Canada – -(Ammoland.com)- The Firearms Act has been used as a blunt object against responsible firearms owners for more than a decade – yet some people in the firearms community still panic when the RCMP ban guns.
The government, RCMP and Chief Firearms Offices have learned that we won’t take the bureaucratic abuse lying down. These recent RCMP-inspired reclassifications of the Swiss Arms and CZ-858 rifles, however, reveal that some folks still type before they think.
Breaking news on a gun ban calls for cool heads – the task at hand is to find out what’s going on, where the fault lies and what action is required.
When gun owners overreact at the first mention of bad news, the entire firearms community suffers.
All Canadian Shooting Sports Association (CSSA) members are very upset with the RCMP reclassifications, but they maintain a relative calm while our appointed executives get a situation report from the government. In the meantime, a vocal minority of gun owners immediately engaged in threats of non-support for the government via online blogs. So, the message emanating from gun owners was soon scrambled and amateurish.
Public forums are just that – public. Why engage in a poker game with all your cards turned face-up? You can’t win a game that way and you definitely can’t bluff, so don’t try.
When the firearms community is blind-sided by unfair regulation from deep within the RCMP’s bureaucratic colon, it really isn’t the best time to demand the immediate demise of the entire Firearms Act. It simply shows that Canada’s wider gun community lacks cohesion and discipline. It also feeds anti-gun advocates exactly what they want. Witness the late-breaking CBC rant where Michael Bryant grouses about our “killing machines.”
When the RCMP prohibits a firearm, rest assured they will probably not rush to every gun owner’s doorstep with torches and leg irons. The RCMP elites have a history of lies and deceit, but we must remember that gun bans are a process. Firearms owners who blog hysterical threats to abandon government support do not serve their own best interest. Heaping insults on politicians who have themselves been blind-sided only bites the hand that could feed you –and write countering legislation tomorrow. By attacking a government poised to help us, some of us are casting stones at the wrong target.
A popular sentiment on recent blogs suggests that amnesties are for criminals. What is lost in the rhetoric is that an amnesty can also be a sharp and precise instrument for putting a spurious Firearms Act regulation on ice while we examine a better alternative. A lifeboat if you will.
There is no nice way to say it. The RCMP lied to Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney. The CSSA has been helping to provide very technical information to demonstrate where the RCMP fudged their real intent. In the middle of this process, it is not constructive when gun owners stuff blogs with anti-Blaney catcalls and criticizing the CSSA for being MIA when we don’t engage in these over-caffeinated public discussions. If we are under the radar, it’s because that is where the real action is taking place.
About:
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 competition, modern action shooting sports, hunting, and archery. We support and sponsor competitions and youth programs that promote these Canadian heritage activities. Website www.cdnshootingsports.org