COMMENTARY — THE INSANITY OF POLITICAL CORRECTNESS AS ONTARIO HIGH SCHOOL SUSPENDS BOY FOR PARTICIPATING IN CAREER DAY
Grade 10 student, Brysen Evans, had his photo taken with Canadian Armed Forces members and their gear when they visited his high school in Hamilton, Ontario, for Career Day this past September. As a young Canadian proud of his nation’s military, he was given the opportunity to hold a CAF member’s rifle and he posted a photo of himself holding that rifle on his Facebook page
It all seems so innocent, right?
And it was until the nanny-state ninnies of Cathedral High School got wind of Brysen’s Facebook photo. They ordered Brysen Evans to stay away from school. They suspended him without having the backbone to actually say those words.
Here are the facts that Cathedral High School administrators couldn’t be bothered to unearth:
- Brysen Evans attended Cathedral High School’s “Career Day”.
- He snapped a photo of himself holding a rifle brought to the school by the Canadian Armed Forces.
- He posted that photo, taken on school grounds, to his Facebook page.
The horrified gasps of the politically correct could be heard as their wailing reverberated: “He’s holding an ASSAULT WEAPON! Expel him immediately!!!”
The only evidence required was that: a) it was indeed Brysen Evans in the photo; and b) he was holding a gun. Guilty. End of story.
There were no questions asked. None. Just a phone call to his mother to tell her that Brysen was no longer welcome at his school.
When the facts surrounding the incident eventually came to light, the bright lights in the educational establishment sheepishly murmured that Brysen could return to school. No apology. No admission that their actions were utterly asinine. No thought given as to how their silly knee-jerk rejection toward Brysen might affect this young man and his family.
The message by the Facebook photo police is clear: all that matters is that if a kid posts a photo of him or herself holding a politically incorrect firearm on Facebook, he/she will be suspended from school. And, of course, the implication is that Brysen – based on a photo alone – is a menace to society.
It matters not that owning firearms is legal. It matters not that millions of Canadians responsibly hunt and shoot every year without incident.
Remember that the next time you take your kid to the range and snap a few photos. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU.
Mr. Orwell just had the wrong year.
See the story: http://www.chch.com/student-suspended-after-posting-facebook-pic-with-gun/
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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 are 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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WE’RE LOOKING FOR A FEW GOOD MEN AND WOMEN!
Do you want to tell your children and your grandchildren that you were “on the front line” protecting their rights?
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
Thank you!
Team CSSA
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CSSA DOUBLE TAP! YOU CAN WIN!
You can win this incredible combo: a Tikka T3 Camo rifle in your choice of available calibres AND a Scorpion Optics Venom Hi Grade 4-16×44 AE SF with rings, donated to the CSSA by the good folks at Scorpion Optics.
For the serious shooter wanting a super-accurate, camo rifle with a non-reflective stainless steel barrel, a camo-patterned fibreglass-reinforced copolymer stock (Realtree Hardwoods® HDTM) and a superb optical sight on top, this combination can’t be beat.
All you have to do is make a $10 donation to the CSSA, and we will give you a free chance to win this great gun/scope hunting rig. Better yet, we will give you THREE chances with a $20 donation, TEN for $50 and a $100 donation can get you TWENTY chances and a free one-year membership to the Canadian Shooting Sports Association.
This beautiful hunting combo will find a new home November 1, 2015.
Please send your payment to:
Double Tap c/o CSSA, 116 Galaxy Blvd, Etobicoke ON M9W 4Y6
or call 1-888-873-4339.
Donate online at www.cssa-cila.org
* Please note: the winner must have a valid Canadian firearms license.
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“Allan Rock said he came to Ottawa with the belief that only the police and military should have firearms. I believe that firearms ownership is a right, but a right that comes with responsibilities.” – The Honourable Steven Blaney, former Minister of Public Safety
HELP SUPPORT THE GREAT WORK THE CSSA DOES TO PROTECT YOURRIGHTS. DONATE HERE
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GUN REGISTRY? THIS EXPERT SAYS WHAT LIBERALS HAVE IN MIND IS MUCHWORSE (By Brian Lilley | The Rebel | October 23, 2015)
Gun control didn’t come up much during the campaign but issues affecting legal gun owners are sure to come up soon.
I sat down with Tony Bernardo, Executive Director of the Canadian Shooting Sports Association,to discuss what legal gun owners can expect in the coming years.
Listen to the interview to find out why he says people are joining the Association in droves.
You can go to www.cssa-cila.org for more information.
See the interview:
http://www.therebel.media/cssa_director_fears_we_re_never_going_to_get_to_a_gun_registry
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More flatulence from the Toronto Star —
CANADA SHOULD SIGN THE ARMS TRADE TREATY NOW (Brian Finlay and Rachel Stohl |Toronto Star | October 26, 2015)
With a stroke of the pen Canada can begin to reclaim its status as a leader on international peace and security.
Among the likely explanations for the Liberals’ resounding election victory is that Canadians were drawn to Justin Trudeau’s promise to resume Canada’s proud tradition of global leadership through co-operation and compromise and to soundly reject the Harper government’s bellicosity, its distain for multilateralism, and its appeal to nativist instincts.
The new prime minister should quickly move to demonstrate Canada’s return to moral global leadership by fulfilling a key campaign pledge: to sign and ratify the Arms Trade Treaty. Signing the ATT represents an opportunity for Canada to reclaim its status as a once-lauded leader on international peace and security. That reputation was squandered under the Harper administration — which short-sightedly rebuked the international human rights and humanitarian law principles that formed the basis of Canada’s global authority.
Canada had long been revered as the moral compass on human security, leading the world’s efforts to ban landmines, pressing for a reasoned pathway toward nuclear disarmament, and standing up for middle powers around the globe. But nearly a decade of Harper government caused the country to lose its prominence in fighting for justice and human rights; the nation simply left the playing field. Trudeau has the opportunity to restore Canada’s reputation as the staunch defender of human rights. He should seize this opportunity and sign the ATT as soon as he takes office.
The Arms Trade Treaty, which entered into force on Dec. 24, 2014, is the first treaty to regulate the international trade in conventional arms, ranging from fighter aircraft and warships to small arms and light weapons. These are the weapons responsible for conflict, deaths, and immeasurable human suffering around the world. Canada is the only NATO member that has yet to sign the treaty and has remained out of step with its allies in supporting this important effort to keep weapons out of the hands of the most irresponsible and oppressive regimes.
The Harper government refused to sign the ATT over concerns about the potential political backlash by gun owners. Canada, like the United States, has an active gun lobby that has campaigned intensely against the ATT and connected the treaty to the now-defunct gun registry. But contrary to these messages meant to incite fear, the ATT has nothing to do with domestic gun control. In fact, the treaty establishes criteria that regulate only the international arms trade to prevent weapons from being used to contribute to human rights abuses and terrorism. (*Nonsense – if that was true why did the UN refuse to exempt civilian firearms?)
Canada’s adherence to the ATT could go a long way toward strengthening a global norm for more responsible arms transfers and ensuring that these weapons are not used to contribute to human suffering. Canada was the 13th largest arms exporter between 2010 and 2014, and under the Harper administration, Canadian arms exports rose to their highest level since 1991, with Saudi Arabia, India, and Colombia among the largest recipients. Critics have also highlighted Canada’s provision of arms to other known human rights abusers during the Harper years, such as Egypt, Libya and Nigeria, as a trend that should be reversed under a new Trudeau administration. Signing the ATT will send a message that the Canadian arms trade will not conduct business as usual and the store will close for some of the world’s most abusive regimes.
In the first 24 hours after his victory, Trudeau vowed to cancel Canada’s purchase of the F-35 fighter jet and to withdraw from the anti-ISIS air campaign. Both those decisions will take time to fully realize. With a quick stroke of the pen, Trudeau can demonstrate his commitment to international peace and security and show that his government will re-enter the multilateral arena from which Canada has been sorely missed.
See the story: http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2015/10/26/canada-should-sign-the-arms-trade-treaty-now.html
(Editor’s Note: Canada would actually lower its international arms standards by adopting the Arms Trade Treaty. Becoming signatory to the ATT would also permit a 75% UN majority to decide Canada’s laws every six years through an amendment process.)
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JOIN AND SUPPORT THE CSSA (By Brian Lovig | Right Edition | October 25, 2015)
See the story: https://youtu.be/NLTeMIVBO_g
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HOW CAN GUN OWNERS PROTECT THEMSELVES FROM UNFAIR CHARGES? WITH FIREARM LEGAL DEFENCE INSURANCE.
The maximum benefit payable is $100,000 per occurrence or up to $500,000 for multiple occurrences in the same policy year. For details see www.firearmlegaldefence.com. The price is just $95 per year and CSSA members are eligible for a $10 discount – click on “Buy Now” and enter the following exclusive club code to access your savings: CSSA001. You are not required to disclose any information about firearms in your possession.
Firearm Legal Defence insurance covers:
- Defence from prosecution should you be charged with an offence arising out of the use, storage, display, transportation or handling of a firearm;
- cases where a firearm is used in self defence, the defence of a person under your protection or the defence of your property;
- appealing an event where a licensing, regulatory or judicial authority refuses to renew, suspends, revokes, cancels or alters the terms of your firearms license. Note that this provision does not apply to new license applications.
It will pay for:
- The cost of retaining a lawyer or other appointed representative, including court fees, experts’ fees, police reports and medical reports;
- costs awarded by the court to opponents in civil cases if the insured person has been ordered to pay them, or pays them with the agreement of the insurance company;
- lost salary or wages for the time the insured is off work to attend court or any other hearing at the request of the appointed representative, up to a maximum of $500 per day, and $10,000 in total.
(Editor’s Note: FLD is not a CSSA product, but it is highly recommended by the association and is used by our staff and directors. – Tony B.)
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CANADA IN THE ROUGH – ALBERTA IN THE RUT
Keith Beasley heads to Alberta with two of Canada’s most coveted hunting tags in his pocket: a mule deer and whitetail rifle tag. The hunt takes place on Canada’s largest First Nation reserve, the Blood reserve. The prairies are littered with rutting deer, and Keith climbs and stalks the river bottoms and coulees in search of two mature Alberta bucks.
See the teaser: http://www.canadaintherough.com/alberta-in-the-rut/
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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SAN FRANCISCO’S LAST GUN SHOP PREPARES TO CLOSE AS OFFICIALS PROPOSE NEW RULES (Halim Kazem | theguardian.com | October 26, 2015)
The gun racks at San Francisco’s only gun store, High Bridge Arms, are almost empty, but for the first time in 27 years, the manager won’t be restocking them.
Steven Alcairo, High Bridge Arms general manager, says San Francisco’s overly strict gun regulations have become too onerous on his business over the years and that a new proposal to videotape all gun sales is the last straw for him.
“I won’t put my customers through that … It’s an invasion of their privacy,” Alcairo said.
San Francisco supervisor for district 2 Mark Farrell is proposing gun reform regulations that would require the video recording of all gun and ammunition sales in San Francisco. Under the new law, Alcairo would have to set up a video surveillance system that would be approved by the San Francisco police department (SFPD). He would have to keep the video footage at the store for at least one year and provide it to local, state, and federal law enforcement if served with a warrant. The new regulations would also require gun store owners to regularly send ammunition sales data to the SFPD.
The proposed regulations will go before the full San Francisco board of supervisors next week, but Alcairo is operating as if the new regulations will pass and he plans on closing down San Francisco’s last gun shop on 31 October. He says that the increasing pressures on the business and the amount of paperwork required to keep the shop open and operating are already too much.
Longtime gun seller Guy Markell, whose parents owned Markell’s gun shop on Judah Street in San Francisco from 1952 to 1989, says he is not surprised that there won’t be any more gun shops left in the city soon.
Markell, 71, says that in 1989 he moved his gun store from San Francisco to Santa Rosa because people who didn’t want gun shops in San Francisco would send death threats to the store and break the windows.
“I could see this coming, that San Francisco eventually would be gun free … but it’s not for the best,” said Markell.
“We followed the gun regulations then. I actually wrote the gun regulation to register ammunition,” Markell said, who was the San Francisco fire marshal from 1970 to 1989. But he doesn’t support the new proposed regulations, and warns that with every new regulation, San Francisco officials are making it more difficult for responsible gun shops to ever come back to the city.
California currently requires dealers to comply with a wide range of gun laws including being licensed, waiting 10 days to transfer a firearm to someone who has applied to purchase the gun, running background checks on all prospective firearm purchasers, and having fortified premises. On top of state laws, San Francisco requires gun dealers to carry liability insurance, report inventory details, and keep records of ammunition sales. Alcairo says he’s had to spend $12,000 in the last four years on upgrading the store’s gates, windows and other parts of the building.
According to the San Francisco-based Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence’s rankings, California ranks first in the US for implementing strong gun laws. In the Law Center’s state scorecards, California received an A- rating for its gun policies, Nevada and Arizona received F grades, and Oregon received a D+ grade.
Alcairo says although High Bridge Arms is still profitable, he sees the proposed regulations as infringing on the constitutional rights of his customers to own a gun and he also wants to protect his customers’ right to privacy.
“I have a problem with anyone who wants to keep amending the constitution, and not just the second amendment, but all of them,” said Alcairo.
He says he wants to see San Francisco officials defend the rights of gun owners, as they have defended the rights of gay couples who want to marry, even if the fight is unpopular in other parts of the country.
Farrell says that his proposed legislation doesn’t infringe on constitutional rights and that the new laws would make San Francisco citizens safer.
“It’s time that we have an honest discussion with those who believe that the right to bear arms is an inalienable right no matter what happens in society,” said Farrell, who’s had four public safety town hall meetings in his district this year. “Crime is increasing in San Francisco and I’ve heard the anxiety citizens have about their safety.”
Markell says this is “feel-good legislation” and that the city needs to enforce the state and local gun laws that already exist.
He says crime hasn’t increased by much in San Francisco, especially considering the city’s population of about 850,000. According to SFPD’s crime reports, incidents in which police arrested someone over a gun or firearm-related crime have increased slightly to about 600 this year from 1 January to 6 October. There were 541 gun-related arrests during the same period in 2014.
“[Video] recording of sales is ridiculous, it’s crazy. I don’t see this helping to solve crimes,” said Markell.
Alcairo says since he announced on Facebook on 11 September that he and owner Andy Takahashi will be closing the gun store, customers have been sharing their memories with him and his staff through social media and coming in to purchase souvenir T-shirts and buy up the remaining inventory of guns and rifles.
“Some have come in just to shake our hands and say thank you for always treating them with respect,” said Alcairo, whose passion for guns started at San Francisco’s Woodrow Wilson high school, now called Phillip & Sala Burton academic high school. He says the school had a gun range and allowed students to take firearm safety classes.
But in the midst of increasing gun violence, especially following the 2 October shooting at Umpqua community college in Roseburg, Oregon, which left 10 dead and 7 others injured, Alcairo is not getting much sympathy from legislators.
“High Bridge Arms is selling 1,000 guns a year in our city … They are just putting more guns on the streets,” said Farrell.
Farrell says that if Congress continues to hold out on seriously addressing gun violence and reforming federal gun control laws, then “local jurisdictions like San Francisco can and should take it upon
Allison Anderman, staff attorney at the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, says San Francisco is not an outlier in wanting store owners to videotape gun sales and that the Law Center tracks eight California cities and some counties that have the videotaping laws in place.
“The videotaping of sales is an important tool to help police solve gun-related crimes,” said Anderman.
Farrell says that other Bay Area cities, such as Campbell, and a few cities across the country, including Chicago, are already videotaping sales of guns.
“Over the last few years there has been talk about additional gun stores opening up in San Francisco,” Farrell said.
Farrell says he doesn’t know of any new gun shops opening in San Francisco yet.
“The city makes it so difficult to get a permit for a gun shop that I don’t think we will see any gun shops open up soon,” said Markell.
Alcairo leaves behind hundreds of loyal customers and gun enthusiasts, including some who have been buying guns at the store since it opened in 1988. “This is a San Francisco icon … I feel like it is a staple in this area,” said 35-year-old Marvin Thomas, a resident of San Francisco and longtime customer of High Bridge Arms. Thomas says he will continue to buy guns but will now have to go to Daly City or Pacific, two nearby cities.
According to Alcairo and Merkall, black market guns are a bigger problem than the licensed gun shops.
Alcairo reasoned that if more responsible gun owners carried their guns with them, there would be less crime because criminals would know that there are people out in the city who can defend themselves and others. He says that he understands local officials have good intentions but they are fighting the wrong fight.
“If I am in a city where I know they are issuing concealed carry permits to its citizens – crime would plummet,” Alcairo said.
It’s a controversial point, one at which Anderman balks. She says that the states with the strongest gun laws have some of the lowest gun death rates in the country.
“Not all gun dealers are reputable. If High Bridge Arms is, that’s good … Dealers who don’t want to follow the law want to open in areas that are unregulated,” said Anderman.
Alcairo is not sure what will be next for him, but he is not leaving San Francisco. He won’t say if he will start his own gun business in a nearby city or walk away for good. “For now, I am trying to serve all of our customers before we close our doors.”
See the story: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/25/san-francisco-gun-shop-to-close
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DONALD TRUMP VOWS TO VETO ANY NEW GUN REGULATIONS (By Alan Yuhas | theguardian.com | Octobter 26, 2015)
Trump asserted that government has failed to enforce ‘tremendous’ amount of gun laws and stood by claim that US gun violence is a ‘mental health problem’
Donald Trump pledged to veto any additional gun regulations should he be elected president, telling voters on Monday that the perpetrators of mass shootings “always find a way to get something, whether it’s a gun or otherwise”.
“We have tremendous regulations already, a lot of people don’t even realize,” the Republican presidential candidate told a New Hampshire town hall hosted by NBC’s Today show. “People aren’t abiding by them, government does a terrible job of enforcing them, but we already have tremendous regulations.”
Trump added that easy access to guns was a problem that could be solved by law enforcement, saying: “You’ve got to enforce what we’ve got right now, and there’re plenty right now.”
He then contended that mental health issues were the core issue of the United States’ continuing run of mass shootings, of which there have been at least 1,000 since a gunman killed 26 people, mostly children, in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, in December 2012. After several recent shootings, including the killing of nine people in Roseburg, Oregon, at the beginning of this month, gun control has re-emerged as a major issue in presidential campaign politics for the first time in 15 years, when the Columbine high school massacre haunted the 2000 election.
But Trump hewed close to common Republican talking points of the last few election cycles, refusing to ascribe fault to gunmakers, dealers or the weapons themselves.
“The fact is we have a huge mental health problem, and if you look at some states, including New York and others, they’ve left, in order to save money for finance reasons, left people out of mental institutions,” Trump said.
The real-estate billionaire added, without citing specific examples or statistics: “So many of these institutions – did you see that – they’re closing and putting people out on the street.”
Guns were not a problem, he insisted: “It is people that are unstable. We have to straighten out our mental health. And we do have in this country big mental health problems. And that’s the problem.
“This is a mental health problem. We have to straighten out our institutions.”
Last week Trump accused Barack Obama of plotting to take guns from their owners, telling a crowd in South Carolina: “You know, the president is thinking about signing an executive order where he wants to take your guns away.”
He then stood by the claim, telling CNN: “I’ve heard that he wants to. And I heard it, I think, on your network. Somebody said that that’s what he’s thinking about.”
He then said he’d heard it from “numerous networks” and read the claim “in the papers”.
“My source is the papers,” he said, “So you know, they’re pretty good sources.”
Trump did not miss the opportunity to take potshots at his Republican opponents, including former Florida governor Jeb Bush and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson.
Carson – whose soft-spoken manner belies a habit of making controversial comments – has overtakenTrump in some polls, pitting two never-elected candidates against each other as the Republican party’s frontrunners ahead of the party’s next debate on Wednesday. Bush, the son and brother of former presidents, has watched his status in the polls fall from presumed leader to single-digits, and has struggled to assert himself against the “outsider” candidates rousing populist support.
Both rivals, Trump said, are “weak on the second amendment”. He added that he thought Bush’s remark after the Oregon shooting that “stuff happens” was “a terrible expression”.
Trump also tried on a new “nice guy” persona for the New Hampshire voters, many of whom clapped emphatically whenever the billionaire vowed to expel Syrian refugees or Central American immigrants. He suggested that some people in those groups could be jihadi militants, in the case of Syrians, and criminals who “raped and sodomized”, in the case of the Central Americans.
Immigrants could come to the US legally, and through a wall on the Mexican border, Trump said. Syrian migrants would be better served by “a big swatch of land” in the Middle East maintained by the Gulf States, he said.
“I have a heart; it’s horrible to watch,” Trump said of the millions of Syrian refugees fleeing civil war. But “this could be the greatest Trojan horse of all time”, he added.
Trump also reiterated his claim that an intern was responsible for retweeting a comment that Iowan voters are brain-damaged, and tried to sell himself as a regular American who worked for all his riches.
“My whole life really has been a ‘no’ and I’ve fought through it,” Trump, the son of a New York real estate millionaire, told a voter who asked whether he had ever experienced rejection. “It has not been easy for me,” he said. “I started off in Brooklyn. My father gave me a small loan of $1m. I came into Manhattan, and I had to pay him back. I had to pay him back with interest.”
See the story: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/26/donald-trump-gun-control-mental-health
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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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WHAT REALLY GOES ON AT A GUN SHOW (By Aaron Smith | CNNMoney | October 26, 2015)
Where else, but a gun show, would you see a man with an oxygen tank pushing a walker and wearing a sign trying to sell a Chinese AK-47 ($845) and an Albanian military rifle ($695)?
Or where else would you see a spread of folding tables displaying survival knives, machetes and T-shirts reading “Zombie Outbreak Response Team?”
America is teeming with gun shows: Dozens every weekend, in every region of the country from Texas to New York, California to Florida, Maine to Washington. Dealers gather to display guns and related products under one roof. Enthusiasts travel from far and wide to attend.
CNNMoney visited one gun show in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to witness the scene first hand.
An arsenal for sale
The Harrisburg show, held October 10-11, was put on by C&E Gun Shows from Virginia.
The expo, held in a sprawling complex that also hosts farm exhibits and car shows, featured thousands of rifles, shotguns and handguns displayed on hundreds of tables.
There were AR-15s, Glocks, World War II rifles with bayonets, Wild West revolvers, a 19th century elephant gun, a shotgun with a 25-shell drum, a hot pink hunting rifle, and high-caliber Barrett sniper rifles. Some dealers specialized in antiques; other focused on tactical guns or pistols.
Steve Elliott, the owner of C&E Gun Shows, counted 149 vendors who rented a total of 650 tables for $70 each.
Elliott said about 95% of the gun sellers at his show were federally licensed, which means they’re required to conduct background checks before selling a gun at the show.
“I wouldn’t sell a gun to someone without knowing who I was selling to,” he said. “The last thing you want to do is sell a gun that’s used in a crime.”
The law of background checks
Licensed gun dealers must, by federal law, run background checks on all buyers — whether the purchase is made in a store or at a gun show.
The checks work like this: A buyer presents his or her ID to the seller and fills out a form with personal information such as age, address, race and criminal history, if any. The seller then submits the info to the FBI, which checks it against databases. The process takes a few minutes.
This is the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, also known as NICS.
Some states have stricter rules about gun shows. Only 12 states require expanded background checks at gun shows for handguns as well as rifles and shotguns, according to the Brady Campaign, a gun control group. Advocates of gun control call that the gun show loophole.
At a gun show in Pennsylvania, it’s legal for unlicensed dealers to sell rifles and shotguns without conducting a background check.
At the Harrisburg show, CNN Money spotted only five unlicensed sellers. They didn’t have tables; instead they wore or carried handwritten placards advertising guns.
Alex Pierce was one of those mobile sellers. He walked the floor, an NRA cap on his head and two 19th century guns — a rifle and a shotgun — slung over his shoulders. He had “for sale” signs in the barrels like pennants.
“In Pennsylvania, the law is: long guns and shotguns you can sell to a person without running a background check,” said Pierce, who was selling the guns for $900 each.
Rules of the Keystone State
Pierce is right about Pennsylvania law. The Pennsylvania State Troopers say a seller without a federal license doesn’t have to do FBI checks. (Only handguns, which are considered more deadly because they can be easily concealed, require background checks.)
But buyers from outside of Pennsylvania must have guns they purchase at the show shipped to a federally licensed dealer in their home state, where a background check will be run, according to the NRA.
The thing is, Pennsylvania law doesn’t require unlicensed dealers to ask buyers of rifles or shotguns for identification. So some show purchases in Pennsylvania can be made without the seller knowing whether the buyer is from out of state.
This is important, considering that Pennsylvania is bordered by six states. Four of them — New York, Maryland, New Jersey and Delaware — have more restrictive gun laws than Pennsylvania.
New Jersey, which doesn’t allow gun show sales at all, requires background checks for all gun sales. And Maryland requires background checks for all gun sales, whether the dealer is licensed or not. The Maryland state line is less than 40 miles away from Harrisburg.
“There are people here who sell guns without a federal background check and to me that’s wrong,” said Jami Nolan, a licensed dealer at the Harrisburg show. “They’re stealing business from us, if they’re doing it for a living.” (For $10, Nolan will run a background check on a buyer for an unlicensed dealer who asks.)
Knives, zombies and Kalashinikitty
Gun shows aren’t just about guns. Some sellers were offering a wide variety of non-gun products, including thousands of survival knives, ranging from $2 folding knives to deluxe models costing hundreds of dollars.
Some tables were piled with survival rations. Others offered beef jerky or venison. One vender sold nothing but chocolate fudge.
Other vendors sold Confederate flags and “Don’t Tread On Me Flags” with the yellow rattler. Others sold DVDs, mostly war movies, or books focusing on guns and military history.
Tables were piled high with T-shirts. Some were serious, with grim slogans and skulls.
Some were political; one seller had shirts bearing Donald Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.”
And then there were the not so serious, like the stacks of pink T-shirts with a likeness of Hello Kitty holding an AK-47.
The slogan? “Kalashnikitty.”
See the story: http://money.cnn.com/2015/10/26/news/gun-show/
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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.
To join or donate to the CSSA, visit: http://www.cssa-cila.org
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