COMMENTARY – QUEBEC’S BILL 64, THE FIREARMS REGISTRATION ACT, WILL PENALIZE LAW-ABIDING GUN OWNERS. AGAIN.
Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard claims a “consensus” on gun registration.
“We must establish a gun registry. I think we are in Quebec pretty much united on this point, that firearms are not ordinary objects, they need to be registered and they need to be surveilled at all times, I think there’s a strong consensus,” said Couillard.
We have long ago abandoned any illusion that the motive is to combat crime or improve public safety. Indeed, the only people who will abide by this new gun registration law are law-abiding gun owners – the very same law-abiding gun owners who are no threat to public safety. The “danger domain” is inhabited by violent criminals and gangs who will never register their guns, despite fines from $500 to $10,000.
With a comically unbelievable price tag of $17 million to set up Quebec’s new gun registry and another $5 million per year to run it, reasonable people are left wondering if Couillard discovered some magic elixir to keep the cost way, way down. After all, the CBC reported that the old national long-gun registry cost Canadians over $2 billion and over 25 per cent of Canada’s firearm owners live in “la belle province.”
But let’s say we accept the $17 million number. Surely $17 million can do a lot of real-world practical things for public safety, instead of wasting it in the endless abyss of feel-good legislation?
Quebec’s Acting Public Security Minister Pierre Moreau claims a gun registry is required to maintain public safety and protect police officers.
“It gives you an extra tool to make sure that whenever there’s a violent situation, that you will know whether or not there is a gun on the premises,” said Moreau.
Except, of course, that isn’t true. It is wishful thinking, and most of us learn in our childhood that wishing for something doesn’t make it so. Worse, any police officer that might believe this silly notion places them in grave danger. If the idea of improving officer safety was on the agenda, the Quebec government just had a miserable fail.
He then goes on to cite that favourite (yet thoroughly debunked) of all gun control statistics: that the national gun registry was consulted by Quebec police over 900 times a day. Katey Montague has a humorous video on YouTube explaining how this statistic is manufactured: Canada’s Gun Registry Stats are Hot Air.
Using torqued statistics isn’t the silliest thing Minister Moreau has done in promoting Bill 64, the Gun Registration. He actually wants Quebec to obtain a copy of the error-riddled and outdated federal gun registry data and use that as a building block for their shiny new registry. While the Trudeau government might be willing to give him the hopelessly stale database, there is zero gold down that mineshaft!
“The March decision provided that the federal government is the owner of the data. But we have discussions with the federal government, with the new federal government in order to be able to recuperate whatever is left from the national registry. And my understanding is that the federal government, if they can put their hand on data that could be used by Quebec, that they will transfer it gladly to the province,” said Moreau.
Using outdated and corrupt data from the failed national long-gun registry makes us wonder about Minister Moreau’s true motives again. Is it really about public safety or is it simply about harassing Quebec’s gun owners?
The reasons you would want to start with stale and corrupt data are unfathomable. It certainly indicates that there is no desire for accuracy in this new registry. It’s all about crass politics –pure and simple.
The last long-gun registry proved to be a useless and expensive failure. There is no reason to believe that Quebec’s new long-gun registry will be any better.
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WE’RE STILL LOOKING …
Do you want to tell your children and your grandchildren that you were “on the front line” protecting their rights?
Are you in the following geographic locations: BC Mainland, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba, Eastern Canada and Quebec?
Team CSSA is working to re-energize and re-focus our corps of volunteer regional directors. Would you like to be part of our exciting new RD Program and help represent Canada’s greatest firearm organization across the nation?
It will require some definite, but modest, time commitments. Time well spent with friendly firearm owners representing the Canadian Shooting Sports Association.
If you’re interested, please send an email to Christine Scott at christine.scott@cssa-cila.org.
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THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD – WE NEED YOU!
The CSSA is reactivating our letter-writing teams. This group of articulate scribes is needed to counter inaccurate or biased media with fact-based points of view. Our previous letter-writing team was very effective in helping Canadians understand the many problems with the now deceased long-gun registry. Some basic training is provided. As well, this group will also be schooled in Access to Information requests and how to properly prepare and submit them on the CSSA’s behalf.
If you are interested, please send an email to Christine Scott at christine.scott@cssa-cila.org
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HELP SUPPORT THE GREAT WORK THE CSSA DOES TO PROTECT YOUR RIGHTS. DONATE HERE
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LIBERAL GUN REFORMS ‘BIZARRE’: ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER (By Ian MacLeod | Ottawa Citizen | December 4, 2015)
The Liberals’ proposed gun law reforms are “just bizarre,” says a member of the committee advising Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale on firearms issues.
Tony Bernardo, who sits on the Canadian Firearms Advisory Committee, took aim at several promised gun law changes, especially one to shake up the committee’s membership to include public health advocates and women’s groups.
“Would you put non-medical experts on a medical committee? Would you take people who didn’t know anything about airplanes and put them on an aeronautical committee? It does seem a little bizarre,” the executive director of the Canadian Shooting Sports Association said in an interview.
The previous Conservative government reorganized the advisory committee in 2013 after criticism of the committee’s makeup from gun-control groups. Three police officers, including a chief of police, replaced three gun enthusiasts.
“We have a large number of people on the committee that are police officers,” Bernardo said. “We’ve had at times medical professionals, including emergency room trauma surgeons. Putting somebody on there from a woman’s group? I can’t figure out the reason they might want to do that.
“You can’t even use the lame excuse that they’re victims of gun violence,” he said. “That’s not true, two-thirds of all gun violence (involve) men.”
His comments come amid a fresh spate of U.S. gun violence and efforts on both sides of the border to prevent more carnage. Mass shootings in California and Paris have claimed 144 lives in just three weeks.
On Thursday, Quebec tabled provincial legislation to create its own gun registry, while a Conference Board of Canada report on “active shooters” called for, among other measures, collaboration and training between police and private security guards at malls, theatres, schools and other crowded public spaces where many mass shootings occur.
In Friday’s throne speech, meanwhile, the Liberal government vowed to introduce legislation “that will get handguns and assault weapons off our streets.”
Bernardo said the low-key firearms advisory committee typically ranges from 10 to 13 members on renewable, two-year terms and meets no more than twice a year in Ottawa. Sometimes it’s to advise the minister on a specific request, other times for topics on the committee’s agenda.
The chief mandate, he said, is public safety. “No matter what you might read in a Liberal press release, nobody would ever do anything to compromise public safety.”
Public Safety Canada referred questions about the government’s proposed changes and current gun laws to the RCMP, which is responsible for licensing and regulating firearms under the Canadian Firearms Program. The RCMP declined comment.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is promising to repeal elements of Bill C-42, a Conservative gun law that came into force earlier this year.
The Liberals would restore the requirement for a specific permit to transport restricted and prohibited weapons to and from such locations as a shooting range or gunsmith. Under the C-42, the authorization to transport the weapon is automatic with the granting of a licence.
The Grits also would repeal a section of C-42 giving cabinet, not police, final say over which firearms are restricted. The Conservatives used the new power in August to reverse an RCMP ban on certain Czech and Swiss-made rifles that closely resemble prohibited automatic firearms.
Bernardo attacked those pledges and related ones in the Liberal platform, too, saying: “There’s stuff in there that’s just bizarre.”
He said the Liberal promise to ban restricted and prohibited guns from being “freely transported without a permit” is wrong; where a paper permit was previously required for certain transport purposes, C-42 did away with the paper permit and, starting in September, “authorizations to transport” were automatically included with a gun licence, with an electronic record available to police officers on their in-car computers.
He also took issue with the Liberal pledge to put “decision-making about weapons restrictions back in the hands of police, not politicians.”
“We elected politicians to go to Ottawa and make our laws, we don’t elect police to make our laws,” he said.
See the gun reform promises from the Liberal platform: http://ottawacitizen.com/news/politics/liberal-gun-reforms-bizarre-advisory-board-member
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QUEBEC LONG-GUN REGISTRY: LIBERALS WANT EVERY FIREARM NUMBERED (By Giuseppe Valiante | The Canadian Press | December 3, 2015)
QUEBEC — Quebec will create its own registry for non-restricted firearms, Public Security Minister Pierre Moreau announced Thursday, more than three years after the Conservative government passed a law abolishing the federal long-gun database.
Moreau said every non-registered gun in Quebec will receive a number that will be entered into a provincial database.
All firearm owners will have 12 months to register their weapon after a bill setting up the registry becomes law.
The process can be done online, without a fee, Moreau added.
“I think if there is resistance to this law it will be on ideological, not on practical grounds,” Moreau told reporters in Quebec City.
Canadian law divides guns into three categories: non-restricted, such as certain types of shotguns and rifles; restricted, such as handguns and semi-automatics; and prohibited, such as full automatics and sawed-off shotguns.
Restricted and prohibited weapons must be registered under the Firearms Act.
The Conservatives abolished the federal database for non-restricted guns, known as the long-gun registry, in 2012.
Quebec fought the Tories all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada in order to receive the data related to Quebec gun owners but lost.
Last April, the RCMP destroyed what is believed to be all Quebec non-restricted gun records following the court ruling.
Moreau said he was disappointed his government will have to start collecting data anew, a process he said will cost $17 million.
The annual cost of maintaining the database is estimated at $5 million, he said.
See the rest of the story: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/12/04/quebec-moves-head-with-long-gun-registry.html
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FIREARMS EXPERT EXPLAINS WHY CANADIAN GUN OWNERS SHOULD BE VERY CONCERNED (By Brian Lilley | The Rebel | December 7, 2015)
The Speech from the Throne made some vague references to the government’s promises on guns but what do those promises really mean?
I thought it was time to have another discussion with Tony Bernardo, Executive Director of the Canadian Shooting Sports Association, to see what he made of Trudeau’s comments.
Listen to our interview to learn more about what gun owners can expect in the coming years and don’t forget to share.
JOIN TheRebel.media for more fearless news and commentary you won’t find anywhere else.
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See the Interview: http://www.therebel.media/firearms_expert_explains_why_canadian_gun_owners
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ORDER YOUR 2016 GUNS & GIRLS CALENDAR AND HELP SUPPORT BREAST CANCER RESEARCH!
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Watch our “Behind the Scenes Video” here: https://youtu.be/sYLgG-hpHQA
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CANADA IN THE ROUGH – WORLD FAMOUS FLYWAY
Host Kevin Beasley is joined with good friend James Vanos as they head to Ontario’s most renowned waterfowl region, Lake St. Clair. This week they will be hunting with Walpole Island Rod and Gun Club, and they will be hunting the marshes and shorelines of Lake St. Clair.
See the teaser: http://www.canadaintherough.com/world-famous-flyway/
Canada in the Rough can be found on OLN, WILD TV, and CHEX. For a full schedule, visit: http://www.canadaintherough.com/schedules/
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DON’T SMEAR MUSLIMS? FINE. DON’T SMEAR GUN OWNERS (By Jerry Agar | Toronto Sun | December 7, 2015)
When Muslim jihadists kill to further their twisted agenda, we are quite properly warned not to paint all Muslims with a broad brush.
Most Muslims, we are told, are peaceful.
And that is true.
And yet many of the same people who warn against the dangers of stereotyping Muslims as a result of terrorist attacks, are the first to smear gun owners in the event of a mass shooting, thereby stereotyping millions of law-abiding, decent people who happen to own guns.
No, it is not different. It is the same.
It is a form of bigotry against good people who happen to own, legally, a gun or two, and who have never and will never use it to harm anyone.
It should be self-evident that tighter gun control laws will only impact good people who will, begrudgingly, follow a law they don’t like because they believe in the rule of law.
See the rest of the story: http://www.torontosun.com/2015/12/07/dont-smear-muslims-fine-dont-smear-gun-owners
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LOOKING FOR UPCOMING GUN SHOWS AND MATCHES? Visit our website at: https://cssa-cila.org/upcoming-events-matches/
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THE LEFT’S WORST FEAR ON GUNS HAS BEEN REALIZED: THE NRA WAS RIGHT (By Bob Owens | BearingArms.com | December 8, 2015)
Wayne LaPierre and the NRA have been proven right. The only thing that stops a bad person with a gun is a good person with a gun.
Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Peter Jamison finally understands the question, even though he can’t bring himself to admit the correct answer.
It was three years ago this month that Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Assn., enraged gun-control advocates with his defiant assertion that more firepower was the solution to America’s wave of mass shootings.
“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” LaPierre declared at a news conference one week after the shooting that left 26 people, including 20 children, dead at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. La Pierre suggested an armed security officer could have stopped the tragedy and called for garrisoning police in every school.
Today, those struggling to make sense of the nation’s latest massacre face a vexing but unavoidable question: Was LaPierre right?
See the rest of the story: http://bearingarms.com/lefts-worst-fear-guns-realized-nra-right/
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JAMAICA: DRACONIAN GUN LAWS AND MURDER RATES (By Dean Weingarten | Ammoland | December 4, 2015)
Arizona – -(Ammoland.com)- Jamaica is an island nation with draconian gun controls. It has one of the highest murder rates on the planet. It was not always so. In 1962, before independence, Jamaica had a murder rate of 3.9 per 100,000 population, one of the lowest in the world. It was lower than the U.S. murder rate of 4.6 per 100,000 in 1962. The U.S. murder rate in 2012 was slightly lower than in 1962; 4.5 per 100,000. Jamaica’s murder rate in 2012 was 45.1, eleven times greater than it had been under British rule. The firearms act was first passed in 1967. Draconian enforcement of the act began in the middle 1970’s. David Kopel sums it up well:
See the rest of the story: http://www.ammoland.com/tags/dean-weingarten/#axzz3tmrzLfG9
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SELLING GUNS ON A 24-HOUR TV NETWORK (By Mike McPhatedec | The New York Times | December 8, 2015)
Two television entrepreneurs in California think they have just what America needs: a 24-hour shopping channel for guns.
Using the tag line “Live Shopping. Fully Loaded,” GunTV aims to take the QVC approach of peppy hosts pitching blenders and face-firming lotions and adapt it to the sale of “a vast array of firearms,” as well as related items like bullets, holsters and two-way radios.
The project is the brainchild of Valerie Castle and Doug Bornstein, two home shopping industry veterans based in Rancho Mirage, Calif., who saw what looked to them like an untapped market.
GunTV said it expected to debut Jan. 20 via national satellite and cable television providers. It will begin by airing just six hours a day, then plans to ramp up to 24 hours a day by the beginning of 2017.
See the rest of the story: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/09/business/media/guntv-plans-24-hour-sales.html
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PUERTO RICAN COURT: 2ND AMENDMENT MEANS NO LICENSE REQUIRED FOR OPEN CARRY (By AWR Hawkins | Breitbart | June 22, 2015)
On June 19, a Puerto Rican commonwealth court abolished the territory’s registry and licensing requirements for firearms, thereby making the Second Amendment the only requisite necessary to carry firearms openly or concealed.
The suit was brought by the Ladies of the Second Amendment (LSA), which “is affiliated with the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) through the International Association for the Protection of Civilian Arms Rights.” The suit also involved approximately “850 individual plaintiffs.”
According to SAF, the Puerto Rican court cited District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) and McDonald v. Chicago (2010) in making its decision.
Heller is the case in which the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) struck down the D.C. gun ban as a federal district violation of the right to self-defense, and McDonald is the case in which the SCOTUS ruled that gun rights are incorporated and, therefore, as equally protected from state violations as they are from federal.
In light of the Puerto Rican court’s decision, “there is [currently] no regulation to purchase or carry (and) all purchases will be handled in accordance with federal firearms regulations.”
See the rest of the story: http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/06/22/puerto-rican-court-2nd-amendment-means-no-gun-registry-required-for-open-carry/
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The more things change, the more they stay the same …
“False is the idea of utility that sacrifices a thousand real advantages for one imaginary or trifling inconvenience; that would take fire from men because it burns, and water because one may drown in it; that has no remedy for evils except destruction. The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.
Can it be supposed that those who have the courage to violate the most sacred laws of humanity, the most important of the code, will respect the less important and arbitrary ones, which can be violated with ease and impunity, and which, if strictly obeyed, would put an end to personal liberty… and subject innocent persons to all the vexations that the guilty alone ought to suffer?
Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man. They ought to be designated as laws not preventive but fearful of crimes, produced by the tumultuous impression of a few isolated facts, and not by thoughtful consideration of the inconveniences and advantages of a universal decree.”
– Cesare Beccaria (1735-1794) [Bonesana, Marchese di] Italian nobleman, criminologist, and penal reformer
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THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
The CSSA is the voice of the sport shooter and firearms enthusiast in Canada. Our national membership supports and promotes Canada’s firearms heritage, traditional target shooting competitions, modern action shooting sports, hunting, and archery. We support and sponsor youth programs and competitions that promote these Canadian heritage activities.
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CANADIAN SHOOTING SPORTS ASSOCIATION | CANADIAN INSTITUTE FOR LEGISLATIVE ACTION
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