RFOCBC Nov 97 News Page

Responsible Firearms Owners Coalition of British Columbia

P.O. Box 93052 Langley
British Columbia, V3A 8H2
Phone: (604) 532-8048
Fax: (604) 532-0380
Information Service 1-900-451-3969
E-Mail = admin@rfocbc.com
Webmaster = Webmaster@rfocbc.com

Be sure to return your petitions immediately so that they can be presented to the Legislature.

Another year has almost come to an end and to this point in time, we still do not have anything concrete on Bill C-68. Some regulations have been put through, but nothing major has happened yet. Most of the compliance dates have been extended. We have been told that the government has spent in excess of $250 million dollars so far, and not one firearm has been registered. So much for Alan Rock’s $85 million price tag. In September we met with the Canadian Firearms Committee in Ottawa to discuss some proposed regulations. Nothing much came of it except to find out that they plan to train sixty - seventy thousand people to register firearms. According to them, everything is still proceeding.

The Constitutional challenge by Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and the Yukon went very well. The decision will be announced in December or January. The representatives from the firearms community feel very positive about the outcome. Let’s keep our fingers crossed. They spent over $95,000 on the court case and we would like to send them additional funds.

We are also planning another national meeting with the other provincial firearms groups to discuss setting up of a national group to protect our fast disappearing rights. This meeting will take place in BC in the New Year.

If you have been watching the news locally, you will have heard that they are planning to shut down three gun clubs on Barnet Highway, in Burnaby. This cannot be allowed to happen.

When are gun owners finally going to stand together? Apathy is our worst enemy and believe me we have a lot of apathetic gun owners.

Because of the large number of gun owners who refuse to believe Bill C-68 or support the organizations that are fighting its implementation, we are forced to keep asking the same people for financial help. If we can get the message out to the rest of the people what this program is going to cost, they will fight it also. Recent statistics show that more loggers were killed in BC forests in one year than were killed by firearms in several years.

Smoking kills 5,000 people a year in BC. Breast cancer kills thousands as well. Where are our priorities on government spending?

The BC Trap Association has committed one cent for every shot they fire during their competitions. This has amounted to approximately $10,000 for the past year. If other clubs, rifle and pistol groups would follow their lead, we would be able to get our message out to the public.

There is still hope if we can keep the pressure on the politicians. You must be prepared to get involved. Donate your time, write letters, volunteer to help elect sympathetic politicians or support the RFOC financially so we can get the message out that this legislation will not work and must be rescinded. Don’t give up. We can make a difference if we stick together.

We have just completed a very successful annual general meeting held on September 11 at the Shannon Hall in Cloverdale. The list of directors elected for the 1997 year is as follows:

Secretary-treasurer, Joanne Easdown, Directors, Diddo Simon, Bill Bobbie, Doug Fraser, Terry Green, Rob Hetherington, Thomas Buchenauer, Steve McLean, Don Tutt, Gordon Bader, Dean Berkeley, Henry Friedmann, Dave Dahm.

Secretary-treasurer Joanne Easdown has just recently returned from a meeting in Ottawa. Sept 3 - 4 with the Canadian Firearms Centre. The four representatives of the Responsible Firearms Owners Groups from different parts of Canada informed the CFC that firearm owners have not changed their minds regarding C-68. They are adamantly against all aspects of Bill C-68 and will continue to inform and educate people all across Canada of the tremendous cost to taxpayer. We have recently been informed that the proposed regulations have been approved by the Caucus and will be tabled. A committee is being formed and four of the committee members are from the Reform party. The cost will be in the vicinity of 285 million dollars. The RFOC groups will be invited to these hearings. This will be the final window of opportunity for firearm owners to have input in the process and to have our views heard.

I suggest from what I’ve seen of UTV coverage, the prevailing opinion of the news team is allowing a supportive bias to pervade what is said and shown on the topic of firearms at UTV; a bias in favor of Canada’s firearms legislation as it exists and support for the destruction of all residential firearms in time.

In the sound byte from Vancouver City Police Inspector Chris Offer he says: "a hand gun’s purpose is to kill people" "a rifle’s purpose is to kill animals". After issuing these two statements he stands before the camera and concludes that because they are true the destruction of firearms in the firearms-for-art campaign is justified in its rightness and everyone should trot down and give over their residential firearm for destruction. For these reasons I ask for balance in reporting on firearm issues.

I ask for balance and to properly show and make understandable the complexity and insidious side of the Canadian firearm legislation before allowing an antigun bias to creep into what the public is viewing. No small undertaking, but I can line you up with many intelligent people willing to help by talking on issues.

By balance I mean couching news stories that involve firearms within a factual framework that acknowledges the safe and responsible use of varied firearms by Canada’s people; and by always referencing the provocative actions as some who abuse firearms against the facts regarding the overall safe use of firearms in Canada. By balance I mean every once in a while giving air time to responsible firearms users instead of so much coverage of police dealing with the irresponsible criminal element and their abuse of everything, everyone and occasionally, firearms. Give credence to and a little more air time to those who enjoy trap shooting, hunting, paper target shooting, Olympic shooting, Bisley shooting, instructing safe firearms use in cadet and scout movements. Such balance on the part of UTV would be a proper and true reflection of the way firearms have been, are, and will be handled as an integral part of our Canadian culture and heritage. Unfortunately, with Bill C-68 the reality facing all firearms owners is no end of fees, and repeated payments of fees.

When can we expect to hear balanced objective reporting about firearms, their safe use, and responsible ownership in Canada?

I have been reading the Digest for sometime and have not made comments until now. After reading these valuable notes I have come to some conclusions that we need to consider with respect to Bill C-68, registration of long guns and the new class of "Proposed Prohibited Firearms" (short barrel, 32 and 25 cal), not to mention Orders in Council. A great deal of discussion has taken place about how the bill is worded and what each section means, how it can be interpreted in may ways and open for abuse by police and law enforcement. Really, the most critical part of this bill is long gun registration and the banning of certain handguns.

I have read a great deal of correspondence relating to how registration did not work in New Zealand and how guns are not the problem, crime is etc…. We are putting too much emphasis on the fact that gun control and registration won't work. It seems that we expect our government to wake up one day and realize they were mistaken and cancel the whole thing.

In fact as the statement by Mr. Rock points out, it is my opinion that they don't care if registration will work or not and they don't care what it will cost. It's not their money, it's ours! What is more likely to happen is that one of our government officials wakes up one morning after a bad nights sleep and decides 12GA pump shot guns have no purpose in this country and through OIC has the Justice Minister ban them. The power is there for this to happen. Since these guns will be registered, it will be quite simple for the police to show up at your door to pick the item up, without compensation of course. We must look closer at this bill and make every effort, as I know the RFOC, the NFA and others are working on, to ensure that long gun registration does not go through as planned. If it does, it will be the beginning to the end of our sport, as we know it. If this registration system was being managed by a group of people that wanted to promote the firearms sports and make it safer, as with cars etc. I would have not a problem with registration, however, the governments sole reason for registration is to understand what's out there, where it is and then decide how they can get it away from you.

Just to reemphasize the above points. The government does note care about our concerns whether registration will work or not, PLEASE, understand that registration is NOT what this government wants. It is merely a stepping stone to their primary objective PROHIBITION!! It may take them 5 years, 10 years or more. With all the RED TAPE and cost to the gun owner that they can add, the question will then be, how bad do you want to continue your involvement in this sport? The government has forever and does not have the "personal" stake in this sport that you do and the money is not coming from their pockets, but it will come from ours and they control how much and how often.

"I came to Ottawa with the firm belief that the only people in this country who should have guns are police officers and soldiers."

Allan Rock, Author of C-68 law on gun "control" Maclean's "Taking Aim on Guns", April 25, 1994, page 12.

Bill Baldwin, a shooter living in a suburb of Ottawa, went on holiday. He returned to discover a computer monitor and keyboard had been stolen. Municipal police guided by their anti-gun chief of police, came into his home to investigate the computer burglary then laid every charge they could on Bill including unsafe storage of firearms. A lawyer got Bill off the charges but court costs for Bill ran to several thousand dollars. Now Bill is intending counter suit. Bill is discouraged and has gotten out of shooting that he used to love to do. When the police were finished with him, their confiscation and subsequent return of firearms resulted in about $2,000. Damage. You might conclude Bill C-68 aids these Gestapo-era policing tactics. Bill C-68 must be rescinded.

Hooray for Michael Hutter. Michael has volunteered to set up a satellite group in Telkwa. If you live in the area and would like to become part of this group, or if you would like to start up a group in your area, please phone the RFOC office.

Caldwell Industries, N.Vancouver, Caquse Creek Contracting Ltd, Fauquier, Cold Stream Truck Parts, Vernon, Dawson Service Ltd, New Westminster, Discount RV & Marine, Prince George, Eco Fuel Systems, Langley, Engine Finders, Surrey, Fur & Feathers Taxidermy, Surrey, Fyfe’s Well Drilling Ltd, Qualicum, Fyfe Fire Sprinklers, Victoria, Gold N Guns, Surrey, Grand Forks Glass Ltd, Grand Forks, Hest Icelandic Horse Farm, Fauquier, Hunters Sporting Goods 1976, Surrey, Kaban Electronics, Vancouver, Lendrum Contracting Ltd, Vancouver, Lone Butte Sporting Goods, Lone Butte, Northward Air Ltd, Dawson Creek, Pacific Cartridge Inc, Ferndale, WA, Phil’s Forklift Service Ltd, Surrey, Powder Keg Shooting Sports, Kamloops, Ralf Martini Custom Gunsmithing, Charlie Lake, Reliable Gun & Tackle Ltd, Vancouver, Tireland Performance Ctr, N.Vancouver, Specialty Guns Ltd, Victoria, Stone Technical Industries, Campbell River, Robert Bull Sales / Remax Realty, Sechelt, West Coast Fishing Resorts, Richmond

PATRONIZE THESE COMPANIES WHO SUPPORT THE RFOC AND TELL THEM YOU ARE AN RFOC MEMBER

November 1997 News Letter