succinctly presented in the factum and in oral submissions, yet did not show up in the decision handed down by the appellate court.
The Court of Appeal, however, found no significant difference between English and French versions of legislation. The decision of the trial judge, that this item which could be easily rendered operable was prohibited under the legislation was also agreed with. As such, the appeal from conviction was dismissed March 9, 2011. We are of the opinion that a profound error in judgement was made in handing down this decision. This was made all the moreso by the fact that Justice Hall failed to address any of the principal points/arguments made by defence counsel. Rather, the opinion of Justice Hall, if anything sets up a “straw man,” by virtue of claiming that the defence’s argument was “strict construction,” when it was most certainly not. Such an argument would have little hope of success in the current legal climate, especially given the Supreme Court of Canada’s heavy favouring of strictly “purposive” approaches for the past three decades. The Cancade defence team prepared their defence with this in mind and presented a cogent and logical argument focusing on “purposive interpretation” and the “intent of parliament,” with respect to interpretation of what exactly parliament intended to prohibit – namely a functioning centrefire rifle magazine intended for use in self-loading firearms with a magazine capacity in excess of five (5) rounds; possession of which is a criminal offence under Canadian law. As such, the principal argument presented by the defence was that what Parliament clearly intended to prohibit was functioning cartridge magazine with a capacity in excess of five (5) rounds. That is, the object actually capable of feeding live cartridges into the firing chamber of a firearm. Obviously, the stripped magazine bodies imported by Mr. Cancade could not fulfill this function without being first assembled into functioning cartridge magazines. The argument presented contended that all relevant statutes and regulations, including both the English and French definitions, all supported this position. Simply put, it was the functioning cartridge magazine which parliament intended to prohibit - and that intent was patently obvious once placed in proper context (Remember that the authorities had been operating under the same assumption/interpretation until the Cancade decision). This position and argument was very 18
In the latter instance, in essence, the court applied such a broad interpretation of what constitutes a prohibited device or magazine, in terms of firearms related Criminal Code provisions, that almost anything which shares any of the characteristics, external cosmetics or appearance of a prohibited device is to be treated as if it were the prohibited item itself. In this decision, it would appear that the appellate court opted to adopt the same laissez-faire attitude as the original trial judge, who took the “Hasselwander” approach (see R. v. Hasselwander), essentially ruling that “close enough” was good enough; or more properly, the Crown could simply declare something “bad” or prohibited, rather than actually proving that the alleged prohibited item actually is a prohibited item; and thus allowing conviction on that basis. This is the same approach employed by gun control advocates throughout North America in recent days; where we have seen, time and again, firearms banned on the basis of external cosmetics such as in the case of R. v. Henderson, where a semi-automatic .22LR rifle that was “dressed up” to externally resemble an AK-47 and declared a variant and thus prohibited (while sharing no major parts or operating systems). Regardless of the facts, external resemblance was “good enough” in the Henderson case, and the simple rimfire firearm prohibited. More recently, we’ve seen the same approach employed by the RCMP in their decision to declare another .22LR rimfire look-a-like, the GSG-5 prohibited. The latter firearm externally resembles a German HK MP-5 sub-machine gun, but shares no commonality of operating systems or interchangeability of parts. Because it looked like an MP-5, it was classified as an MP-5 variant and was thus ineligible for legal import as a prohibited firearm. Facts and logic were irrelevant, just as it would seem to be in the Cancade decision.
Ramifications Taking the Cancade decision at face value, an argument can now be made that we have been set upon a very slippery
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slope as a result. Using the court’s ‘reasoning’ almost any rectangular metal or plastic box that outwardly resembles a cartridge magazine may now be considered a prohibited device, assuming that it may have the potential capacity to hold more than five (5) rounds, regardless of whether or not it is ever fully assembled. An exaggerated scenario perhaps, but it does clearly demonstrate the silliness of the logic applied in this decision and the hidden dangers it holds for otherwise law-abiding gun owners. So, does this mean that all magazines pinned with a rivet are prohibited devices waiting for the unsuspecting law-abiding citizen to be caught with them and prosecuted? No. As long as the magazine has been properly altered to comply with current magazine limitations, you are okay. A magazine, designed to be used in a semi-automatic centrefire rifle, which is capable of containing more than five cartridges of the type for which the magazine was originally designed - those are prohibited devices. We know that from the regulations. That is Part 4, s.3(1)(a)(ii) of this Regulation: Regulations Prescribing Certain Firearms and other Weapons, Components and Parts of Weapons, Accessories, Cartridge Magazines, Ammunition and Projectiles as Prohibited or Restricted, SOR/98-462 Henceforth, in British Columbia at least, the courts have ruled that the unaltered magazine body for such a magazine (as described above) also falls within the above definition, and therefore within the definition of “prohibited device” in s. 84 of the Criminal Code. A magazine which is altered or remanufactured in accordance with Part 4, s. 3(4) of the Regulations (as set out below) continues to be legal. (4) A cartridge magazine described in subsection (1) that has been altered or re-manufactured so that it is not capable of containing more than five or ten cartridges, as the case may be, of the type for which it was originally designed is not a prohibited device as prescribed by that subsection if the modification to the magazine cannot be easily removed and the magazine cannot be easily further altered so that it is so capable of containing more than five or ten cartridges, as the case may be. (5) For the purposes of subsection (4), altering or remanufacturing a cartridge magazine includes (a) the indentation of its casing by forging, casting, swaging or impressing; (b) in the case of a cartridge magazine with a steel or aluminum casing, the insertion and attachment of a plug, sleeve, rod, pin, flange or similar device, made of steel or aluminum, as the case may be, or of a similar material, to www.nfa.ca
the inner surface of its casing by welding, brazing or any other similar method; or (c) in the case of a cartridge magazine with a casing made of a material other than steel or aluminum, the attachment of a plug, sleeve, rod, pin, flange or similar device, made of steel or of a material similar to that of the magazine casing, to the inner surface of its casing by welding, brazing or any other similar method or by applying a permanent adhesive substance, such as a cement or an epoxy or other glue. The upshot of R. v. Cancade is that henceforth unaltered magazine bodies for full capacity centrefire magazines for self-loading rifles are now prohibited devices. This has immediate ramifications for individuals who are in the habit of removing the rivets, plugs, etc...from their magazines in order to properly detail strip them for cleaning, or to fix a poorly pinned magazine. Doing so, even if there is no intent on the part of the owner to reassemble the magazine without first re-pinning or riveting the magazine, transforms the magazine into a prohibited device and leaves the individual libel to criminal prosecution. Forewarned is forearmed.
Where do we go from here? Appealing the Cancade decision to the Supreme Court of Canada, while technically possible, is not strategically advisable at this time. A further loss at the SCC would immensely strengthen the unanimous decision of the lower court, as would even our seeking leave for further appeal and being refused. Fiscally, costs associated with such an appeal are prohibitive, assuming that the SCC would even grant leave for such an appeal to be filed. As a consequence, the only pragmatic course of action is to look toward a political resolution of this and related firearms issues. National Firearms Association will continue to strenuously advocate for substantive legislative reforms that will remove all limitations and prohibitions on standard capacity magazines. However, your handwritten letters, faxes, E-mails and phone calls to the minister’s office are also crucial if we are to succeed in this enterprise. With a spring election very likely in the offing, (at least as this article goes to print), we need to re-focus the government’s attention on critical firearms issues, including this extremely questionable decision of the appellant court in the matter of R. v. Cancade. It is hightime responsible firearms owners saw tangible dividends for their five years of unwavering electoral and financial support of the government of Stephen Harper. It is time these unnecessary and prejudicial restrictions placed upon lawabiding gun owners are removed, once and for all.
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Lady
e l i f o r P n i s r e t o o Sh By Charles Schafer
Shooting has often been portrayed as a wholly male-dominated sport. The reality is much different, and if asked, most shooting instructors will tell you that female shooters often make the best students and regularly outshoot their male counterparts in competition and recreation. In this day and age, we need to be attracting all the new shooters we can to our sport, and with females comprising over half our population, it makes sense for the recreational firearms community to make itself more attractive to potential lady shooters. Here in the Maritimes, many clubs have taken this idea to heart, and even if its only for recreation, rather than for competition, they are succeeding in attracting more and more women shooters; shooters who look forward to each and every range session with excitement and a quiet determination to improve their skill sets, whether it is with rifle, shotgun or pistol. This is a story about four Nova Scotia women that exemplify those characteristics. They come from several walks of life and are meeting the challenge of handgun shooting in their own individual style and for a variety of reasons. Their shooting sports interests vary right across the board, from casual once-a-week target shooters of single or multiple types of handguns, to very serious and dedicated International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC) shooters that compete in the Open and Production categories using off the shelf hardware or more expensive customized race guns designed specifically for IPSC competitions. 20
Stephanie Now a “20-something,” Stephanie’s shooting sports story started when she was a teenage member of the Princess of Wales Own Regiment Cadet Corps, where she learned about the basics of marksmanship, shooting an issued .22LR caliber Lee Enfield rifle. However, even before joining cadets, Stephanie had the added advantage of a father who himself was quite involved in the shooting sports. As she was growing up, her father taught her quite a lot about pistols. Starting her with .22LR Colt Ace pistol, Stephanie’s dad taught her how to safely disassemble and clean the firearm and instructed her in the basics of handgun marksmanship. As the years passed, Stephanie became increasingly interested in handgun shooting, a trend that brought dad and daughter to the local rifle and pistol club on a fairly regular schedule. Just about that time, Stephanie was also competing for the Duke of Edinburgh Award that included a requirement to learn a skill. As you may have guessed, her skill topic was marksmanship. She moved to Nova Scotia in 2008 bringing along memories of fun trips to the range with dad and remarking to me that they provided the motivation for her to complete the requirements for a PAL, so that she could continue with her hobby in her new surroundings. Stephanie is not currently involved in regular shooting competitions, but notes that the Atlantic Marksmen Association’s (AMA) House League and IPSC shooting both
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look to be quite appealing. She is now the proud owner of the .22 Ace – a gift from dad – and also practices with her Smith and Wesson Model 10 .38 caliber revolver that she finds exceptionally accurate. However, she admits to having the urge to add to her growing gun collection and hopes to acquire a new semi-automatic .22 caliber Ruger Mark II, “preferably in stainless,” as she has noted to this author in the near future. That suggests to me that this lady has a longterm commitment to handgun shooting sports. Stephanie has set her sights on a job in law enforcement and will shortly be completing an application to joint the RCMP. All those hours on the range, in concert with her other firearms skills, should certainly be of some help in achieving that career goal.
Amber Amber’s journey into handgun shooting started about 10 years ago while she was searching for a sport that she could enjoy with her husband. In addition, she recalls often telling her son that she would get her PAL before he did. Those early feelings translated into some casual pistol shooting, after which she admits that she was hooked. Perhaps not surprisingly, Amber belongs to a family of shooting sports enthusiasts. Her husband is an avid pistol and rifle shooter and her father-in-law has been an active small game hunter for years. Ruger and SigSauer .22LR caliber pistols and the Ruger 10/22 rifle are her favorite choices for recreational shooting activities. Amber hopes to become active in the AMA’s House League next year and has ambitious aspirations to improve her handgun skills and to advance to shooting larger caliber pistols. She can usually be found at the AMA’s indoor range on Tuesday evenings shooting in the lane next to her husband, who can be seen every now and then giving her friendly advice on how to improve her score. Because of her apparently high level of determination, I would not be surprised to someday find Amber standing next to her son in the mentoring role that is presently filled by her spouse.
Mary Lou Mary Lou’s interest in handgun shooting goes back to about 1995. Although she claims that she has never been a real “sports person,” www.nfa.ca
her foray into handgun shooting sports was sparked by her visits to the local shooting range with her husband; a dedicated shooter and handloader, he has a broad interest all types of shooting activities and eventually past this interest on to his wife. I first met Mary Lou when I started my own IPSC adventure in the “production” category about four or five years ago. As I recall, by then she was already shooting in the “open” category using a very classy STI Trubor 9mm pistol. In her opinion, any good brand of handgun in any caliber can be used for recreational target shooting, and she feels that each individual shooter will likely gravitate toward specific preferences as they evolve in one of the popular styles of handgun shooting sports (e.g., target, IPSC, black powder, or cowboy). As an avid IPSC competitor, Mary Lou likely benefits just a bit from having a spouse that reloads ammunition since just one IPSC competition typically requires a minimum of 200 to 250 rounds of 9mm or larger caliber handgun ammo. She claims that she does not have any long-term goals competitive for shooting and that she does it just for fun, and is not too worried about being ranked high in IPSC competitions. However, watching her walk through an IPSC stage just before taking her turn to shoot paints a picture of a fairly serious competitor that may one day surpass the scores presently being achieved by her very skilled and dedicated marksman husband.
Heather As a young lass growing up in Nova Scotia, Heather clearly recollects that there were, “gun racks on three walls in the back porch,” [surely a sign of better times for Canadian gun owners], and that the dinner menu typically featured, “a deer roast, roasted black duck or rabbit stew.” She also fondly remembers being at her dad’s side as he cleaned and oiled his shotgun on the kitchen table and notes that, in those bygone days, guns in her home, “were as commonplace as a baseball bat and the Monopoly game.” Heather can still see herself at the age of four, sitting on a rock, while her dad participated in a skeet shooting match and recalls that she, “couldn’t wait to grow up big enough to lift a gun and join my dad in shooting.” As a young girl, Heather admits to having an attachment to an old pellet gun and to sitting on the steps of her back porch shooting at tin cans and targets. Her entry into the shooting
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his 9mm CZ Shadow, she claims that it was, “love at first sight.” To this day, she swears that the CZ did quite a lot of the heavy lifting during the course’s live shooting sessions despite her already advanced level of training and experience at that time. These days Heather describes herself as a diehard CZer. And that’s not all. She has also come to know the detailed features of a Dillon Precision 550 reloading press to keep her favourite 9mm fed, and to help reduce the cost of her IPSC shooting activities. She remarks that, “Reloading now has become one of those hobbies that make me forget that I am a teacher, a parent and a grandparent!” That part of the sport comes with a good measure of friendly technical advice from fellow IPSC reloaders.
sports speaks of an exceptionally rich and diversified experience. She readily proclaims that, if it were not for her children, she likely would have never pursued handgun sports. However, as teenagers, her children needed mom to transport the guns and drive the car and she credits them with providing the encouragement to keep her in the sport. In her words, “That rough start was the beginning of a deep love for the sport of shooting.” With a bit of a glint in her eye, she tells a story about when her daughters joined Air Cadets and how there was a need for female leaders. Before she knew it, she was involved in drill, band and rifles [sounds familiar]. Her girl’s desire to outperform the boy cadets augured for extra practice so she joined a local gun club where they could target shoot with their pellet gun. That part of Heather’s life evolved into an ongoing and expanding family affair with the handgun shooting sports. She recalled, with a smile, what she described as, “The stunned look on the gun dealer’s face when mom with [her] teenage son walked in and bought a Ruger.” Interest in the shooting sports continued to grow, and Heather and her family made it a regular thing to reserve Sundays for family time, which most often meant a trip to the local gun club range where the entire family enjoyed spending some quality time together; made all the more fun when enhanced with a bit of competition between siblings and parent. Heather credits her youngest daughter with introducing her to IPSC shooting that she heard about at an Air Cadets meeting. After starting on her path of regular IPSC competitions, Heather talks a lot about how much she enjoys figuring out how to approach the shooting challenges posed by the various IPSC stage configurations. In her own words, “there is nothing like a match out in the country with the sun shining and the breeze blowing.” She recalls that she attended her IPSC safety-training course armed with her Ruger, which she had found to be a bit heavy. When her instructor passed her 22
Within the next year, Heather will be retiring from a 32 years long teaching career. She has no hesitation in complementing the teaching and mentoring skills of many of her fellow IPSC shooters that she describes as having, “Endless patience, motivating encouragement and focused instruction.” As a lifetime student that has completed two masters degrees and who is currently working on a Ph.D., she muses that she has a dream to, “Enter an IPSC match with my kids and leave them all in the dust”. In the meantime, she is looking forward to introducing her grandchildren to the sport. Her bottom line on that note is that, “Family activities are vital to raising a child and [that] making cookies with grandma pales compared to outings on the range.” Heather has plans to start that new postretirement and grandchildren-focused teaching career with that old pellet gun and admits that she dreams of the day when she can put a belt and holster under the Christmas tree for a grandchild that she sees someday running through an IPSC stage and hitting every target in the “A” zone. Now that’s a lucky grandchild!
Conclusions Although still outnumbered by males, the number of women handgun shooters seems to be on the increase in my Nova Scotia club. The short profiles of the four shooting sports devotees described above tells quite a lot about why many Canadians – both men and women alike – have found their way to this albeit noisy kind of recreational activity. As a senior shooting sports enthusiast that still enjoys throwing lead down range, I like to believe that the following decades will witness a change of view in government thinking and regulations that will do more to encourage our nation’s shooting sports infrastructure to persist and flourish - and I am pretty sure that the four lady shooters that I have described would agree 100 per cent. Who knows, perhaps our grandchildren will be allowed to own silencers to help out with the noise problem as do their European cousins? Charles Schafer - Atlantic Marksmen Association
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Team NFA Update
By Grayson Penney
Megan Heinicke
With the holidays over and winter 2011 winding down, Team NFA member Megan Heinicke has been fully immersed in her new training regime for months. Her primary goal this winter had been to recover from the birth of our ‘future’ Team NFA member, Baby Predo Heinicke. Given her Olympic-level conditioning prior to learning of last year’s pregnancy, and the dedicated training regime she maintained throughout her pregnancy, Megan has hardly missed a beat since the Vancouver Olympics. Her work ethic is simply awesome, and recent performance on the European biathlon and cross-country circuits clearly show that Megan has almost fully recovered from the birth of her son last November; amazingly enough, she actually returned to competition in early February! Megan posted several top ten finishes following her return to competition. These included the German Cup in Ruhpolding, Germany the 2nd week of February, followed
by a 1st place finish in a 20km crosscountry race the next week. As we go to print, Megan informs us that she is set to compete for the Canadian team at an IBU Cup in France in March. According to her, she is really looking forward to this latest challenge, as it will provide her with an opportunity to get reacquainted with her Canadian teammates and allow her to better judge her current fitness/skills level in comparison. Whatever the results, it is clear that Megan has regained her competitive edge and is skiing fast enough to be internationally competitive. She is shooting and racing well and recent successes have buoyed confidence in her own abilities. As a fan, it seems as if our favourite lady biathlete hasn’t missed a beat and is on pace toward setting new personal best performances by next year’s 2011-2012 World Cup season. Megan asked that I extend her heartfelt thanks to both the NFA and its members for all of their support and well wishes this past year, and to invite fans to visit her new website: www.meganheinicke.com Megan, participating in shooting time trials during the 1st week of February at Oberweisenthal, Germany for an upcoming competition.
Team NFA Cont. on Page 44 www.nfa.ca
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Canada’s National Firearms Association: Election 2011 - Context & Synopsis
This synopsis examines the firearms policies of the Conservative, Liberal and NDP Parties. It will not address the firearms policies of the Bloc Quebecois, Green Party or other parties. Suffice it to say, the Bloc and Green Parties have extreme civil disarmament agendas.
ELECTION 2011 The Liberal and NDP opposition parties are about to send Canadians back to the polls for the third time in the last five years. For the firearms community, the stakes of this election are clear. The Liberal Party of Canada is responsible for imposing the 1995 C-68 Firearms Act on Canadians. This act was a watershed moment for the firearms community of Canada. Mandatory firearms licensing and universal firearms registration were inconceivable and unthinkable to the majority of Canadian firearms owners prior to this; and their imposition by the Chretien Liberal government, its Justice Minister Allan Rock, along with the full cooperation and participation of the Coalition for Gun Control, inflicted a deep wound on the firearms community. This wound has not healed even 15 years later, and will not heal until those bad gun laws are repealed and new firearms legislation is introduced. These changes will require a new Firearms Act that respects the rights and property of lawabiding Canadians.
LIBERAL PARTY OF CANADA
During the 1990s and early 2000s, the Liberal government of Jean Chretien lied about the massive financial taxpayer burden their C-68 Firearms Act, and its thinly disguised civil disarmament agenda, would impose upon the public purse. The Liberals lied to the public during each phase of implementation of its firearms program and deliberately tried to hide actual costs of their gun control policy by routing funding through related government departments and agencies. They were so successful that, in her official report to parliament, Auditor General Sheila Fraser essentially stated that the real costs of the Liberal gun control program would probably never be known. Without question, Allan Rock and Jean Chretien targeted the Canadian firearms community for elimination.
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During the federal election of 2004 and in the shadow of a damning report by the Auditor General of Canada on the massive overspending on the Liberal firearms program, Prime Minister Paul Martin promised to re-invest in that program and continue its implementation. In the federal election of 2005/2006, Prime Minister Paul Martin went a step further and promised to ban lawfully owned and legally registered handguns if re-elected. He was defeated, thanks in part to the opposition of law-abiding Canadian gun owners and other concerned voters. In the 2008 federal election, then Liberal leader Stephane Dion promised to ban lawfully owned and legally registered semi-automatic rifles if elected. Instead, he delivered one of the worst Liberal electoral defeats in Canadian history. Canadian gun owners were once again, front and center, and made their voices heard. In the last Parliament, present Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff denied a traditional free vote for Liberal MPs on private members bill C-391, a bill that would have simply recognized the failure of the long gun registration component of the Firearms Act, and ended the registration of non restricted long guns. It is the present policy of the Liberal Party of Canada, if elected, to re-invest in the failed Firearms Act once more and introduce further restrictions, including the ban of semiautomatic firearms. The handgun ban policy of Paul Martin in 2006 has not been taken off of the table either. The Liberal Party has refused to recognize the failure of the Firearms Act, the right of Canadians to own and use firearms, and its members of parliament have shown their constituents that they place more importance on the orders of their party leader and the agenda of the gun control lobby, than their promise to vote for a bill to simply end long gun registration.
New Democratic Party
In 1995, the federal NDP Party was not fully committed to supporting the Liberal C-68 firearms legislation, but in the ensuing years, civil disarmament ideologues have seized control of NDP Party policy on firearms.
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The NDP equivocated on the implementation of the C-68 Firearms Act during the 1990s and early 2000s. Opposition to the “long gun registry” from rural NDP MPs has been used to curry favour with voters in those ridings and give the appearance of a policy at least opposing long gun registration.
the firearms community continues to suffer.
In truth, the NDP Party now supports long gun registration, and all other aspects of the current Firearms Act. In fact, they would like to see additional legislation introduced that would further restrict both legal firearms and their owners, especially handguns and semi-automatics.
The firearms community led the exodus from the PC Party to the then new Reform Party.
During the vote on Bill C-301, NDP leader Jack Layton manipulated the “free” vote of his members, and delivered an NDP defeat to a bill that would have simply ended long gun registration. In the aftermath of the defeat of Bill C-391, to add insult to injury, NDP MP Charlie Angus introduced his own private members bill which aimed, not only to re-invest in the failed Liberal Firearms Act, but also empower and enable the firearms bureaucracy to ban firearms, confiscate those registered to Canadians, and further empower and embolden the anti-gun firearms bureaucracy for a renewed attack on the rights and property of the firearms community. The NDP private members Bill C-580, was “sold” as the NDP’s “fix” for the Liberals failed C-68 Firearms Act. NDP members of parliament who promised their constituents to vote for a bill to end long gun registration cannot be counted on to support fundamental firearms law reform. Those that did vote in favour of C-391 did so because NDP leader Jack Layton allowed them to. Those that toed the party line, did so because they won their ridings by enough of a margin to cushion the potential backlash from pro-firearm voters. Craven pandering to the civil disarmament lobby by the NDP continues, and the NDP has shown no willingness to accept that the Firearms Act is a failure. They support no other reforms except to “make it easier to register.”
CONSERVATIVE PARTY OF CANADA
In 1993, Kim Campbell replaced Mulroney as Prime Minister. In the 1993 federal election, Canadians defeated the Progressive Conservatives and reduced the party to two seats in parliament, a status from which it never recovered.
The Reform, Canadian Alliance, and now Conservative Party of Canada promised firearms law reform as part of their platforms while in opposition, and now as the government. However, since their election in 2006, the CPC government has introduced few expansive reforms to firearms laws and regulations. The government has introduced amnesties for expired firearms license holders owning only non restricted firearms, and the registration of previously unregistered non restricted firearms. These amnesties affect only non restricted firearms and their owners. The legal mess created by the Liberal Firearms Act in regards to 12(6) prohibited handgun owners and other licensed owners of legally registered prohibited firearms has not been addressed by the government. The federal firearms bureaucracy has retrenched and is now hell-bent on imposing the last outstanding regulations of the C-68 Firearms Act, imposing further restrictive regulations, and pursuing a unilateral firearms reclassification initiative. The Conservatives have introduced two bills, C-21 and C-24, as a government, but both of these went nowhere and fell well short of keeping their promises on firearms law reform. Two Conservative MPs have introduced private members bills to reform firearms laws. Bill C-391 proposed an end to long gun registration and reforms to firearms regulations. Bill C-301 proposed to end long gun registration and addressed much of the pointless red-tape that the Firearms Act had previously imposed. Bill C-301 was voluntarily allowed to die, in favour of Bill C-391--, once it was clear that the former would not receive the necessary support from opposition MPs. Conservative efforts to kill the long gun registry were ultimately derailed by flip-flopping NDP and Liberal MPs.
The Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney started the modern era of “gun control” in the late 1980s in Canada. PC Justice Minister Kim Campbell pursued an agenda of gun control that banned guns, trampled the rights of Canadians to legitimately own and use firearms, and only stopped short of imposing mandatory firearms licensing and universal firearms registration due to financial projections of their costs.
Since 2006, the CPC government has consistently delayed implementation of the previous Liberal government’s UN Small Arms Marking Initiative, an initiative designed to destroy what remains of the Canadian firearms industry left after the 1995 C-68 Firearms Act. The government has also delayed the implementation of the gun show regulations component of the C-68 Firearms Act; regulations essentially designed to end gun shows in Canada. This is to their credit, but these have only been delayed and these issues will be revisited in December 2012.
PC Justice Minister Kim Campbell’s Bill C-17 Firearms Act of 1992 set the stage for today’s Firearms Act under which
The Conservative government has claimed, since their election in 2006, that substantive firearms law or regulatory
The position of the Conservative Party is more complicated.
reform is not possible due to the minority nature of the government. While there is some truth to this, reforms would have been possible sometime during the last five years of their government, if they had had the political will or inclination to pursue them. In their first parliament, the CPC government can be forgiven for not having firearms law reform as paramount among their goals-- as a new government facing a hostile Liberal appointed bureaucracy. However, in the last parliament, the lack of ‘real’ action on this issue has become more and more apparent to firearms voters; leading to increasing cynicism and questioning of the Conservative government’s true intentions on firearms law reform throughout the firearms community. The Conservative’s political opponents have tried to take advantage of this feeling, and have attempted to turn firearms law reform into a “wedge issue” to use against the Conservatives.
THE FIREARMS COMMUNITY OF CANADA
The firearms community is now a much more politically sophisticated “special interest” voting bloc, and has been so for over a decade. The imposition of the Liberal C-68 Firearms Act forced gun owners to become more politically engaged in public policy debate. The number of voters who count firearms law reform and the preservation of our firearms rights as key election points has continued to grow since 1995, rather than decrease, much to the Liberal’s chagrin. Continued controversy over the cost of the Liberal Firearms Act, its public failures and a growing recognition, even amongst non gun-owning demographics, as well as the unjust burden it imposes upon law-abiding firearms owners, have all contributed to ensure that the firearms question remains a major national political issue in 2011; almost two decades since it first became part of the national consciousness. In the aftermath of C-68, Canadian gun owners have deliberately chosen to vote their sport, and they have put all political parties on notice that they are not prepared to forgive, nor forget any further betrayal on this issue. The opposition parties seemingly do not understand this new reality, as evidenced by their continuing refusal to accept the failure of the Firearms Act, and their ongoing political machinations to not only prop up the Liberal’s fatally flawed gun control program, but impose further restrictions, as we have seen in the public debate over Bill C-301, C-391 and the still-born, NDP sponsored, Bill C-580.
C-301/C-391, while attempting to play both “sides” of the issue via their embarrassingly bad Bill C-580. It addressed none of the clearly delineated concerns of law-abiding gun owners, while opening the door to even greater restrictions and prohibitions. Either the NDP are of the opinion that Canadian gun owners are so unsophisticated that they cannot recognize a blatant attempt to hoodwink them, or they genuinely have so little grasp of the issue itself that they managed to delude themselves into thinking that they offered a viable alternative to the universally reviled Liberal C-68 Firearms Act. The Conservatives have come closest to recognizing the importance of the firearms vote, as evidenced by the introduction of the stillborn government bills C-21 and C-24, and private members bills C-391 and C-301 from Conservative MPs. These bills all fell short on delivering on long standing Conservative promises of sweeping firearms law reform, but stand out in stark contrast to the firearms policies and initiatives of the Liberal and NDP parties. In tangable terms, the Conservatives extended the amnesty for licensing and registration to May 2012, before their government fell on March 25th. Over the past several elections, they have demonstrated a willingness to listen to our concerns and have resisted demands from anti-gun lobby groups such as the Coalition for Gun Control, to impose additional restrictions on gun owners; even in the wake of high-profile shootings such as Dawson College. They also remain willing to consult with the stakeholders on these issues and have reiterated their comittment to ending the long gun registry. Therefore, Canada’s National Firearms Association recommends that all members of Canada’s recreational firearms community continue to support and elect members from the Conservative Party of Canada. It is logical that the firearms community work to elect a Conservative majority government, so that the government’s claims that substantive firearms law reform cannot take place without a CPC majority can be put to the political test. Canada’s National Firearms Association looks forward to the day when we can advise the firearms community to vote for candidates from the Liberal, NDP or other parties based on their proven support for firearms law reform and firearms freedom. Unfortunately, today is not that day. On May 2nd please remember all of these factors and vote to secure, defend and advance the Canadian right and cultural tradition of firearms ownership, and vote for your firearms freedom and civil rights.
The Liberals cannot accept the failure of the Firearms Act. The NDP have engaged in offensive politicking over Bill 26
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Battle Rifles of the Central Powers -
Part II Bulgaria & Turkey By Bob Shell & Sean Penney
The Kingdom of Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire made for the unlikeliest of allies at the start of the Great War. Both countries had fought one another over territory in the pre-war years, and Bulgaria had helped end some five centuries of Ottoman rule in the Balkans during their war of 1912. When the Great War erupted, some two years later, Bulgaria was still recovering from the effects of back-to-back regional conflicts. In no position to participate in what was shaping up to be a global conflict, the Kingdom declared neutrality at the start of hostilities. It wasn’t until September 1915 that the Germans succeeded in convincing Bulgaria that the Central Powers offered the best chance of satisfying their expansionist aspirations in the Balkans, and they officially entered the war on the side of the Central Powers. The Ottoman Turks were in even worse economic shape than the Bulgarians, and their army and people were tired and demoralized after a series of catastrophic wars with Italy and in the Balkans. With time running out and global war clearly on the horizon, the Turks desperately sought European allies in the lead-up to the Great War. Preferring a Western alliance, Turkish ambassadors ultimately found their appeals rejected by the British, French and even Russian governments. Lacking the wherewithal to maintain neutrality in the coming conflict, the Ottomans became resigned to their fate and accepted German offers of alliance. The alliance was seen as their last, best chance at preserving what was left of their Empire. Without question, the Entente Powers severely underestimated the Turks, and missed a golden opportunity to have secured a valuable ally against the Kaiser. Given the ruinous state of their Empire and armies at the start of hostilities, their almost non-existent war-stocks, and the primitive state of their road and rail systems, the war record the Turks eventually posted in WW I was simply astounding. 7.65X53mm cartridges pictured with traditional round nose & modern spitzer bullets. This was the primary round utilized by Ottoman Turks WW I
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Bulgaria Model 1888/1890 & 1895 – The Kingdom of Bulgaria adopted the Steyr-Mannlicher M1888/1890 and later M1895 rifle designs as their standard issue infantry rifle during the latter part of the 19th and start of the 20th centuries. As with the AustroHungarian models, the M1888 was a black powder era rifle, chambered in 8x50mmR. Change over to the M1890 brought with it a switch to smokeless propellants and improved terminal performance. With production started on the Austrian Model 1895, Bulgaria quickly decided to adopt the superior straightpull rifle. Acquired in vast numbers the new rifle, while still chambered for the 8x50mmR cartridge, was a major technical improvement over the earlier models. Black powder was completely phased out in favour of modern smokeless propellants and the M95 actually remained in Bulgarian service, almost unchanged, until 1930 and the adoption of the 8x56mmR cartridge. Rather than acquire an entirely new rifle, the Bulgarians, like the Austrians, opted to simply re-barrel their existing stocks of M95s. The conversion was a great success and the M95 design went on to serve throughout WW II and beyond.
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L: Turkish M1887 Mauser based on earlier German Model 71/84 & chambered for the black powder 9.5X60mm cartridge
Below: The Turkish M1893 action. Originally chambered in 7.65X53mm, many were later rechambered to 8X57mm
Turkey Model 1887 – The Model 1887 Mauser rifle was the first of a long-line of German built battle rifles acquired by the Ottoman Empire in the years prior to the start of WW I. This model was essentially a variation on the improved German Model 71/84. Magazine capacity of eight rounds remained unchanged; however, there were a number of differences, including a smaller trigger guard, the addition of a double-locking bolt handle and reconfigured butt stock. At the Turk’s request, the rifle was chambered to the then standard 9.5x60mm Turkish black powder caliber. With a 30” barrel, the rifle checked in with an average weight of about 9.25 lbs. By no means a front-line battle rifle at the start of hostilities, a number of Model 1887 rifles did see limited service during WW I, mostly in a secondary or tertiary role. While the original Turkish-German contract was signed for the M1887 rifle, a contractual clause enabled the Turks to opt for the improved Model 1890 prior to expiration and fulfillment of the first contract. In total, approximately 220,000 M1887 rifles were delivered.
Model 1890 – The Model 90 Mauser was the first of the ‘modern’ battle rifles fielded by the Ottoman Empire prior to the turn of the century and it saw extended service during WW I. The design was largely based on the earlier Model 1889 action, as mentioned previously. Chambered for the 7.65x53mm cartridge, it was a smokeless powder design. Equipped with
a 29” barrel, the new model was a full half pound lighter than its predecessor, checking in at 8.75 lbs. Approximately 280,000 rifles were eventually delivered under the contract. A number of shorter carbines, with a 19.5” barrel and offering an additional one pound of weight savings were also ordered. Reserved for issue to a number of special units, the carbine was not fielded in large numbers.
Model 1893 – In addition to the Model 1890 rifle, the Ottomans later placed an order for a little over 200,000 Model 93 rifles with the Germans. Similar to the Spanish M1893, the Turkish model was also chambered in 7.65x53mm. This choice was to vastly simplify the Turk’s logistical requirements upon initiation of hostilities. The new rifle differed from the German/Spanish models in a few minor ways, including the addition of a magazine cut-off that enabled it to be used in single shot mode, with the full magazine held in reserve. Barrel length remained 29 inches, as did the full-length wood stock, with half-length upper hand guard. The rifle, weighing some 9 lbs, featured Turkish markings and approximately 200,000 rifles were delivered by the Germans. Many of these were later rechambered to 8x57mm, following the adoption of the new cartridge. The model also saw extensive action during the Great War.
Model 1903 -
Turkish M1890 Mauser with Turkish markings. The first ‘modern’ battle rifle fielded by the Ottoman Empire, it was chambered for the 7.65x53mm smokeless cartridge
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The standard infantry rifle of the Ottoman armies through WW I, the Model 1903 rifle was another German Mauser design that was adopted shortly after the turn of the century. Originally chambered in 7.65x53mm, many were later rechambered to the new 8x57mm cartridge and re-designated the Model 1903/38. As delivered, the M1903 had a 29” barrel, full-length wood stock with pistol grip and a halflength upper hand guard. Having a magazine capacity of 5
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TOP L: Turkish M1893 receiver displaying representative Turkish markings, including famed ‘Crescent & Star’
TOP R: Left-side view of Turkish M1893. A variant of the German/Spanish model, it featured a magazine cut-off and some 200,000 were eventually delivered
rounds, the rifle sported a tangent rear sight graduated to an overly optimistic 2,000 meters. The receiver sides were stamped with Turkish script, while the top of the receiver had the Turkish crescent and star.
Model 1905 Carbine – In 1905 the Turks placed an order for an additional 20,000 carbines chambered in 7.65x53mm. The new carbine had a barrel of 21.5” and weighed approximately 8.25 lbs. A fulllength wood stock was fitted, along with a half-length upper hand guard. Rear sights were graduated out to 1600 meters. Magazine capacity was 5 rounds. Receiver stampings were in Turkish. The M1905 was to see extensive use throughout the Great War and was to serve in the role of standard frontline infantry weapon, in combination with the far more widely fielded M1903 rifle. As with so many other combatants at the start of hostilities, Turkey was comparatively ill-prepared to fight a major war. Like most, despite having placed a number of major orders in the years leading up to the start of the war, the Turks were forced to deal with severe shortages in small arms. Consequently, they pressed into service a number of obsolete and/or obsolescent models to bridge the shortfall. Issued almost exclusively to second-line troops, even these substitute-standard infantry arms were insufficient to cover operational needs and Turkey entered the war short over 200,000 rifles. At the beginning of the war Turkey was more ill-prepared than many WW I combatants, as as much of their war stocks had been exhausted by the Balkan wars of 1912-13. Having R: 7.65x53 Cartridges - Traditional Round Nose Bullet Compared with Modern Spiter
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suffered heavy casualties, the Turkish army was still in recover and rebuilding mode at the start of WW I. Consequently, in addition to a shortage in small arms, ammunition and other critical war material was also in short supply. Interestingly, at the conclusion of the war, large stocks of Turkish small arms were transferred to several of the victorious members of the Allied Alliance, including Belgium, as part of their war reparations. Most of the various Turkish infantry rifles remain in common circulation today and can still be purchased for relatively cost-effective sums. Like almost all milsurps, however, prices for Turkish rifles continue to rise as demand outstrips supply. Conclusion – The Armistice ending the hostilities of the Great War was signed in a rail car at Compiegne, France on November 11, 1918. The war changed the map of Europe forever, breaking up many of the old empires and establishing a number of independent countries in their stead. The Bulgarians, despite achieving several decisive victories during the war, ended up on the losing side. Ruined economically and having suffered terrible casualties, the aftermath of the war saw Bulgaria stripped of significant territory and their dreams of empire quashed once and for all. For the Ottoman Turks, however, the signing of the 1918 Armistice did not bring with it an end to war. Under Western occupation, the Empire was to devolve into revolution and was wracked by border conflicts; eventually leading to complete collapse. The dissolution of the Ottoman Empire was to become one of the most historic milestones of the 20th Century and its demise was to give rise to the modern map of the Middle East today. Many of the same battle rifles fielded by the Turks during the Great War remain in service with rural tribesmen today, protecting flocks and putting meat on the table; amazingly having served through two world wars and countless regional and tribal conflicts in the Middle East.
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Made Right Here: Warrior Gear
By Sean G. Penney
I have something of a confession to make, in my younger days I was something of a gear hog. If it was related to hunting or shooting I’d take a chance on it. Consequently, I accumulated quite a collection of useless gear and gizmos that is still probably gathering dust in my attic somewhere. As I’ve matured, I’ve grown more discerning. Now, before I make a purchase I have two firm caveats, the item must be of the highest quality and workmanship and it must have a practical purpose. Ontario’s Warrior Gear is one such company that exceeds both self-imposed provisos. Much to my regret, I only became aware of Warrior Gear, and their extensive line of super-tough nylon MOLLE load-bearing equipment and accessories, this past year. For those who aren’t familiar with the term or type of gear of which I speak, MOLLE (pronounced MOLLY as in the female name) is an acronym for MOdular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment. Originally MOLLE equipment was specifically the sole purview of the United States military, as it was the product of their soldier research laboratories, and essentially came to define their latest generation of load-bearing equipment and rucksacks. However the design, with some improvements, has now become the de facto standard by which modern loadbearing equipment is judged, and the design and term is now in widespread use the world over, including with the militaries of a plethora of NATO countries, and our own Canadian Forces. At the heart of the MOLLE load-bearing system is the Pouch Attachment Ladder System or PALS. PALS is a grid of webbing consisting of heavy-duty nylon stitched onto load-bearing equipment such as rucksacks, combat vests and chest rigs that permit the user to attach various “MOLLE” compatible pouches and accessories. This allows individual users to tailor their combat load-out to individual mission requirements and arrange their gear in a pattern that best suits their personal body ergonomics or preferences. It is the adaptability and
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Cadpat Tactical Molle Vest set-up for Swiss Arms Rifle
modularity that has led to it becoming the de facto standard for tactical gear worldwide. MOLLE addressed many of the inherent deficiencies of existing load-bearing equipment, including that of the Pattern 82 gear with which our military was forced to go to war with. Unfortunately, much of the CF war kit was essentially ‘designed by committee,’ so much so that it really didn’t fit anyone particularly well and it lacked the adaptability and capacity to carry the massive war-loads that our soldiers required when conducting combat patrols of the mountains of Afghanistan. Many soldiers opted to purchase their own MOLLE gear before their deployment to Afghanistan, although the supply situation has slowly improved since 9/11. However, there is still a long way to go. This brings us back to Warrior Gear and their impressive line of MOLLE load-bearing equipment and accessories. According to John Laporte, owner-operator of Warrior Gear, he started his company in 2001 because of this distinct lack of specialized equipment for our troops. At the time, there were few companies that had the capacity to offer custom designs or produce the high-quality tactical gear that soldiers of our Canadian Forces needed and deserved, or could afford. Many soldiers were purchasing gear via mail-order from the USA, at their own expense, and paying exorbitant prices once exchange rates, shipping and duty costs were factored in. At
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selection of rifle and pistol magazine pouches, C9 pouches, grenade pouches and drop-leg panel and matching holster to fit almost any large/medium frame auto pistol.
Cadpat Pistol Magazine Pouch with Malice Clips
the same time, there were few places where troops could go to have their kit professionally repaired or modified after a deployment. Enter Warrior Gear. Launched in 2001 in Petawawa, Ontario, the fledgling gear company had just two employees and a small workshop shop located just minutes from the gates of CFB Petawawa. In the decade since this modest launch, Warrior Gear has grown to nine employees and has moved to a much expanded production facility. In addition to having nine industrial sewing machines running, Warrior Gear now boasts three additional multi-head industrial embroidery machines that are permitting them to expand into new markets, product lines and services. I’m not surprised by Warrior Gear’s growing success having had the opportunity to test their equipment myself this past winter. While I didn’t have the ‘opportunity’ to make it to the rocky, broken hills of Afghanistan, I found a suitable substitute in the rocky, broken hills of Newfoundland. Between frozen bogs, broken granite mountains, razor-sharp shale-covered hillsides and gear-destroying groves of stunted conifers we call ‘tuckamores,’ my Warrior Gear kit handled late season Moose and coyote hunts with aplomb, accompanied me on the trap-line without a hitch and was unphased by the dense
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alder beds that were the home of my favorite prey, the elusive snowshoe hare. Not quite hunting for Taliban insurgents in the Shah-e-Khot Valley, but still extremely hard on both gear and the user. During the testing, I also recruited several retired Canadian Forces personnel, including my father and coeditor, Grayson and my brother Curt to help me out. They were as impressed with Warrior Gear products as I was and competition was fierce as to who got to use what when we went afield. According to John, he and his team bring to the table literally decades of military experience and many of his employees have 20+ years of experience serving with the Canadian Forces in various roles, including: Infantry, Airborne, Supply Tech, and Rigger. In short they learned from firsthand experience what works and what doesn’t and this is clearly reflected in the durability, functionality and simplicity of Warrior Gear designs. Discussing this project with John, and my ideas for civilian applications and testing of his product, John shipped me one of his latest chest rigs in ‘Coyote Brown,’ a tactical vest in current CF issue digital woodland camo pattern known as ‘CADPAT,’ and a MOLLE backpack and rucksack in Blaze Orange; along with a matching chest rig in the same colour. Also included were a
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The various pouches and holsters were attached to the load-bearing system via heavy-duty “MALICE CLIPs” that are reusable and allow the user to reposition pouch or gear placement in the matter of moments, yet once locked in place are rock-solid. In my experience, first impressions are usually correct. Unpacking the shipping carton from Warrior Gear, the one word that stuck in my brain was QUALITY. Warrior Gear products are constructed from the highest quality materials, including high denier count Cordura nylon, mil-spec webbing and supertough, abrasion resistant thread. Examining each piece of kit individually, I could not find a single flaw in any of the some dozen and a half pieces that made up my order. All stitching was even, with no over-runs, unless by design. Almost everything was double or triple stitched for extra strength and it was patently obvious that great attention to detail was a trademark of this company’s products. I’d had gear fail on me in the past, usually at the most inopportune times, and it is no fun trying to pack out a full quarter of moose on your back, while your ruck, gun sling or daypack is held together by duct tape and rabbit snare wire -- in the dark, and miles away from where you left your ATV or truck. For this reason, and before I took Warrior Gear kit into the field, I did my best to abuse it to see what would fail. I’m a big guy and am not known for being a weakling. I did my best to break a variety of straps and tear the stitching of the nylon PALS webbing. I failed. Miserably. Over the course of the rest of the season, Warrior Gear became a permanent part of our hunting and recreational activities, and we learned through trial and error what arrangement of pouches and accessories best worked for each of our shooting/hunting needs. I spent a lot of time coyote hunting and since my favorite coyote rifle remains the Swiss Arms BlueStar I opted to field
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Coyote Brown Chest Rig in use during late season coyote hunt
test the ‘coyote brown’ chest rig with a couple of mag pouches mounted. Externally the BlueStar very closely resembles the SIG 550 military rifle, but unlike the latter, is classified as nonrestricted. One of the strengths of the design, and a favourite feature of mine, is the ability to snap or lock together multiple magazines to form a solid, single unit. The SIG mags are made of extremely tough space-age polymer that have locking studs molded as part of the magazine. This ability is very convenient; especially when we are limited to just five rounds per magazine (Normal capacity of unaltered magazine may be 10, 20 or 30 rounds). However, finding magazine pouches to fit has always proven difficult, as almost all tactical rifle mag pouches on the market are designed for the M-16 style magazines instead. Usually, if I’m looking for anything to fit my Swiss Arms, I have to look for German HK style gear, as the Germans use a similar system with their Heckler & Koch G-36 magazine system. Warrior Gear got around this problem with the inclusion of adjustable compression bungee or ‘shock’ cords on either side of their mag pouches. Going with an open pouch design, the Warrior Gear pouches can easily accommodate a variety of different magazine styles and numbers. I had no problem securely inserting two locked Swiss Arms mags, and the design also easily accommodated both 20 and 30 round magazines (limited to 5) thanks to a rather elegant flap design that employed Velcro and allowed repositioning of the pouch closure to accommodate differing mag heights. Withdrawing the locked mags was no problem and the compression cords ensured that there was no shifting about or possibility that even a single magazine would accidentally be lost. The same pouches also easily accommodated standard M-16 magazines, as well as the new Magpul polymer P-MAGS and E-MAG designs, and the absence of locking studs permitted the addition of an extra magazine for a total of three. Warrior Gear pistol mags are also of a near ‘universal’ design and I tried a good mix of single and double stack magazines, including 7-8 and 10 round 1911 magazines, double-stack 9mm Beretta and Browning Hi-Power mags and a variety
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Blaze Orange Molle Backpack Early season Snowshoe Hare hunt
of 9mm & .40 Glock mags. Some fit a little looser than others, but I never managed to have one slip out of the pouch despite deliberate trying to do so. I would have no hesitation recommending them to anyone looking to add additional capacity to his existing gear. Over the course of the testing period, I was again struck by just how darn useful this kit was. As a hunter, it allowed me to carry not only all the magazines and ammo I needed on my person, but the various pouches easily did double duty as general utility pouches carrying a broad range of other types of gear and equipment as well. Grenade pouches doubled for compass pouches and I used them to carry items such as orange flagging tape when on the trap-line or when setting rabbit snares. They were also great places to cache extra snare wire, latex gloves for cleaning/handling wild game and a host of other handy items. Pistol magazines were used to carry a variety of small flashlights, wire cutters, glow sticks, multitools and folding knives. Rifle mag pouches, were also put to work carrying water/nalgene bottles, dry/spare mitts/gloves and related survival kit. The Warrior Gear MOLLE backpack offers the same great quality and utility as did the tactical vest and chest rigs. Utility was also the name of the game here, and internally it sports a variety of dividers and straps that allows the user to quickly secure and organize the contents. There’s no need to be rifling around in the pack, searching for your dry socks or sharpening stone with the Warrior Gear design. The pack, along with many of the other Warrior Gear designs is reinforced by a heavyduty OD green rubber-like material that is normally used as a base and the outer camo/nylon layer sewn over it. This yields a very water resistant bag and also aids in it keeping its shape without adding undue weight. Tested under conditions as cold as -25 degrees Celsius, the bag remained pliable and the heavy duty YKK zippers worked like a charm. Zippers have always been the weak point of so much gear I’ve used in the past, but it is obvious John did not skimp here. The two-way zippers on the backpack were manipulated over 2000 times without breakage, slipping, or jamming. The same
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heavy-duty zipper is also used on the tac vest, although it is covered when being worn by an added flap of camo material secured by a full-length strip of Velcro. This keeps the vest ‘clean’ and eliminates any dangers of zipper failure or having it catch on detritus in the field and accidentally open on the user.
Tactical Molle Vest in Cadpat, with Universal Rifle Magazine Pouches
I had specifically ordered the MOLLE pack in Blaze Orange, as I was looking for a quality pack to use bunny hunting, and in hunting areas with high hunter densities. When, hunting snowshoe hare in dense alder beds and fir groves you’re often out of immediate sight of your hunting companions. While proper gun safety is religiously observed by my hunting group, that is not always the case with other hunters you may encounter. When hunting bunnies or grouse, camouflage is not my priority, being safe and seen is; especially when sharing the woods with inexperienced or less-safety conscious hunters. Having been on the wrong end of shotgun pellets in the past, I have no interest in testing my luck further. I found the Warrior Gear pack almost ideal for my needs. It was large enough to easily accommodate an extra polar fleece, my lunch, a set of binos, a spare GMRS radio, dry socks, a coil of 550 paracord, shotgun shells and still have plenty of room to accommodate the eight mature hare I harvested that particular day afield with my beagles. With the addition of extra external accessory pouches, this pack could easily be turned into a dedicated ‘three-day’ pack. The extra PALS/MOLLE webbing on the exterior of the bag also allowed me to secure my heavy winter parka to the bag as the temperature rose and the extra layer wasn’t necessary. To accommodate several overnight excursions via snowmobile, I switched over to the larger Warrior Gear rucksack. I’d ordered this ruck in Blaze Orange as well. It utilized an external aluminum pack frame and design that would be instantly recognizable to anyone who has served in the CF over the past few decades. I asked John about this instant familiarity and he acknowledged that there was a decided CF influence in certain designs, especially in cases such as the Warrior Gear ruck. As former CF infantry, airborne, riggers, etc… John and his team know what worked with the previous generations of gear and what didn’t. They made a conscious attempt to preserve the best traits of such kit. As for other military influences, to quote John, “Soldiers come with some great ideas for improvements of military equipment. So we design gear that suits their needs, and improve our designs whenever we see an opportunity or something lacking.” In this vein, the Warrior Gear ruck, with external frame, was just as comfortable as my old surplus 64 Pattern “Jump Ruck;” while offering an updated carriage system and more easily adjustable straps and webbing. Both it and the MOLLE backpack offer both high visibility and high functionality to the user. For users such as ground search & rescue teams, skipatrol members and recreational snowmobilers, skiers and snowboarders who spend a lot of time in the wilderness and under threat of avalanche, Warrior Gear packs in Blaze Orange
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might be a wise investment and offer a measure of added safety. A friend of mine with the local fire department’s SAR team saw the instant utility of the design and colour choice and I think this may eventually open up new markets to Warrior Gear. After a season’s use, I’m pleased with all the offerings I had the pleasure of testing from Warrior Gear. Yet, there is some small room for improvement. From my personal experience, I tend to overload my packs and often I’ll end up ripping the shoulder straps off lesser bags. That didn’t happen with the Warrior Gear bags, but I plan on asking John to make some changes to the new MOLLE backpack I’m ordering for the fall. I’m sticking with the Blaze Orange, but right now the shoulder straps are attached via rectangular polymer hardware. I’d prefer the shoulder strap webbing to extend down the length of pack’s body instead and be sewn directly into the pack itself, sandwiched between the inner and outer layers. I find that such an arrangement is more comfortable and offers a greater sense of security, while reducing potential shifting of the load if I twist a shoulder strap when in a hurry. I couldn’t find any fault with either chest rig or the tactical vest. All were extremely well made and I didn’t experience a single failure. The internal “admin” pouch sewn into the chest rig came in hand for carrying my various hunting licenses, maps and firearms registration certificates. MOLLE attachment points were sewed to spec and I had no trouble attaching mag shingles and pouches from other makers such as Tactical Tailor and TAG. I found that the tactical vest was especially useful when navigating/hunting heavy brush and timber. The extra backing layer acted as a form of soft “armour” and kept the user from Warrior Continued on Page 43
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The Gunsmith’s Bench Measuring Headspace By Sean G. Penney Headspace is probably one of the most debated and misunderstood subjects for recreational shooters; at least if idle chatter on Internet gun boards and heated discussions in club houses across the country are any indication. More often than not, the question of ‘excessive headspace’ and warnings of dire consequences to follow are interjected by at least one participant. So, what exactly is headspace? The NRA Firearms Fact Book gives this definition: “Headspace is the distance from breech face to that part of the chamber which stops forward movement of the cartridge case.” Simple, right? Not quite. The waters are muddied as a result of the type of cartridge design being examined, as headspace is measured from different points or datum lines, depending upon the cartridge the firearm is chambered for. There are several different types of cartridge designs in use today that are mainly differentiated by the type of cartridge rim pattern. These include: rimmed, rimless, semi-rimmed, rebated rim, and belted. Essentially, these general rim patterns describe the size of the cartridge case rim in relation to the base of the case. Perhaps the most misunderstood of these are automatic or self-loading pistol cartridges; which are often of a rimless design. The general ‘understanding’ by most shooters is that such cases headspace off the case rim or mouth. However, in truth, most rimless pistol cases are too short to actually do this. In reality, their headspace is more often dependent upon the extractor instead. Revolvers, unlike autoloaders, generally use older rimmed cartridge designs. As a result, revolver headspace is most often determined by the distance from the breech face to the rear of the cylinder. For rimless rifle cartridge designs such as .308 Winchester, .30-06 Springfield or .223 Remington the important measurement is the distance to the stopping surface on the case shoulder (datum line) from the bolt face. For rimmed cartridges such as the venerable .303 British, 7.62X54mmR Russian cartridge or popular deer-getter, the .30-30 34
Winchester, headspace is determined by the gap for the case rim. On belted cases such as the 7mm Remington Magnum, headspace is traditionally determined by the gap for the belt itself. The actual measurements or dimensions for each cartridge, and thus correct headspace, are determined in North America by SAAMI, the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers’ Institute. Since it is almost impossible for every firearms or ammunition manufacturer to exactly replicate the precise dimensions, they instead aim to keep finished dimensions within the minimum and maximum specifications published by SAAMI. As long as your firearm’s headspace falls within said range, it is deemed to be ‘correct.’ For technical applications, headspace for a particular cartridge is generally set at the minimum SAAMI dimensions, plus .006 inches. If your firearm’s chamber dimensions exceed this measurement, it is said to have excess headspace. If the dimensions fall below said minimum, your headspace is too small or insufficient. Both scenarios are undesirable in the interests of safety and maximizing the life of the firearm. If your firearm has insufficient headspace the shooter may encounter problems with proper lock-up or bolt function. Cramming the standard dimension cartridge case into a too small chamber can prestress the locking lugs of the firearm’s bolt and if you are successful in closing the action and firing the round, the bolt handle may be extremely hard to operate. In the case of auto-loaders, the cartridge casing may be firmly stuck in the chamber and will not eject fully, if at all. The extra force required to achieve lock-up and/or successfully extract/eject the spent casing, can cause premature wear of engagement surfaces. In extreme cases it is not unusual to find the firearm’s action wedged closed, necessitating the use of tools or the dismantling of the firearm in order to remove a jammed case. Excessive headspace is often much harder to spot, especially if the shooter does not reload, as chambers over maximum dimensions may not show any outward signs of problems. Modern sporting rifles are generally over-built to handle the pressures of modern high-powered ammunition and are
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Pacific Tool & Gauge “No Go” gauge about to be chambered in Remington 700 LTR.
designed to handle many thousands of rounds. As a result, the cartridge case will often prove the weakest link, such as in the case of bottle-neck rifle cartridges. When fired in a firearm with excessive headspace, the case will have its shoulder blown out to fill the extra space left by the excess headspace gap. This causes the brass to stretch and eventually thin, seriously degrading its useful working life and potentially leading to a premature case rupture or case head separation if reloaded. This scenario, while serious in modern sporting firearms, can lead to disaster if the firearm involved is in poor repair, an antique, or of military surplus origin. Remember that in the latter case, such firearms are typically at least a half-century old or more, and may have fired literally tens of thousands of rounds; often including poorly manufactured, out-of-spec wartime production, or corroded leftovers from previous conflicts, all of which used corrosive primers. Such abuse may have caused premature wear of the firearms internals, including throat erosion, worn rifling, and growth in headspace to an unsafe degree. In many cases the specs used by government arsenals were far more ‘generous’ than current SAAMI dimensions to start with. Battle rifles manufactured under wartime conditions were often the victims of necessity and further production shortcuts were implemented that saw even these generous ‘military specifications’ increased in order to ensure reliability under extreme battlefield conditions.
Remington 700 LTR with bolt removed. Pictured with PT&G “Three Gauge” Headspace Gauge Set & .223 REM Dummy Round.
first clue that something is amiss is when they attempt to reload their fired brass. If fired in a rifle with excessive headspace, the shoulder of the casing will have been blown further forward than SAAMI specs allow for, and it may require extra effort to full-length resize the cartridge case and return it to spec. This causes unnecessary ‘working’ of the brass and drastically reduces the useful life of the casing. A prime example of this is the .303 British cartridge. It headspaces off its rim, and when fired in any one of the multitude of surplus Lee-Enfield rifles that have proliferated throughout our recreational firearms community, case stretch is the norm. Even under the best of circumstances, case life is often reduced to just two or three firings. The British, aware of the problem, rectified this shortcoming by introducing a range of replaceable bolt heads that corrected for headspace deficiencies.
Measuring Headspace – So, how do we measure headspace? For the average gun owner, the most cost-effective method is to simply take your firearm to the nearest gunsmith and have them do it for you. For the more do-it-yourself types, the easiest way is to purchase or borrow a set of ‘headspace gauges.’ These are precision machined, cartridge-shaped measuring devices manufactured to extremely close tolerances. There are three common types, ‘three-gauge’ sets, multi-gauge sets and micrometer gauges. The latter are rarely seen outside of a factory or government arsenal, while multi-gauge sets are generally restricted to custom gunsmiths who specialize in building super-accurate precision rifles. Such sets include precision-ground gauges at each .001-inch interval of the SAAMI headspace specs for that cartridge and are usually much more expensive.
When you also factor in the far more primitive metallurgy and heat-treating methods used during these periods, along with the high-pressure demands of modern ammunition, excessive headspace may eventually contribute to a catastrophic firearm failure in such arms. This is why it is always a good idea to thoroughly check out any second-hand firearm before The most common and most affordable option for the hobby purchase/firing, including checking the headspace. gunsmith then is the ‘three-gauge’ set. These sets consist For those who don’t bother to have headspace checked, their of “Go,” “No-Go,” and “Field” gauges. The “Go” gauge www.nfa.ca
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Belted Magmum Cartridges
Pacific Tool & Gauge Headspace Gauge - .23REM with Remington Bolt &.223REM Cartridge corresponds to the minimum chamber dimensions or ‘minimum headspace’ and all firearms with proper headspace should close on this gauge. However, before you can properly attempt to measure headspace, you must ensure that the chamber, throat, breech face and bolt of your firearm is clean and completely free of any dirt, dried grease or Cosmoline and/or carbon or powder fouling. This is especially true for military surplus firearms and older guns. In most cases you will have to disassemble your firearm’s bolt into its component parts in order to prevent potential spring/ejector/ extractor pressure from skewing your measurements after insertion of the headspace gauges. If the bolt has a spring-loaded ejector, that will also need to be removed before measuring. Actually checking headspace is rather simple thereafter. The first gauge you’ll need is the “Go” gauge. Simply slide it into the chamber and carefully close the firearm’s action. There should not be any felt resistance. On multi-lugged bolts such as the self-loading AR-15’s, you should be able to close the bolt with just gentle finger pressure without feeling any resistance against the
locking lugs. If you feel resistance, or are unable to completely close the action, the firearm’s headspace is less than minimum dimensions and headspace is therefore insufficient. If additional cleaning of the bolt/chamber does not work and a careful examination of the interior of the chamber does not identify any detritus or machine/ tool marks that may contribute to this problem, the firearm will need to go to a gunsmith. In most cases a few turns of a finish chamber reamer may be all that is necessary to put headspace within spec. In the case of firearms such as the Lee-Enfield, simply swapping out one bolt head for another may be all that is necessary. Just because your firearm will accept a “Go” gauge, however, does not necessarily mean your headspace is okay. You’ll next need to try the “NoGo” gauge. This gauge corresponds to the maximum approved chamber dimensions and your firearm’s bolt should not close on it. If it does, you will need to swap it out for the final gauge of your “three-gauge” set, the “Field” gauge. The last gauge measures the largest possible safe headspace dimensions for that particular cartridge.
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If your firearm closes on the “No-Go” gauge, but doesn’t on the “Field” gauge, you still have excess headspace, but the potential for a catastrophic failure is not that great. Under ideal circumstances, it should be safe to fire; it will simply be extremely hard on brass. With some tweaking, handloaders can still get some use out of the brass if they are careful not to set the shoulder back when resizing, and earmark those cases for use in that specific firearm. However, case life is still reduced and in most cases, I tend to err on the side of caution and dispose of any brass fired in such a chamber after just one or two firings. Simply for safety’s sake, and to avoid any potential for personal injury, I’d highly recommend you have a qualified gunsmith examine your firearm and make any necessary repairs as soon as possible in such cases. If the worst case scenario happens and your firearm accepts the “Field” gauge without a hiccup and the bolt fully closes on it, under no circumstances attempt to discharge live ammunition from that firearm! Your headspace is dangerously excessive and the firearm is unsafe to fire under any circumstances. It must be taken to a qualified gunsmith for repair. This will most likely involve having the barrel set-back and rechambered to SAAMI specs. “Three-gauge” sets of headspace gauges are available from large mailorder houses such as Brownell’s, along with most gunsmith supply houses and factory direct from many manufacturers.
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Rimless Cartridges - .45 ACP
Reputable gauge makers include Forster, Clymer, Manson Precision and Pacific Tool & Gauge. Prices usually range from $20.00-$40.00 per gauge, depending upon caliber and make. When putting together your own “three-gauge” set, make sure you stick with the same manufacturer for each caliber. Do not mix and match brands of gauges. You want to avoid the dangers of ‘tolerance stacking,’ as different manufacturers’ machine their gauges to different tolerances within the SAAMI specified ranges. Brand “A” may be
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Rimmed Cartridges L-R: .357 Mag, .44 Mag, .303 British
machined at the high end of said range, Brand “B” at the low end and Brand “C” in the middle. Putting together a set, using one gauge from each of A, B & C can consequently yield inaccurate readings, as the different tolerances of each brand come into potential conflict with one another. If you start with a Forster “Go” gauge, make sure you buy a Forster “No-Go” and Forster “Field” gauge to complete the set. If you start with Manson Precision, stick with Manson Precision for that caliber. By doing so you eliminate another
Semi-Rimmed Cartridges - .38 Super Auto
potential variable that could possible contribute to inaccurate readings. For the one-gun hunter, purchasing a set of headspace gauges really doesn’t make financial sense, however, for military-surplus collectors and hobbyist gunsmiths and shooters who like to build their own guns, investing in a quality set of gauges makes a lot more sense. As a devoted Lee-Enfield collector, my small investment in a set of Pacific Tool & Gauge headspace gauges for the .303 British has paid for themselves many times over.
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Multiple shootings in Canada and the United States By Gary Mauser
The irrational shooting in Tucson, Arizona by Jared Lee Loughner has shocked many people. As more facts emerge, it is increasingly evident that the attack was carried out by a mentally disturbed man and was not politically motivated as some had claimed earlier. Even though he had had several minor contacts with authorities, Loughner had not been adjudicated as dangerously violent and consequently he could legally purchase a firearm. The US does not differ from Canada or the UK in prohibiting legal access to firearms and explosives for anyone deemed as a risk to oneself or others, or who has a violent criminal record. The problem is that it is impossible to predict accurately who will become violent in the future, whether or not they are mentally disturbed. There is no solid research supporting the idea that GPs, psychiatrists or police can predict -- with the necessary reliability -- who will be dangerous in the future (and who will not) based upon interviews or psychological tests. The most reliable method for estimating who will commit a violent crime in the future is a criminal record check. It’s not perfect but it is the most accurate predictor available. Unfortunately, the best predictions by medical or psychological experts are little better than 50/50. Too many of those who are judged to be a risk to themselves or others never go on to be violent; just as others who are not thought to pose a serious threat, such as Jared Lee Loughner, actually go on to commit violent crimes. It is unacceptable to deprive an individual of his or her civil liberties based on unsubstantiated claims. That’s why society closed down the old mental hospitals. Why should it be surprising that doctors or psychologists are unable to predict the future mental state of individuals? Indeed, medical tests cannot even predict physical health in future years. People can and do die suddenly just months after their annual medical check-up. It is an error to view gun owners merely as potential hazards. In Canada as well as the US, gun owners are valuable members of society. For example, hunters are renowned for their extensive contribution to effective wildlife conservation. Gun owners tend to have incomes higher than 38
the national average. Judges, business owners, professors, skilled workers are the preponderant types of people who own firearms. Hundreds of thousands of hunters and target shooters own and use firearms legally and responsibly. Gun owners understand community responsibility. It was a licensed and accredited gun owner who was courageous enough to help stop the shootings in Tucson by disarming the maniac before he could kill even more people. As the killer stopped to reload, a woman grappled with him giving Joseph Zamudio, who had an Arizona concealed-carry permit, the opportunity to wrestle Loughner to the ground and disarm him. Analysis of Canadian Firearms Program statistics shows that legally accredited firearms owners are less than half as likely to commit murder than other Canadians are. Some have claimed that Canada’s gun laws protect us from multiple shootings. Not so. Almost all of the gun violence in Canada involves illegally owned firearms; much of these are smuggled. Firearms laws alone cannot erase the threat of demented killers or terrorists. The former USSR banned all firearms but could not avoid a horrendous murder rate. Few murders involved firearms but alternatives were readily available. All firearms are virtually banned in Japan, yet terrorists used sarin (a deadly poison) to injure thousands and kill 13 on subway trains a few years ago. Canada is not immune from murderous rampages – with guns or with any other weapon. Perhaps the most notorious Canadian madman was Gamil Gharbi (Marc Lepine) at Ecole Polytechnique in 1989. After asking the men to leave, Gharbi killed fourteen women, wounding many other people. None of the teachers or students tried to intervene, even though, like Loughner, Gharbi occasionally had to reload. The killing only ended when Gharbi committed suicide. A more recent multiple shooting in Canada occurred in 2006 at Dawson College in Montreal. Police, who were in the vicinity on other business, ended the killing spree when they shot the deranged man, who then turned his gun on himself. Deadly weapons (e.g., guns, bombs, knives, cars or poison) are available to anyone determined to kill. Restaurants and
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nightclubs have been firebombed in both the US and in Canada killing large numbers of people. It was not too long ago that 18 people were arrested in Toronto for planning to behead the Prime Minister and bomb parliament. Typically, violent madmen are only stopped when bystanders or the police intervene. It is not a matter of the availability of firearms. All societies have a few people who are intent on killing. International studies have found that murder rates are higher in countries with more stringent firearms laws. There is no convincing empirical evidence that gun laws are effective in reducing homicide or suicide rates. An important question to ask is: what are the proper responsibilities of citizens? Should citizens passively just wait for authorities to stop murderous attacks when they occur? Or should they, like concealed-carry permit holder Joseph Zamudio, take steps to defend themselves and their community from violent threats? References Arboleda-Flórez, Julio, Heather L. Holley, Annette Crisanti (1996). Mental Illness and Violence: Proof or Stereotype? http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/mhsm/pubs/mental_illness/index-eng.php Baker, Jeanine and Samara McPhedran (2007). Gun laws and sudden death. Did the Australian Firearms Legislation of 1996 Make a Difference? British J. Criminology, vol. 47, pp 455-469. Beattie, Sara and Adam Cotter (2010). Homicide in Canada, 2009. Juristat, Vol. 30, no. 3 Statistics Canada (catalogue no. 85-002-X). Bureau of Justice Statistics. Homicide trends. http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/ content/homicide/homtrnd.cfm (accessed January 2011). Government of Canada. (2006) The Human Face of Mental Health and Mental Illness in Canada. http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/publicat/humanhumain06/pdf/human_face_e.pdf 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. Klieve, Helen, Michael Barnes and Diego de Leo, (2009). Controlling firearms use in Australia: has the 1996 gun law reform produced the decrease in rates of suicide with this method? Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, Vol. 44 (4), pp 285-292. Lee, Wang-Sheng and Sandy Suardi. (2008). The Australian Firearms Buyback and Its Effect on Gun Deaths. Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series, Working Paper No. 17/08. Melbourne Institute of Applied Economics and Social Research. The University of Melbourne. Mauser, Gary A (2010). Bill C-391 - Countering Ten Misleading Claims. Invited testimony to the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security, House of Commons (Canada), 25 May 2010. http://papers.ssrn. com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1599705 Monahan J. Steadman HJ. Silver E, et al. (2001) Risk assessment: the MacArthur Study of Mental Disorder and Violence. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Mills, Jeremy F. (2005). Advances in the Assessment and Prediction of Interpersonal Violence. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Vol 20 (2). Smith, Kevin and John Flatley (Eds.), Kathryn Coleman, Sarah Osborne, Peter Kaiza and Stephen Roe (2010). Homicides, Firearm Offences and Intimate Violence 2008/09. Supplementary Volume 2 to Crime in England and Wales 2008/09. Home Office Statistical Bulletin. Queen’s Printer. London. [hosb0110.pdf]
Canadian gun owners are less likely than other Canadians to commit murder. Based upon statistics from the Homicide Survey and the Canadian Firearms Program, the probability of a licensed Canadian firearms owner committing murder is less than one-half that of the typical Canadian. In any given year, there were between 7 and 17 people accused of homicide who possessed a valid firearms licence or an FAC (Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, 2006). 1997
17
2002
14
1998
10
2003
14
1999
11
2004
16
2000
7
2005
11
2001
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According to the Canadian Firearms Program, the number of people with valid firearm licences is just under 2,000,000 (RCMP, various years). December 2005 1,979,054 December 2002 1,912,939 Depending upon the year, the homicide rate for licensed Canadian firearms owners varied from 0.35 per 100,000 to 0.85 per 100,000 firearm owners. In other words, less than one licensed firearm owner per 100,000 gun owners was accused of murder in any given year. Over the same time period, the Canadian national homicide rate ranged from 1.74 per 100,000 to 2.06 per 100,000 people in the general population (Beattie, 2009). In other words, approximately two people out of every 100,000 Canadian residents were accused of murder. Thus, the likelihood of a licensed Canadian firearms owner committing murder is less than onehalf that of the typical Canadian. It follows that, on average, Canadians who do not own firearms are more likely to commit murder than those who do. This should not be surprising since prospective firearms owners have had to pass criminal record checks since 1979. A contributing factor is that, since 1979, the conviction of a violent crime has been grounds to revoke a firearms licence (or FAC).
Stuart, Heather (2003). Violence and mental illness: an overview. World Psychiatry, 2(2): 121–124. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/ PMC1525086/
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Western Lawmen: Wild Bill - Part One by Jesse Wolf Hardin
“August 1st, 1876...” he wrote at the top of the letter, and then an ornately lettered “Dear Agnes” before dipping his pen back into the open bottle of India ink. Agnes was his wife, a large and by no means typically attractive divorcee some years his senior, but throughout their five years of courting and only five months of marriage he had thought of her as his one and only beloved. Upon closer inspection, it suddenly seems obvious what attracted the gunman to her and finally moved him to settle down – for her daring and verve were every bit the match of his, as an accomplished circus performer, trick bareback rider and fearless lion tamer. She had no similar inclination to tame her ‘Wild Bill.’ Yet no doubt his leaving worried her, despite the need for him to accrue a stake sufficient for the couple to build a home. Even so, it was difficult to quiet the tiny voice in the back of her mind that this most recent quest wasn’t also an excuse for
him to delay the true onset of domestic life and offered him an opportunity to take refuge in the danger-filled ‘sporting’ world again. We can only imagine what she A formal portrait of the ill-fated Hickok in might have felt, the 1870’s, from his sister Lydia’s personal upon discovering belongings. that her husband’s words were not only a dramatic expression of his devotion, but a missive of premonition and ominous portent. “Darling, if such should be we should never meet again, while firing my last shot I will gently breathe the name of my wife – Agnes – and with wishes even for my enemies, I
The .36 caliber Colt Model 1851 percussion revolver, sometimes called the “Navy” because of the naval battle scene roll stamped on its cylinders, was Hickok’s favorite throughout his life.
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will make the plunge and try to swim to the other shore.” The signature was formal, as typical of the times. J.B. Hickok, it said, and only a day after mailing that letter, Wild Bill lay dead... with his boots on like he’d predicted, and a ragged hole through his head. James Butler, one of the truly most formidable gunslingers of the Old West, was proved right about a few other things as well. Alas, it was not face to face against aggressive opponents where lay mortal danger and Wild Bill’s final destiny. Instead, the famed shootist was to meet his end through betrayal and ambush; in the kind of scurrilous attack from behind that was so much hated and reviled by westerners. Hickok, the archetypal stand-up fighter was killed, while seated... at a poker table; in the midst of admonishing a Missouri River steamboat captain to stop peeking at the pile of discards. Tragically, he died with his back unusually exposed, after having been jokingly refused his customary corner seat, that allowed him to keep his back to the wall. Before the night was out, Hickok’s body would arch backwards, tipping the chair and hitting the hardwood floor, along with the cards that he’d been holding: a pair of black aces and a pair of black eights; while the fifth had yet to be dealt, according to some. The hand was to be known for generations to come as the “Dead Man’s Hand.” Still holstered on his wide frontiersman’s belt were his much loved ‘Colt conversions,’ front loading Army or Navy model percussion revolvers that had been altered to accept metallic cartridges. Those who knew Hickok opined that he chose to retain the old, semiobsolescent design because of the familiar feel and excellent balance of the percussion Colt’s he had carried and treasured throughout his life. While the .45 Colt Peacemaker, had been
introduced four years earlier, it hadn’t yet begun to compete with the practical and inexpensive surplus arms released following the war between the states. In addition, the older technology utilized loose balls and powder, making it possible to easily cast one’s bullets, whereas the newfangled factory-made metallic cartridges were much more expensive to shoot and harder to find. So attached was Bill to his Colt Navy revolvers, in fact, that he likely sold and certainly seldom if ever carried the innovative Smith & Wesson #3 top break revolvers presented to him by fellow thespian William “Buffalo Bill” Cody. The 1851 Colt “Navy” Model that was Hickok’s favourite, was so named because of the naval battle scene roll engraved on its cylinders. The “Navy” was favoured by many over the other Colt six-shooters of the series, the behemoth .44
Top: Shot from behind while playing Poker, Wild Bill was holding aces and eights in his hand. Today, that hand is still known as the “Dead Man’s Hand.” Left: Here we see Hickok’s matched pair of Navy Colt’s he was allegedly carrying at the time of his death. Some stories hold that they were ultimately used to pay his burial expenses. Right: Hickok was known to have carried a matched and engraved pair of Navy Colt revolvers sporting carved ivory grips. The revolver pictured is purported to be one of these, however, absolute provenance as to its origin is lacking.
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Dragoon and .44 caliber 1860 Model New Army, as being possibly more durable than the latter and verifiably lighter and more balanced. As with all such revolvers, black powder was first poured into the cylinders, then a lead ball dropped on top of each and firmly rammed home by a pivoting lever beneath the barrel. A dob of grease was usually packed over the bullet in each cylinder to guard against flying sparks, followed last by the placement of percussion primer caps over the nipples at the rear. It is said that Hickok practiced often with his, so that he could hit nearly equally well with either hand. And because of black powders tendency to absorb moisture and misfire, he was heard to empty his handguns every evening by shooting into an alley, starting each day with confidence in his freshened loads. Contrary to some versions of the story, it was evidently a Navy Colt that ended his hopes for a life with Agnes.The very same model that Hickok carried and had employed with such skill in numerous gun battles, including the fight with his friend and fellow gambler, Dave Tutt.- whom he’d killed with a remarkable 75 yard heart shot, on the evening of July 21st, 1865. The two men had argued in public about a family watch that Tutt had taken from Bill as collateral against a gambling debt. Bill had warned him not to wear it in public until they settled up, and an equally proud Tutt had ignored the warning. It was just after 6 PM when the two of them unexpectedly encountered each other, entering from opposite sides of the plaza in front of the Springfield, Missouri courthouse. “Dave, don’t cross that square with my watch!” Hickok shouted, setting both men to reach for their guns in what was to serve as the model for the archetypal fair fight, face-to-face, quick draw shootouts on hurriedly emptying streets.. The Hickok/Tutt fight was, in fact, one of the only documented incidents of such a confrontation in the entire annals of the American West; with the majority of altercations involving one or the other party initiating the trouble with a surprise attack or carefully planned ambuscade. In reality, more often than not, most participants were drunk and usually found themselves unexpectedly banging away at each other over some perceived slight at distances of only one to six feet apart. That there weren’t more deaths in those wild & woolly days, was attributable more to the poor aim of the inebriated or unskilled combatants involved, rather than the civilized ‘restraint’ or gun control ordinances and law enforcement in place at the time. Other than the Tutt and Hickok fight, rarely did protagonists meet in the open and fire without first taking cover; and not often did they begin their draws at the same time. Here was a truly remarkable confrontation between equally brave men; unbowed veterans of the recent national conflagration, one good and one evil it was said, nursing grudges and ready at the drop of a hat to defend their honor and reputations with lead... 42
the story upon which the most oft repeated of Western legends is based. This is the gunfight retold in a million ways to suit the teller and sell their magazines and papers, recast as the white hats and black hats of early simplistic Western movies and television series, sanitized and simplified for the kid’s comics of the 1940s, 50s and 60s, and then ‘dirtied up,’ but nonetheless misrepresented by the hard cussing TV of the 21st Century. Needless to say, most of the accounts were embellished or inflated and real fights seldom happened as portrayed. But more tellingly, not even the Tutt/Hickok fight itself went down quite the way we might think. While Hickok had served the army of the North, and Tutt with the Confederacy, both were sporting men and not ideologues. They respected each other and were genuine friends, with the only reason one had to die being the pridefulness of the two men, and the values and customs of their age. Even so, it was anything but a quick draw match, with both men needing time to extricate their Colts from their protective full-flap holsters, held high and tight to their waists, rather than slung low and tied down, like the on-screen versions. Both men fired at almost the same time, but it was deliberate, aimed fire from eye level and not snap shots from the hip. Tutt had even turned sideways first, in true 18th Century duelist fashion. Tutt’s shot missed, while Hickok’s found its mark. If anything, Hickok warned against fast drawing and firing, advising anyone “getting in a row” to “take time... I’ve known many a feller to slip up for shootin’ in a hurry.” And while he dropped Tutt at the 75 yard mark, the other nine or so that he sent to their cowboy ‘Valhalla,’ were engaged at much closer ranges. Stories that he could hit an object thrown in the air with every shot from his two revolvers were balanced by more sober reports that he could quickly place all 12 shots inside a foot-wide board at 50 yards... more than adequate, nonetheless, in any real-world gunfight. And what he had equal to or in excess of, comparded to all other contemporary gunmen, was that quality I have spoken of elsewhere: deliberation... being able to make calm clear decisions and act unhesitatingly in the face of mortal threat. This he had in spades, along with an instinctual willingness to do whatever it takes whenever he thought himself right, even the taking of a life. (Continued in Part 2, next issue)
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Interior view of Molle Backpack Interior C9 - General Purpose Pouch Rifle Magazine Pouch with Swiss Arms Magazine snapped together
Warrior Continued from Page 33 getting scratched and scraped by sharp limbs, thorns and brambles. There were more than sufficient MOLLE/ PALS points sewn to the vest and these permitted a near endless combination of pouches and gear suitable for almost any task. For the external rucksack, I found the extra wide shoulder straps to be extremely comfortable and the fast release system made taking the pack off a breeze. It would have been nice, however, to see an internal organization system like that offered with the MOLLE backpack to keep items squared away in the ruck’s main compartment. Other than that, it is a great pack, especially for the price. I also really liked the rifle mag pouch design, and for my particular needs they were ideal. The pistol mags worked quite well for a ‘universal’ design, although they were more suitable to the ‘fatter’ double-stack mag designs. I’d like to see a somewhat smaller or redesigned pouch with the single stack 1911 magazine specifically in mind. The well uses with
C9 pouches were also extremely made and I never ran out of extra I could put one too. They closed a wide strip of Velcro fastener that
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Drop Leg Tactical Holster with Colt 1911 .45 ACP Pistol in Cadpat Digital Camo
ran the entire outside edge of the pouch. My only complaint was that Velcro can be noisy, so I learned not to keep my most ‘needful things’ in them when on stand; as the noise could spook a coyote or warn a bear that I was nearby. Other than that, they were bomb proof. Put simply, Warrior Gear is made to last. According to John, his kit has seen plenty of battlefield action and, in some cases, Warrior Gear chest rigs, tactical vests and pouches have seen as many as five overseas deployments. In almost all cases, they have returned with minimal signs of wear. This durability, John says, results from using only the highest quality materials. Given the fact that every piece of Warrior Gear kit comes with a full lifetime warranty/guarantee, I’d say he has faith in his product! Overall, what impressed me most about the whole Warrior Gear team is their commitment to getting things right, and to making sure that their customers get the very best they have to offer. According to John, individual soldiers and even civilians looking to have certain items tailored to their specific needs are more than welcome to drop him a line to discuss their particular requirements. Normally there are no additional charges, unless the modifications requested of their existing line of products are “extremely significant,” i.e., essentially a ‘oneof’ piece. In that case, such customers are in luck, as Warrior Gear offers the
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option of custom design, and such work is a major part of their company today. They now design and manufacture a broad spectrum of custom gear for individual users, military units and law enforcement agencies and departments. While Warrior Gear’s principal customers remain military and law enforcement, they are catering to a growing civilian sport shooter and hunter base, and there are plans to expand even further into these markets in the near future. They’re also now offering full custom embroidery work, via their new multi-head machines; mostly in response to growing demands from customers looking for reasonably priced name tapes, rank insignias, crests and badges. On the civilian side, John informs me that they’re also doing an increasing amount of company logo gear, as well as T-shirts and ball hats. Obviously, Warrior Gear is a company on the move, and best of all their kit is made right here. Do yourself a favour and take a serious look at Warrior Gear kit for your next purchase. For more information or to purchase Warrior Gear kit, customers can check out www.warriorgear.biz on-line, on Facebook at “Warrior Gear” or contact the shop directly by calling 613-6874143. All major forms of payment are accepted.
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Team NFA Cont. from Page 23
the wear and tear he’s put on it this past season. As with so many amateur athletes, Matt will spend the rest of his off-season working to raise funds for his 2011/2012 race season, while continuing to train as well.
Matt Neumann
Matt believes that the past 4-5 months training in Canmore has marked the end of the first phase of his athletic career. The lessons he has learned over this period has led him to an epiphany of sorts, and he now sees the start of the New Year as both his “New Beginning,” and the start of the next phase in his competitive career. It is readily apparent that Matt has experienced tremendous personal growth over the past year. He has developed an even tougher work ethic and fully accepts responsibility for his successes and failures. As Matt puts it, gone is the “wishing for success,” and in its place is a new mindset of “no excuses.” Matt has had very busy schedule this past winter, with IBU Cup trials in Lake Placid, the Canada Winter Games in Halifax, the Canadian National Biathlon Championships in New Brunswick, and the Canadian National Cross-country Championships in Canmore.
Matt demonstrating proper standing shooting form.
Matt’s most recent high profile success came at the 2011 Canada Winter Games in Halifax, where he competed in crosscountry skiing for BC; ultimately finishing 5th in the 10km skate event, and 3rd as the anchor in the 4X5km relay against a very competitive field. Matt was very enthused over the latter race, exclaiming that, “The relay was the most exciting racing moment of my life,” especially since he was able to control the pace for much of the race, until a last minute push by the Quebec team gave them the lead. Despite the last second change in standings, Matt described the relay as, the racing situation he had been dreaming of all season. Of course, he’d pictured his team winning, but 3rd is certainly an admirable accomplishment given the level of competition displayed at the games. Matt took from the games a positive attitude, noting that he was thankful for the experience, and that, “Every race has a lesson and this one made him especially hungry for his next sprint finish.”
Matt noted that the 2010-2011 race season has been the most exciting and expensive for him to date, and wished to extend his thanks to the NFA and its members for their much needed support. We’re proud to report that Matt is now on the brink of qualifying for national carding and has a very real shot at making the Sochi Olympic Games in 2014. You can follow Matt’s blog at: www.biathlete.blogspot.com
Robert “Fang” Engh Rob finished off his 2010-2011 competition season with a strong 2nd place finish at the “Montreal Indoor Challenge,” held this past January in Montreal, PQ. Rob was pleased with his shooting and was very enthused over the entire competitive experience offered by the Montreal match. As Rob noted, “A lot of shooters get the mid-
As we go to print, Matt still faces a very heavy race schedule with the Cross Country Ski National Championships (March 11-20) in Canmore, AB, followed by Biathlon National Championships the following weekend in Charlo, NB. Matt then finishes the season with Biathlon North American Championships in Whistler, BC (March 31-April 3) and the Whistler Loppet April 10th.
Matt shooting from the standing position at his primary training facility in Canmore, AB.
For the remainder of April, Matt will take a little time for what he calls “active recovery,” in order to allow his body to physically recover from
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Rob chatting with his fellow shooters between stages
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winter blues and forget what fun we have competing. Taking second just makes me push harder next time.” Winter, of course, is Rob’s traditional “off-season,” where he concentrates on his skills training and physical conditioning. It is during this hiatus from competition that he recharges his physical and mental batteries and, as Rob says, put his “head straight” in order to get himself prepped for the mental aspects of top-level competition. That also means he puts an insane amount of lead down range, with at least 1000 live rounds fired per week, with twice that via dry fire drills. As part of Rob’s normal training regime, he usually attempts to fire a minimum of 400-500 rounds in a training session; working on the fundamentals for the start of his session and then progressing to movement, reloads and multiple targets at the end. Rob tells me that he often starts each session with a cold run-on drill known as FAST (Fundamental Accuracy and Speed Test) as taught by his friend and firearms instructor Todd Green (www. pistol-training.com). Rob believes that this drill is a great way to warm up, and is also a great test of skills, especially as the first 6 shots of the day. Shot at 7 yards on a 3”x5” card and a 6” round target (pie plates work great), the shooter must draw and fire two rounds to the card, perform a slide lock reload and fire 4 shots to the circle. With all hits, times under 7 seconds get an ‘Advanced’ rating from Todd; under 5 (twice back to back) and you get a Challenge Coin from him as well. The caveat to all runs being they must be from concealment or police/military duty gear. Shooting with IPSC equipment, Rob improvises a time handicap by shooting with a jacket on to simulate the slower draw speeds necessitated by duty-type gear. In practice Rob usually manages sub-5 second runs! FAST drills are followed by pure accuracy drills, with Rob putting www.nfa.ca
Rob and a fellow shooter helping set-up for next stage.
successive strings of 10-20 rounds downrange on standard IPSC targets at 25 yards. He then brings the targets in for another accuracy pass at 15, 10, 7, 5 and 3 yards respectively. The closer the targets, the smaller the group size Rob expects. During these types of drills Rob works to stay focused on his front sight, stance, grip and trigger control. The very fundamentals that will ensure the accuracy he is looking for, and eventually will translate into the speed he needs to be competitive. After about 150-200 rounds, Rob switches to ‘draw and fire drills.’ Close targets are usually preferred for this, but to keep things fresh, Rob also includes a number of longer range targets as well. These are usually steel for simple convenience since they do not require visual confirmation of hits. Typically, Rob only spends about 50 rounds on drawing drills, as in reality you only have to draw once per stage at a match (sometimes not even that as we get table starts and such). As Rob says, “It’s the moving and shooting and transitions to multiple targets that are often of critical importance to a winning run.” Movement drills normally comprise of forward, backward, side to side, angular forward and back, and around obstacles. Care must be taken to remain aware of muzzle direction and trigger finger placement. If the shooter is not on target the trigger finger must be out of the trigger guard, and the muzzle must always point downrange. March - April
Using walls and barrels for improvised obstacles allows Rob to practice setting up on a target as he assumes his firing position, a very important skill in IPSC. At the same time, using targets in the open allows him to practice shooting on the move, arguably the most important skill beyond pure accuracy in ISPC. According to Rob, he believes that if targets are within 17 yards and movement is possible, he believes a shooter must be moving while engaging targets. To clue a training session up, Rob may run another FAST drill, or just end the day with an accuracy test. Rob notes that one of the most important things for any competitor to consider when practicing is not to spend too much time on the things you are good at. As a competitive shooter, you need to work on the things you don’t do well, so as to enhance your overall skill set and the end result will be to make you a much stronger competitor. Rob’s first BC match for the 2011-2012 season is slated for this May. Much of his time is currently occupied training for the season-opener. In addition to a slew of BC matches, Rob plans on attending a host of others, including a number in Alberta and hopes to make it ‘down east,’ hitting several in the Maritimes as well. In the meantime, Rob continues to raise money for his trip to the 2011 World Shoot in Greece. We wish him all the best in his upcoming shooting season.
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o
ld Books and Magic By Grayson Penney “One does not hunt in order to kill; on the contrary, one kills in order to have hunted...If one were to present the sportsman with the death of the animal as a gift he would refuse it. What he is after is having to win it, to conquer the surly brute through his own effort and skill with all the extras that this carries with it: the immersion in the countryside, the healthfulness of the exercise, the distraction from his job.
-Jose Ortega y Gasset, Meditations on Hunting.
“...If there’s one thing I despise it’s a killer, some blood-crazy idiot that just goes around bam-bamming at everything he sees. A man who takes pleasure in death just for death’s sake is rotten somewhere inside and you’ll find him doing things later in life that’ll prove it.” All true hunters agree with this, and we don’t kill out of bloodlust, and we don’t kill everything we see.
-Robert Ruark, The Old Man and the Boy
Growing up in Outport Newfoundland in the 1940s there wasn’t too much in the way of “modern” entertainment. We didn’t “Tweet,” or spend hours on Facebook “poking” each other, nor did we gather around the TV to watch the latest hunting show. Such things
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simply did not exist, and would not for a generation. There were books though. I remember sitting around the “Skipper’s” old leather armchair with my brothers, the hand carved plank floor beneath us, as he carefully selected one of his favourite volumes. Invariably, they’d either revolve around the sea & the day’s ‘wooden ships and iron men’ or hunting the far off places. As boys, we went on fantastic adventures, hunting rhino and Cape Buffalo on the “Dark Continent,” pursued Bighorns in the Rockies and fended off the depredations of man-eating polar bears in Canada’s North Country; all without leaving the comfort of mother’s parlour. The selections changed regularly. One night it was Theodore Roosevelt’s “African Game Trails,” the next, Col. John Patterson’s “The Man-Eaters of Tsavo,” the following evening perhaps something from Hemingway or Col. John Corbett. In those quiet evenings
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spent together, our faces glowing in the warmth of the kerosene light, we learned that true magic existed still in our tiny world. We got to accompany Roosevelt on his hunt for elephant and lion, pursue Bengal Tigers in India with Corbett, climb the highest mountain peaks with O’Connor, ford the most dangerous of rivers with Burton, and test our mettle against the worst Mother Nature had to offer. Those books not only opened an entirely new world to us, they got us to use our imagination. They made us draw mental pictures in our heads and to build entire new worlds; indeed, new realities that were so far beyond what we knew as small boys growing up in rural Newfoundland, as to almost defy belief. Yet, in order to accomplish this, those same books forced us to think, in doing so were transformed and transported. We heard the roar of the hunting lion at twilight as he padded across
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the African veldt, master of all he saw before him. We felt the rush of excitement that such a hunt brought and could anticipate the bone-jarring recoil of the handmade double rifle in the hunter’s hands; undoubtedly chambered in some brutally powerful calibre that had “nitro” or “magnum” in its name. We could feel our hands shake as our fingers carefully squeezed the set triggers of that masterpiece of the gunmaker’s art. We could see and taste the acrid cloud of white smoke produced by the explosion of the heavy drams of black powder; the charges that sent deadly chunks of hot lead deep into the breast of the ‘King of the Jungle,’ who was now a king no more. In later years I’d make the acquaintance of other authors and adventurers such as Robert Ruark, Gordon MacQuarrie, Gene Hill and many others. Books like the “The Old Man and the Boy,” “Horn of the Hunter,” “Stories of the Old Duck Hunters,” and “Mostly TailFeathers,” would become treasured friends. In turn, I introduced them to
my boys and someday, I’m sure, they’ll do the same for their kids. Those old memories were jogged just the other day while browsing the shelves of the local mega-bookstore. Looking at their selection of hunting and outdoor books, I saw countless volumes of “how-to-hunt” (insert animal name) but not a single volume from my own boyhood, or even something remotely similar. I’m sure most are long out of print, but I was still saddened by the thought that this generation would never get to enjoy that same magic those old books engendered in their readers. We need more books like that. Certainly it was a far more primitive era back then, but I wonder if ‘progress’ is all it is cracked up to be? I shudder to think how ‘progressive’ we will become once we fully enter the era of “E-readers” and electronic book readers. Will there be a place found for these classic tales of the hunt and adventure? There are a few glimmers of hope to be found in the current crop of writers, but all too often, they’re forced to promote certain things or ideas to the detriment of their story. Commercialism aside, I think what most differentiated these “old school” writers was their “heart,” their stories were not intended to sell a product or to be instruction manuals. More often than not they included just enough technical information to allow the complete neophyte to follow the prose - without becoming too lost. For most, however, their work was about the visceral - their feelings, the sights and sounds they experienced; the burning sun, the driving rain, the metallic smell of blood as it trickled from the wound of a dying gazelle.
made was all of secondary importance. It didn’t matter. There is no doubt that death was a major part of their narratives, however, it wasn’t included for shock value, but instead to demonstrate the value of life and the respect we owed to the animals we pursued. At its core, they taught us about life and presented us with model after which we could pattern our own lives. Alas, those same life-lessons are being lost or subsumed all too often today by our fast-paced lives, the march of technology and the constant distractions of our increasingly disposable lifestyles. Every year we’re seeing fewer and fewer kids opt to accompany their parents afield. We may choose to blame technology, the school system or TV, but we must also assume our own share of the responsibility. Picking up a good, old book and reading with your child is a great start at righting this wrong. Who knows, you might find that there is a little magic left in the world’s of Roosevelt and Ruark, and maybe, just maybe you might get a new hunting partner out of it.
The number of kills, the measure of their trophy or how far a shot the author
The Last Word... www.nfa.ca
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Pen
Belt Buckle Embroidered Patch
Canvas Hat ..................................Qty. _____ x $15.00 = $__________ T Black T Hunter Orange T Camouage T Clay Oilskin Hat - Brown ....................Qty. _____ x $20.00 = $__________ Leather Hat..................................Qty. _____ x $40.00 = $__________ T Black T Green
Canvas - Black
T-Shirts ........................................Qty. _____ x $20.00 = $__________ T Black T Sand T Kelly Green T Forest Green T Small T Medium T Large T XL T 2XL T 3XL Travel Mug
Tote Bag ......................................Qty. _____ x $20.00 = $__________ T Red T Dark Grey T Blue Stainless Steel Travel Mug..........Qty. _____ x $15.00 = $__________
Canvas Hunter Orange
Silver Belt Buckle .......................Qty. _____ x $20.00 = $__________ Knife with Carry Pouch ..............Qty. _____ x $15.00 = $__________ Pen.................................................Qty. _____ x $3.00 = $__________
Canvas Camouage
Large Crest Lapel Pin ...................Qty. _____ x $5.00 = $__________ Crest Lapel Pin
Embroidered Patch ........................Qty. _____ x $5.00 = $__________ Shipping & Handling:
Up to $20.00 - $5.00 Over $20.00 - $10.00 Total $__________
Canvas - Clay
Name: __________________________________________________ Knife w/ carry pouch
Address: ________________________________________________ City:____________________________________________________ Oilskin - Brown
Prov:______________________________________P.C.: _________ Ph: ( _____ ) ____________________ Fax: ( _____ ) ____________ T Cheque or Money Order enclosed
T Visa/Mastercard/AMEX
Card #:_________________________________ Expiry: __________ Signature: _______________________________________________ Kelly Green
Leather - Green
Mail to: National Firearms Association Box 52183, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2T5 Fax to:
(780) 439-4091
*Prices subject to change Leather - Black
Sand
Tote Bag - Blue
Tote Bag - Dark Gray Tote Bag - Red
Forest Green