Bill C-42

The CPC is currently pushing the "Common Sense Firearms Licencing Act" The opposition is aghast, "the streets will run with blood" etc, etc. Beyond the rhetoric (from all sides) the reality is that this bill will do little and may even be harmful to gun owners down the line. The NFA has done a good review of the Act. The CSSA has done as well.

Some key points is that it eliminates the Authorization To Transport (ATT)  and rolls it into the licence. This actually reduces the paperwork burden on the RCMP and reduces the papaerwork for gun owners, but very little real benefit and several pitfalls may open up.

It requires that people actually attend training rather than challenge exams, this seem fair on the first glance till you realize that many place don't have anyone to train or run courses and that the Chief Firearm Officers (CFO) limit the number of trainers. This could put people wishing to own guns legally without any options. Won't bother the people who own illegal guns though.

One of the major issues gun owners have faced is arbitrator rules added on by the CFO without any recourse by the gun owner, you are basically completely at their mercy and several have little of it and fair bit "power tripping" issues.

In short this is mainly fluff in hopes to pander to a very active voting bloc of gun owners. The Liberals and NDP have been crying about the world ending, but have missed a masterful opportunity to repair relations with gun owners. the Liberals could have fixed C-42 and offered up better ideas while not giving up much more. But they are to busy pandering to their own base. The most painful part is the display of outright ignorance by the Libs and NDP about how the Firearm Act works and does not work. Plus ignoring peer reviewed studies showing the whole exercise of this type of control is basically useless.

At the end of the day both NFA and CSSA will support this, not because it's good law, but because the CPC is the party of no better choice. We really should run an ad in Craigslist saying: "3 million single issue voters looking a for a serious and respectful relation with a political party


I should add this is likely the biggest benefit to the average gun owner, but really a reflection of the cuts done to the CFO/CFC limiting their ability to d their legislated duties.

• Create a six-month grace period at the end of the five-year licence period to stop people from immediately becoming criminalized for paperwork delays around license renewals;

Guns used overwhelmingly for defense, make carriers safer

Oh this is embarrassing.....

Earlier this year, President Obama signed a set of executive orders targeting gun violence in the wake of the Sandy Hook shootings. Among them was an edict commanding the CDC to do a comprehensive survey of studies regarding guns and gun violence in the United States. Clearly, once the CDC produced the hard evidence that the US was a violent nation of wild-west shootouts, the American people would be eager to approve and fund future research while embracing strict gun control legislation.

At least that was the plan.  The study, which was compiled by the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council under the CDC's direction, was recently completed and released. The anti-gun crowd has been awfully quiet about it. Could it be that it didn't support their bogus hypothesis?

In a word, Yes. The CDC's numbers basically back every pro-gun rights argument made over the course of the last year.

First and foremost, the majority of annual gun-related deaths are due to suicide, not crime.

The study finds that "Between the years 2000-2010 firearm-related suicides significantly outnumbered homicides for all age groups, annually accounting for 61 percent of the more than 335,600 people who died from firearms related violence in the United States.”

snip

The CDC report finds that "Defensive use of guns by crime victims is a common occurrence."  In fact, while exact statistics are hard to come by, the report indicates that "Almost all national survey estimates indicate that defensive gun uses by victims are at least as common as offensive uses by criminals, with estimates of annual uses ranging from about 500,000 to more than 3 million per year, in the context of about 300,000 violent crimes involving firearms in 2008."

So, there's as much as a 10 to 1 ratio of defensive firearm use vs. offensive use, though admittedly the 3 million figure is probably a bit high.

The rest here: http://www.caintv.com/obama-orders-cdc-gun-violence

Canadian gun laws explained to a lay person

A great quote I had to share:
To sum up the gun laws to the non gun owner in Canada you can own a black 2011 gmc pickup but you can't own a red 2011 chevrolet pickupThanks to Jennis of CGN

When people give me a puzzled look when I try to explain our gun laws, I tell them: Applying logic to our gun laws will cause your head to explode. (Unless you of course apply the logic used to ban and confiscate all guns, then it makes sense)

Coming out of the gun closet part 2

Me attempting to look good in an IPSC competition


Sorry for the lag between posts, kids, work, life and video games keep getting in the way! This is the 2nd post in this series, a link to the preceding post is at the bottom of the post.

Do you need a licence and how do you get one?



Short answer is yes, long answer is that if the gun you have is not considered a firearm then no you do not. These would be pellet guns with a muzzle velocity below 500 feet per second (FPS) and antique guns. Police Officers on duty do not need a licence to carry their issue firearms or taking possession of a firearm while carrying out their duties. It comes to a shock to them that they can’t stroll into a gun store and buy a gun or ammo without the licence. As the executor of a will you can take possession of firearms as part of the estate, see more here.

The current gun licence is commonly referred to as a “PAL” which means Possession and Acquisition Licence. The old licences were called FAC’s and there is also the POL which stands for Possession Only Licence. These are being phased out.

The PAL is a Licence for the Individual. It allows them with restrictions to buy, sell and own guns. It is distinct from the gun registry. To get a PAL you will need to take a course and complete an exam. At which point your application is referred to the RCMP who will investigate you to determine if you have any criminal record or probations. You will need to seek permission from your spouse or guardians (if 16 or less years of age), supply character references. Quebec has Law 9 which is a far more invasive review (and possibly unconstitutional)

Once you have passed successfully through all stages of the review you become the proud holder of a PAL. Make careful note of the expiry date, if you let expire and have guns, you are now a criminal.


What is gun registration and does it work?



The first gun registry in Canada was invoked in 1934 and required you to register your handgun. This was to keep guns out of the hands of undesirables such as union members who were seen as potential communists. The current combined long gun and handgun registry created in 1998 and came into force in 2002 covers both long guns (rifles, shotguns) and handguns. The reason for the implementation of the long gun registry is unclear, proponents claim it helps them keep guns out of the hands of criminals, opponents of the registry claiming the real reason is the eventual confiscation of all firearms. I favour the latter theory as history shows us once the government know what, where and who has them, they will eventually come for them. The former theory is flawed as criminals don’t register guns and handgun crime is rising despite 77 years of a handgun registry. For more on the failures of the registry see my other blog “Epic failures of the gun registry”

How it works
Within the database firearms are identified by what is called a Firearm Reference Table (FRT) Number. Each model of gun known to be in Canada is given a FRT number, without out this number a gun can’t be registered, so if they “withdraw” the FRT number from the database, then the model of gun disappears and the clerks at the CFC can’t find it, convenient way to get rid of unwanted types of guns right?

If I go to a store and say I want to buy a Non-restricted Ruger 10/22 carbine, the store clerk takes my PAL, phones the CFC and requests that a Ruger 10/22 carbine Serial XXXXXX currently registered to the store, be transferred to myself, the CFC checks my record and sees that my PAL is valid and there are no prohibitions on my file. If so they then authorize the store to sell me the rifle, and give them a transfer number. I can then take the gun home, in a couple of weeks (in BC, the CFO office is fairly quick and the ladies are quite nice, Ontario and Quebec not so much) I will get a registration certificate in the mail. I must carry a copy of it with me when using/transporting the gun.
Now if I wanted to buy a restricted rifle or pistol, it gets more complicated, I select the gun and pay the money, the store calls the CFC, they start the transfer process, generally it will take a couple of days to a couple of weeks, when the transfer is complete I can pick up the gun and take home. I will need a Temporary “Authorization to Transport” (ATT), once I get the registration papers, I can then use my long term ATT to transport the gun (more on ATT’s later) anywhere that I am authorized. This process varies between Provinces.



What types of guns can you own?


My Dlask 10/22 target rifle

A non-restricted PAL will allow you to own any non-restricted rifle or shotgun, a restricted PAL will allow to own handguns and restricted firearms such as the AR-15. All handguns except for antiques are either restricted or Prohibited (either by barrel length or calibre). Rifles & shotguns are restricted either by barrel length or by name ( Such as the AR-15 and variants)
Prohibited firearms include pistols with a barrel length of less than 106mm, calibres of .25 & ,32cal. Rifles are generally prohibited by name (FAL, AK-47 and variants) Only individuals that are grandfathers or have certain special licences can posses these. If you let your PAL expire, before getting the new one, you will lose your grandfathered status. If you didn’t bother to convert to the PAL system from the FAC and you own one of these you are screwed.


A Degtyaryov's infantry machine gun (no you can't have one, it's prohibited)

Automatic firearms such as sub-machine guns, automatic rifles, pistols, light and medium machine guns are prohibited firearms, only a select few individuals are grandfathered for these and a number of businesses have licence to posses them, generally for the movie industry. To note I am not aware of any homicide ever committed with a registered automatic firearm. They are just to valuable and expensive.
Lastly antique guns such as early Webely MkII revolvers and old muskets are not considered firearms and do not require a PAL .

Replica guns are prohibited, but the law defining such has been murky, any device designed to look like a firearm that can shoot a projectile such as Airsoft guns are not replicas and are not banned. For more information go to Airsoft Canada.

More to come in “Coming out of the gun closest part III”

Older posts in this series
“Coming out of the gun closest part I”

Confiscation has always been a Liberal goal

Update
The NRA advises they have been aware of this document for a long time, they have never been able to verify it completely so they have not used it. So you can’t really include it yet with other Liberal underhanded undertakings like, Adscam, Gun registry costs, etc, etc. nevertheless I hold that the main thrust of the document is true and fits the activities of the Liberal connected politicians, police forces and the Canadian Firearms Officers.




The Liberals have claimed confiscation of firearms was never their goal, but this document released in a Freedom of Information request shows that it was exactly their intent Read the rest of this disgusting piece at the Don't tread on me blog.

Right Interviews - Lawyer Edward Burlew Discusses Gun Issues

Be prepared to be outraged, it’s an incredible story, it is 11 minutes long and there is strong language in the surveillance tapes that is not work or child safe.

Guns and Woman’s lib movement

One thing I never understood about the women’s liberation movement is their hate-fest for guns? For one thing, it was World War I & II that really gave woman in North America the chance to work in areas previously reserved for men. Yes they were forced out of their jobs when the men returned, but the artificial barriers were cracked and failing, those fateful years are where the seeds of modern feminism sprang from, yet there is no desire to honour those roots.



The pictures are of the Inglis factory where hundreds of women learned how to make rifles, pistols and light machineguns. The guns produced at this factory during those years were very well made and are still serving our troops today. A legacy these woman should be proud of!



Likely the pistol shown here was made by one of the women in the pictures







Now for guns themselves, woman should logically be fully supportive of the right to bear arms. Carrying a gun is the perfect equalizer between a woman and man. Now some person is going to pull out some tired out story about “The bad guys will take the gun and use it against you” Well I’m sorry but the statistics don’t support that theory, plus it reeks of the concept that woman are not bright enough to be trained in defending themselves. Another tired clique is “Americans love guns, Canadians don’t” Total and utter BS. There are something to the tune of 33million guns that were manufactured or imported into Canada, so that’s about 1 gun per Canadian. Early Canada was all about guns, both for hunting and defense. Both woman and men had to become adept at using them. Until the 70’s concealed carry of guns was not uncommon and the whole set of laws still exist to allow you to carry a gun for self-defense if you can get the permit. (make sure you are a politician, judge, VIP or a really nasty criminal willing to turn evidence, in other words we the people aren’t important enough!)

Thankfully many of the women of the current generation are not willing to play the victim role and are getting their firearm licenses. Speaking to instructors, a large number of the classes in the Vancouver area are full of women who enjoy shooting and want to be able to defend themselves. I suspect that many future rapists and domestic abusers are going to introduce to the business end of Mr. Smith and Mr. Wesson, instead of the meek helpless victim they had hoped for.

So if you can't think of a Christmas for your lady, consider a trip to a gun range that lets you rent firearms like DVC in Vancouver. She will have a blast (Pun intended)like this Lady clearly did.

More guns, less crime

A tad old, but worth posting as reality keeps getting in the way of gun control nuts arguments. By the way the sale of ammunition in North America excluding military buys was 12 billion rounds of ammunition sold. I don’t want to do the math on just how small the percentage of ammo used in crime is.

FBI RELEASES 2009 CRIME REPORT . . . As firearms and ammunition experienced record sales in 2009, the nation's crime rates continued to fall, a new report from the FBI shows. During 2009, violent crime declined for the third straight year, with an estimated 5.3 percent drop from 2008 figures. Homicides were down 7.3 percent. The FBI statistics undermine a favorite argument of anti-gun groups and some mainstream media that "more guns equal more crime," especially when you consider that the decrease in violent crime in 2009 occurred at the same time that firearm sales were surging.

THIRD YEAR OF FALLING CRIME PROVES

GUN GRABBERS WRONG CCRKBA



BELLEVUE, WA For the third straight year, violent crime has declined in all categories while gun sales climbed, gun ownership expanded and more citizens are carrying firearms for personal protection; proof positive that gun prohibitionists have been consistently and undeniably wrong, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.

The FBI released its 2009 report on Crime in the United States, showing that murder declined 7.3 percent, robberies fell 8 percent, aggravated assault dropped by 4.2 percent and forcible rape has declined 2.6 percent. Meanwhile, the National Shooting Sports Foundation notes that gun sales in 2009 were up dramatically.


From NRA-ILA - Gun Ownership Rises to All-Time High,

Violent Crime Falls to 35-Year Low


Coinciding with a surge in gun purchases that began shortly before the 2008 elections, violent crime decreased six percent between 2008 and 2009, including an eight percent decrease in murder and a nine percent decrease in robbery.1 Since 1991, when violent crime peaked, it has decreased 43 percent to a 35-year low. Murder has fallen 49 percent to a 45-year low.2 At the same time, the number of guns that Americans own has risen by about 90 million. Predictions by gun control supporters, that increasing the number of guns, particularly handguns and so-called “assault weapons,” would cause crime to increase, have been proven profoundly lacking in clairvoyance.4

Crimes per 100,000 population
Total Violent Crime

Aggravated Assault

Year
Murder
Rape
Robbery

1991
758.1
9.8
42.3
272.7
433.3

2008
457.5
5.4
29.7
145.7
276.7

2009
429.4
5.0
28.7
133.0
262.8

Trend, 2008-2009
-6%
-8%
-4%
-9%
-5%

Trend, 1991-2009
-43%
-49%
-32%
-51%
-39%

More Guns: There are well over 250 million privately-owned firearms in the U.S., including nearly 100 million handguns and tens of millions of “assault weapons”—the types of firearms that gun control supporters have tried the hardest to get banned5—and the number of firearms typically rises about 4 million per year.6 Annual numbers of new AR-15s, the most popular semi-automatic rifle that gun control supporters call an “assault weapon,” are soaring. In 2008, there were more than 337,000 new AR-15s configured for home defense, competition, training, recreational target practice and hunting.7 NRA-supported Instant Check firearm transactions have increased over 10 percent annually since 2006.8

Less Gun Control: Over the last quarter-century, many federal, state and local gun control laws have been eliminated or made less restrictive. The federal “assault weapon” ban, upon which gun control supporters claimed public safety hinged, expired in 2004 and the murder rate has since dropped 10 percent. The federal handgun waiting period, for years the centerpiece of gun control supporters’ agenda, expired in 1998, in favor of the NRA-supported national Instant Check, and the murder rate has since dropped 21 percent. Accordingly, some states have eliminated obsolete waiting periods and purchase permit requirements. There are now 40 Right-to-Carry states, an all-time high, up from 10 in 1987. All states have hunter protection laws, 48 have range protection laws, 48 prohibit local gun laws more restrictive than state law, 44 protect the right to arms in their constitutions, 33 have “castle doctrine” laws protecting the right to use guns in self-defense, and Congress and 33 states prohibit frivolous lawsuits against the firearm industry.9 Studies for Congress, the Congressional Research Service, the Library of Congress, the National Institutes of Justice, the National Academy of Sciences, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have found no evidence that gun control reduces crime.10 The FBI doesn’t list gun control as one of the many factors that determine the type and level of crime from place to place.11

via http://www.ssanz.org.nz/

In this country one can be charged and get a criminal record for not doing something.

A good letter in a local paper about the gun registry
Interesting statistics. (A look at who’s packing what, Oct. 15, 2010 South Delta Leader). But I sense another excuse for a long gun registry.

The reasons the long gun registry is opposed by so many are not obvious to readers of such articles. Registration is often confused with other sections of firearms law such as transportation, storage and licensing.

A registered firearm is generally owned by a hunter, collector or target shooter who is required to have a license and it is obvious that if the police can determine that a member of a given household holds as firearm license he or she likely owns a firearm.

The registry is redundant, especially if one considers the average criminal in possession of a firearm would be foolish to apply for a license and register a gun intended to be used in a crime. The argument that we register cars does not apply.

There is nothing in the criminal code that precludes me from removing the plates from my car and storing it in my garage. If my car were stolen from a locked garage I would be considered a victim, but if my properly stored gun were stolen there is a good chance the investigating officer would initially charge me with unsafe storage of a firearm and I could have a criminal record for the rest of my life.

In fact, if my firearms license were to expire prior to me filling out the renewal paperwork I would also be liable to charges under the criminal code and I am baffled by the fact in this country one can be charged and get a criminal record for not doing something.

Please, media people, do some research and tell the whole story.

Mike Young,

Delta

Epic failures of the gun Registry

The purpose of this blog is to track failures of the gun registry. Stories submitted must have happen to you personally or directly from someone you know. No “I heard from my uncles friends buddies” stories. We want to stay as factual as we can be within the restraints that we are working under.
I will submit my story first;
Waited till the last minute to register my .22cal rifle and .303 Enfield, both of which I had owned since I was 18 with no issue. Sent the papers by registered mail and got the receipt back. 2 years later I get a letter from the Canadian Firearms Centre (CFC) stating: “Due to missing information my file can not be completed and that if I don’t respond my file will be closed and I would be a criminal”. (not exact wording but close enough)
Phoned up the CFC to ask what information was missing, they replied……..
“We need your mailing address”
So I asked: “If you didn’t have that, how could you have sent me a letter?” Very long pause……..”Thank you we will complete your file now”

This is a true story on how I avoided being a criminal (so far)

More here at: Epic failures

Coming out of the gun closet

Post 1.

Actually I “came out” quite a few years ago. Lesson learned, if you act like what you do is wrong, then people will build on that feeling even if there is nothing wrong with what you are doing. I thought I would do a series of posts to explain to the lay person about guns, gunowners, statistics, politics and laws of Canada. I will try to do it by the questions I am often asked. I hope you find the information and the format useful.

1. Question; Why do you own a gun?
Simple and short answer, I like them, I like shooting them, figuring out how they work and trying to hit the target. I also own some for protection from predators while I work and hike. Some people own guns for self-defence, yes even in Canada and it’s not as illegal as you think, this subject though deserves a post of itself. Which I will do later.

2. Question: Why do people collect guns?
For the same reasons people collect music boxes, banks, coins, cars, spoons, hockey cards, stamps or any other manner of things. Guns can be a good representation of the culture they came from, a German Luger is a complex piece made in that old world craftsman sort of way, each piece hand fitted to the next, a Russian TT-33 is rough, strong and no nonsense, similar to the Soviet Union that produced them. Each one has a story to tell. The mechanics of how it works, how it came to be is fascinating. Imagine something that has to move easily, suddenly absorb and lock up 50,000 pounds per square inch (psi) and then release itself and cycle another bullet smoothly to repeat, all using a simple spring, a chemical reaction and some mechanical advantage.
Many people collect guns from certain periods of history, some are early 17th century, others the Napoleonic period. The end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th saw a blizzard of new designs and new ideas, each causing the ones just before it to be obsolete, similar in nature to the lightening fast development of the personal computer. As mentioned each design and type reflects the culture and the technology of the period and place it came from.

3. Question; How many gun owners in Canada?
An excellent question with a less than clear answer. Under the current licensing system (PAL) there were 1,863,356 licensed firearm owners in Canada as of 2008. Yet in around 1995 there was close to 4 million firearm holders under the old system (FAC) almost half of the gun owners in Canada refused to comply with the new system, one of the largest acts of civil disobedience in our history and not a note of it in the media, interesting eh? There is also approx. 4,000 firearm businesses in Canada to support them, the majority being small family owned businesses.

The next post in this series
Part II
Part III