EDITORIALS
FIREARM LEGISLATION
MANY OF OUR MEMBERS LOVE THE OUTDOORS. THEY
FIND CAMPING, HUNTING AND FISHING A GREAT PAST TIME. RECENTLY THE CANADIAN
GOVERNMENT HAS TRIED TO RESTRICT THE ACQUISITION AND POSSESSION OF FIREARMS
IN CANADA BY INTRODUCING A VERY CONTROVERSIAL PIECE OF LEGISLATION, CALLED
BILL C-68. THE EDITORIALS IN THIS SECTION ARE DEDICATED TO INFORM OUR
MEMBERS ON THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS THAT MIGHT HAVE AN IMPACT ON THEIR
WAY OF LIFE.
LATEST
ON FIREARM LEGISLATION 2001-200
PART 1:
REGISTRATION OF FIREARM OWNERS
HISTORY
Canada has some
of the toughest firearm legislation in the world (handguns have
been restricted and licensed since 1934). In 1993 additional legislation
severely restricted the acquisition, ownership, storage and transportation
of firearms. The ink waist’t dry on this legislation when
the Federal Government introduced new firearm restrictions. The
infamous Bill C-68 was introduced on February 14, 1995. The Senate approved
the bill and Royal Assent was granted on December 5, 1995.
IMPLEMENTATION
** Under Bill
C-68 all of the firearm owners in Canada had to be licensed by January
1, 2001. (1.5 million firearm owners if we use the Governments figures;
over 5.0 million if we use the Responsible Firearm Owner’s figures)
** All of the
10 to 25 million (depending on whose statistics one uses) firearms in
Canada will have to be registered by January 1, 2003.
THE FACTS
FACT: The
government claims that 80% of the firearm owners have complied and are
now licensed. They claim that this has been done by the January 1, 2001
deadline (based on the 1.5 million firearm owners figure). The cost of
this registration of firearm owners is now over 675 million dollars, since
1995. However, there’s a good chance that this total is wrong. The total
spent is probably nearer $900 million. Other related gun-control costs
are likely buried in various governmental departments so this astonishing
total is not obvious to voters and taxpayers.
FACT: As of January 1, 2001 approximately 30%
of the firearm owners in Canada have been license if we use the more realistic
figure of 5 million firearm owners. Therefore the final cost of registering
all of the firearm owners (if this is possible at all) will be an outrageous
figure of over 2.5 billion dollars.
In comparison the Government spent only about 160 Million Dollars on cancer
research last year and is planning to spend less than 100 million dollars
to fight terrorism this year.
FACT: The Canadian Firearms Center (CFC) is snowed under with paper work and
this government agency is inflicting unacceptable backlogs on law abiding
Canadians who have applied for Firearm Ownership Certificates and have
not received their documentation yet.
FACT: To
continue to squander tax revenue on this boondoggle while Canadian security
forces and the military go begging for resources to fight terrorism is
a clear indication that the present national government neither has the
will nor the vision to govern. This has been amply demonstrated in Afghanistan,
where even the Liberal Government admitted that our armed forces were
“over committed”.
**
Please Note: Firearm
deaths (2000/2001): LESS
THAN 200 CANADIANS (in fact 10 times as many Canadians die each year in
slipping in their bath tubs than in any firearm related incidents).
Deaths from Cancer (2000/2001):
OVER 60,000 CANADIANS
Money spent on Cancer Research (2000/2001): Only $160 Million Dollars
** Please Note: In national terms: $85 Million Dollars
would put another 1,000 custom agents on our borders.
** Please Note: In national terms: $500 Million Dollars would put an extra 5,900 police
officers on the streets.
FACT: The
Liberal Government (to be more specific, Allan Rock, the former Justice
Minister) had promised to scrap this bill if the cost exceeded 150
Million Dollars.
FACT: Most of the above
costs apply to the licensing of firearm owners; the cost of REGISTERING the 10 to 20 million firearms
is yet to come. This firearm registry will cost even more money than the
licensing of the firearm owners.
FACT: The RCMP have diverted
resources from law enforcement to employ over a thousand personal on the
firearm registry; this will reduce the number of officers and the amount
of money available to fight serious crime.
FACT: The bureaucracy has been expanded to over 1,800 employees
that work exclusively on the firearm issue.
FACT: Garry Breitkreutz,
the Alliance MP from Saskatchewan’s Yorkton-Melville, points out a glaring
fact in the StatsCan numbers: exactly two-thirds of firearms murders committed
in Canada are committed with handguns, which have been subject to registration
for 67 years, or sawed-off shotguns and fully automatic firearms, which
were illegal to own even before the registry.
PLEASE NOTE: YOU CAN NO LONGER GET AN FAC (firearm acquisition
license). Those firearm owners that still have an FAC will
have to apply for a FIREARM POSSESSION LICENSE or a FIREARM POSSESSION/
ACQUISITION LICENSE when their FAC expires.
PART 2.
REGISTRATION
OF FIREARMS
In late October 2001 the Justice minister Anne
Mclellan announced a “free” gun registry. In Manitoba every firearm owner
has received a firearm registration package and if he/she registered their
firearms by February 5, 2002 the registration fees were waved. The firearm
owner’s could/can register their firearms on line (www.canadianfirearms.com)
or by mail. Those that already registered their firearms and paid their
registration fees are eligible to get a refund.
There is nothing free about this registry. The true cost will never be known because of the intense government cover-up. The information that opposition critics such as Breitkreutz have been able to pry out of the Liberals using the freedom of information laws indicate horrendous costs and bureaucratic bungling.
If the federal justice minister was truly interested in the security of our country, she would suspend the registry immediately, pending a thorough review of the red-tap quagmire that she and her predecessor Allan Rock have inflicted on Canadians (Please note: Allan Rock is going to be one of the leadership candidates for the Liberal party when the Prime Minister retires in the near future). However, the Justice Minister won’t do any of the above because she is a Liberal and the Liberal Party is totally committed to Bill C-68.
The ‘free’ registration is so transparent that
the responsible firearm owner can only view it as proof positive that
the firearm registry is a total dismal failure. What the Government fears
is that the gun owners, as an act of protest, will wait until the last
minute before registering their firearms. The Firearm Center is already
snowed under with the registry of the firearm owners now they will
have to deal with the registry of tens of millions of firearms.
When the registry forms of the millions of
firearms hit the mail, the Firearm Center will be totally snowed under
and those individuals that intend to use firearms to commit a crime will
continue on as if the Firearm Registry never existed.
FINAL
COMMENT
Unfortunately there seems to be no relief in sight.
The Federal Government is intent on implementing Bill C-68 no matter what
the cost. The opposition is weak if it exists at all. The eastern media
is totally hostile to the Alliance and takes every opportunity to attack
and destroy the Alliance leadership. Mr. Clark and his handful of MP refuse
to join the Alliance on critical policy issues that affect Canadians living
outside of Ontario. Therefore, the Conservatives also contribute to the
chaos in Ottawa. The NDP at their recent convention took a turn to the
left and by doing this will probably even loose further support at the
national level. Taking all this political turmoil into consideration,
things look pretty bleak for the Responsible Firearm Owner.
Karl Kurt Preiss
Past President
THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD
