As we all recover from the election and its decidedly unhelpful outcome, it’s time to reflect on what we did during the election, what we accomplished as well as where we fell short.
It’s also a time to remind ourselves and our members why CSSA exists.
“To Preserve, Promote and Protect the Lawful Use and Ownership of Firearms in Canada”
The only way to preserve and protect our ability to lawfully own and use firearms is to be involved politically because – as the title of this commentary makes clear – your guns have only two enemies: rust and politicians.
1. About All Those Election Emails
We received a few emails from people upset with us for being so active during the recent federal election.
- “You sent way too many emails.”
- “Stop the politics and stay in your own lane.”
- “I’m sick of you telling me that voting Conservative is the only way to protect my guns.”
- “Not one more dime until CSSA, NFA and CCFR merge into a single organization.”
If you agree with the statements above, here’s a hard truth you may not want to face.
Telling CSSA to “shut up” during an election is akin to screaming at the fire alarm because it woke you up when your house is on fire.
No rational person would be upset with the fire alarm. You would be grateful for it because you and your family are alive because of it.
Think of CSSA as your firearms fire alarm.
Our collective house is on fire, so let’s focus our anger where it belongs.
Not on the people warning us about the dangers we face, but on the two groups responsible for the terrible position we find ourselves in today: activists and politicians who lie about us, and the majority of our own community who don’t believe they’re in any danger at all.
These individuals want us to abandon two-thirds of our mission and focus solely on “promoting” the lawful use of their firearms.
2. Electoral Reality by the Numbers
Less than 4% of all licensed firearms owners support CSSA, the NFA or the CCFR – the three main advocacy groups working to defend our culture, our heritage, our way of life and our guns.
We (and they) did everything we could to get you to vote to protect your culture, your heritage and your guns over the past 5 weeks.
We did everything we could to encourage you to take your family members and friends to the voting booth with you, because there is great power in our numbers if we can mobilize them into action.
Despite the urgency and importance of those efforts, some people got angry about a few extra emails during the 5-week campaign.
If you don’t want to hear from us the solution is really simple: Click the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of every email we send.
But on that inevitable day “they” come for your guns, don’t cry to us and demand we “do something.”
We’ve been “doing something” for over 60 years (see https://cssa-cila.org/about/) and we will never stop fighting to preserve, promote and protect our culture, our heritage and our guns.
3. Take Our Political Enemies at Their Word
This quote should chill every firearms owner to the bone.
“We have an agenda, and our task will be completed when ALL FIREARMS have been prohibited. Our position has been consistent over these five years and will not change.”
This isn’t speculation.
It isn’t paranoia.
It’s our political enemy’s stated goal, as Heidi Rathjen told the 1995 committee on Bill C-68 (today’s Firearms Act).
Successive Liberal governments have done their bidding for a generation because they know it earns them votes in cities terrorized by drug dealer and gang violence.
Ordinary Canadians know nothing about firearms or Canada’s gun laws.
If they did, they’d understand why every new gun ban fails to stop violent criminals from shooting up our city streets.
You can’t ban guns from people who don’t obey laws.
4. The Illusion of Political Safety
They came for the automatic firearms first.
You didn’t complain because you don’t own an automatic firearm.
They came for the black rifles next.
You didn’t complain because you don’t own a black rifle.
Then they came for the handguns.
You still didn’t complain because you don’t own a handgun.
When we raise a stink about the billions of dollars that will be wasted on confiscating these guns, you shrug your shoulders and say, “Not my problem” or “Who cares? I don’t own any of those guns.”
But it is your problem.
Our political enemies will not stop once the black rifles are confiscated.
Nor will they stop when they make handgun shooting extinct (and Canadian Olympic shooting sports along with it).
Less than 32% of licensed firearms owners in Canada own black rifles and/or handguns.
The rest, the majority, 68% of all licensed firearms owners, deceive themselves into believing the government and the activists who drive its gun confiscation and destruction agenda will NEVER come for their shotguns or hunting rifles.
Today’s “reasonable restrictions” always become tomorrow’s “loopholes” which must be closed “for public safety.”
You are NOT immune from gun bans and confiscations.
Once the black rifles and handguns are gone, you’re NEXT.
5. Firearms Have Only Two Enemies: Rust and Politicians.
Most of us are meticulous about protecting our investments from rust. We clean them diligently. We store them properly. We invest in dehumidifiers, silica packets, and quality oils.
But what about that second, far more dangerous enemy?
The CSSA and advocacy groups like us don’t exist to tell you how to protect your firearms from rust.
We exist to help protect your firearms from politicians.
While rust might claim a finish or pit a barrel, politicians will steal everything – your magazines, your modern sporting rifles, your handguns, your ammunition and spare parts, and eventually, if we don’t stand together, every single firearm you own – including your shotguns and hunting rifles.
The 2023 RCMP Commissioner’s Firearms Report (the latest available) says there are 2,364,726 licensed firearms owners in Canada.
- Over 1.5 million hold non-restricted firearms licenses.
- 752,002 hold restricted firearms licenses.
Yet the combined membership of Canada’s three national advocacy organizations – the CSSA, CCFR, and NFA – represent a tiny fraction of that number.
Let’s be generous and say all three organizations combined have 100,000 paying members.
Just 4% of all licensed firearms owners actively support the political fight to protect and defend our culture, our heritage, and our guns.
The other 96% are Firearms Freeloaders.
A firearms freeloader is
- the PAL holder who enjoys the benefits of firearms ownership while others foot the bill for protecting those rights.
- the shooter who complains about restrictions but has never donated a dollar to advocacy.
- the collector who has time to purchase that long-desired firearm but “doesn’t have time” to send an email to their MP.
- the gun owner who says, “My shotguns and hunting rifles are safe – they’re only after the black rifles and handguns.”
6. The Myth that “One Big Organization” Can Save Us
“If only we had one unified organization,” some say.
“These three small groups are useless,” others complain.
Let’s be blunt.
Even if we merged the CSSA, CCFR, and NFA tomorrow – and even if every single current member of those groups joined this hypothetical super-organization – we’d still represent less than 100,000 gun owners, barely 4% of all PAL holders in Canada.
Only 15% of all Restricted Firearms License Holders are members of any national advocacy group.
Think about that.
Of the 752,002 restricted license holders currently under direct attack by our federal government, a staggering 85% don’t care enough about their firearms to join the political battle that will determine whether those firearms stay in their gun safe or end up in a government smelter.
What these well-intentioned critics miss is that each organization serves a different segment of our community.
What appeals to a hunter probably does not resonate with a sport shooter.
What motivates a collector often differs from what drives an IPSC or IDPA shooter.
Merging wouldn’t create a single, stronger voice – it would alienate large portions of our existing supporters while the majority of licensed gun owners would remain where they are today, sitting on the sidelines and lying to themselves.
7. The problem isn’t three organizations instead of one.
The problem is that, of the 2,364,726 licensed firearms owners in Canada, less than 100,000 are willing to stand up, be counted and vote with their dollars to support their culture, their heritage, and their guns.
If every single licensed firearms owner in Canada joined the political fight, we wouldn’t be begging for scraps at the political table – we would be setting the menu.
With 2.36 million informed and engaged voters, we wouldn’t just influence elections – we could decide them.
Imagine what would happen if all 2,364,726 licensed firearms owners in Canada acted with a unified voice.
No party could afford to ignore a voting block of that size.
In a country where federal elections are often decided by a hundred thousand votes, this would make us the single most powerful special interest group in the country.
Politicians would be lining up to hear our concerns.
Policy proposals would be vetted through our organizations first.
Instead of fighting defensive battles in Parliament and on Election Day, we’d be advancing positive change for real public safety advances, not another round of virtue signaling gun bans that have no effect on public safety.
8. The Path Forward Begins With You
Today, we’re asking you to make a choice that will directly impact Canada well beyond your lifetime.
Will you continue to be one of the 2.26 million silent PAL holders who benefit from the sacrifices of the few?
Or will you join the ranks of those who understand that our strength lies – not in having one organization – in having millions of engaged citizens fighting this political battle?
Your PAL isn’t just a license to own firearms. It’s your admission ticket to one of the largest potential voting blocks in Canadian politics – if only we would use it effectively.
The federal election may be over, but the political battle for our culture, our heritage and our firearms continues unabated.
Here’s what you can do today:
- Join the CSSA.
- Set up a monthly recurring donation that matches what you’d spend on a box of ammunition.
- Recruit five of your PAL holder friends to join the political fight with a CSSA membership.
- Write to your MP, regardless of their party affiliation, and make sure they know where you stand on the issue of gun bans vs real measures that will stop gang violence and the flood of illegal weapons coming across our southern border.
Why?
Because the next time Liberal firearms legislation threatens your culture, your heritage, and your guns, you’ll want satisfaction of knowing you did everything possible to protect them – and that you stood shoulder-to-shoulder with 2.3 million of your fellow Canadians who did the same.
We’re in this mess today because 96% of our community falsely believes this political battle doesn’t affect them and their guns.
The world is run by those who show up.
And those who show up make sure everyone they know shows up too.When our community embraces this simple philosophy and works together for our common benefit – no matter what type of firearms we own – we will become the unstoppable political force we should have been all along.
