Column: Authorities must target true criminals not law-abiders;
Date: Jun 6, 2006 7:31 AM
PUBLICATION: Times & Transcript (Moncton)
DATE: 2006.06.06
PAGE: B8
SECTION: COLUMN
BYLINE: Everett MosherOUTDOOR LIFE
NOTE: Everett Mosher is a Sackville-based writer and avid outdoorsman.
His column appears every Tuesday.
WORD COUNT: 682

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Authorities must target true criminals not law-abiders;

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Canada is a country with a great diversity of everything from our
geography, to the people that inhabit this land.

Part of that is reflected in the viewpoints of people regarding our
current firearm laws. On one side are those that believe that only the
police and the military should have firearms. On the other side are
those that believe that there should be no restrictions on firearm
ownership, including not needing a firearms licence.

Somewhere in the middle are most Canadians, troubled by the gang
violence in Toronto and other large cities, yet willing to allow the
hunter, target shooter and collector to continue to own and use
firearms.

This is the current state of affairs, with the Harper government intent
on doing away with the long gun registry. A registry that has yet to
provide any proof that, in any way, it’s an asset in preventing crime,
or catching criminals.

Yet, it is also very obvious that there will continue to be a federal
government requirement that firearm owners must have a firearms licence.
If they do not, they will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
Thus, for those that currently own one or more firearms, yet do not have
current firearms licence, or perhaps, never had a firearms licence, now
is a very good time to obtain one in the form of a Possession and
Acquisition Licence (PAL). Be assured that this requirement will not go
away, now, or in the future.

To a large extent the present requirements involved in obtaining a
firearms licence weeds out the criminals and others who are a danger to
the public.

Yet, additional legislation is needed to deal with those weeded out and
identified by this process.

A case in point is the actions of James Roszko of Mayerthorpe and the
fact he was allowed to remain a danger to the public, although clearly
seen and identified as such. Four Mounties died as a result.

Current legislation was not, and is not, adequate to prevent this sort
of occurrence, although those most likely to do so are often well known
to police, due in part to their prior actions.

Reducing the costs of the Canadian Firearm Centre (CFC) and diverting
the saving to putting more police on the street is part of the Harper
government’s game plan.

In addition to doing away with the long gun registry and its attendant
costs, the Harper government is planning on issuing lifetime firearms
licences.

Currently those licences must be renewed every five years. Changing this
will save firearms owners both money and the hassle of renewing, plus it
will reduce the costs of operating the CFC many millions of dollars each
and every year.

The only negative is that if the executor of the estate fails to notify
to the Canadian Firearm Centre when the firearm licence holder dies.

This sort of thing has created problems with the handgun registry, which
has been in place since 1934. Its not unreasonable to believe that at
least half the people that had registered handguns over the last 72
years have now passed away.

Yet, in a very large percentage of cases family members failed to inform
the handgun registry. Hence many of the handguns in that registry are
still registered to folks that have been in the graveyard for 30 to 50
years or more. That’s a problem and that’s why the government recently
required all current handgun owners to re-register their handguns.

Law-abiding firearm owners never have been, and never will be, the
problem. The criminals, such as Marc Lepine, the culprit in the massacre
in Montreal in December of 1989 of 14 young women, and gang members
involved in drug trade turf wars are the ones that need singling out.

Identifying those with criminal intentions before they act is the
answer, as the news in recent days can attest to.

In the last few days several people in Ontario were arrested and charged
with planning to make and use bombs to commit acts of terrorism.

Those involved had three tons of ammonium nitrate. The Oklahoma City
bombing that left 168 people dead used only one ton of this substance.

The maximum number of people that could be killed by an individual with
a firearm pales in comparison to the people that could be killed by
bombs constructed with three tons of that material. Then too, we should
also remember the Air India bombing that killed 329 people, yet firearms
were not used nor were firearms used in the destruction of the two World
Trade Center towers.

It is time folks woke up and realized that firearms in the hands of law-
abiding citizens are very far down the list of what the general public
should be concerned about.

Now we know where the money should be directed and spent, and it’s not
towards keeping track of grandpa and his duck gun!