Column: Safe shooters
Date: Oct 7, 2006 10:10 AM
PUBLICATION: The Guardian (Charlottetown)
DATE: 2006.10.07
SECTION: News
PAGE: A1
COLUMN: Weekend report
BYLINE: Day, Jim
PHOTO: Guardian photo by jim day Guardian photo by jim day
ILLUSTRATION: Leo McKenna and his wife, Ellie, have been operating Savage Harbour
Arms in Charlottetown. He said Island hunters are very conscious of safety in their
beloved sport.; Rick Dempsey, an avid hunter and regional director for P.E.I. with
Canadian Shooting Sports Association, says Island hunters are from all walks of
life. Dempsey of Bedford is a photographer by trade.
WORD COUNT: 656

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Safe shooters

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Rick Dempsey was nine when he got his first gun. He used it to hunt snowshoe hare
and ruffed grouse.

The passion for hunting that gripped a young boy years ago has only grown more firm
over the years for the Bedford resident, who takes photographs for a living, but
hunts for recreational pleasure.

Dempsey is the regional director for P.E.I. with the Canadian Shooting Sports Association
(CSSA), a group formed in 2001 to better promote and protect shooting for recreational
purposes, everything from deer hunting to skeet shooting.

Dempsey feels hunting and shooting sports in general have been unfairly shot in
the foot both by ill-informed public opinion and through backwards gun-control measures.

The much-maligned gun registry is a particular bone of contention. Implemented by
the Liberal government of Prime Minister Jean Chr?tien, it requires every firearm
in Canada to be registered or rendered in an unusable state. This was an effort
to reduce crime by making every gun traceable.

Dempsey echoes the claim of many, including that of the CSSA, that the registry
is outlandishly expensive (the program cost is now estimated at $2 billion), it’s
ineffective and the registry merely serves as a step on the way to the confiscation
of all guns in Canada.

“If a person is licenced (to hunt), there is no need to register the firearms,
he said. “We need criminal control, not gun control.

Hunters here were even rebuffed municipally when Charlottetown councillors voted
6-3 in January 2005 to make it illegal to hunt within the city boundaries, which
stretch into rural areas.

Dempsey said just six months later, Charlottetown residents were complaining about
all those noisy, messy crows. He knows of a few hunters who, before the shooting
ban, would go out on a regular basis along Sherwood Road and shoot hundreds of crows
a day, never once endangering the public.

“And now they’re not allowed to do it, he said.

Leo McKenna, owner of Savage Harbour Arms in Charlottetown, suggested that many
non-shooters have an inherent fear of firearms that is not founded in fact.

“People that don’t own guns and aren’t active in the gun shooting community,
probably their opinions and beliefs are based more on what is seen on television
and the movies and what is in the media, he said.

“All too often these are negative images and negative stories and certainly
the gun fraternity has been tarnished by those images, but they’re certainly
not a realistic point of view.

McKenna, who runs his gun shop with his wife, Ellie, said the many hunters he knows
are very conscious of safety, take care not to offend landowners, and are careful
in their handling and use of firearms.

Dempsey said hunters and people in other shooting sports come from all walks of
life.

“Farmers, fishermen, teachers, students, photographers . . . suit and tie guys
and construction workers, he said.

There may be a wide range of people hunting in P.E.I., but the total number of hunters
has been on a steady decline over the years.

Resident hunting licence sales, which peaked in 1978 at 6,848, dropped under 2,000
by the turn of the century.

Dempsey said the big decline in hunting in P.E.I. is sad. When he goes to New Brunswick
to hunt deer, he seems to be entering an environment far removed from his home province.

“Just on the highway driving to the location every other house you pass by
has an ATV and a guy wearing an orange vest in the yard and every gas station you
stop into has hunter’s clothing and ammunition, he said.

“And you don’t see that here. It’s been really looked upon (in P.E.I.)
as a negative thing over the years.

Vivian Hayward, the province’s chief firearms officer, said hunting isn’t
a big industry in P.E.I.

“I don’t think the business is there to have a lot of gun shops like you
might find in other provinces, she said.

In fact, only 16 businesses in Prince Edward Island are licensed to sell ammunition
while seven are licensed to sell both firearms and ammunition.

Randy Dibblee, wildlife biologist with the province, describes hunters as helpful,
not harmful, creatures.

“Hunting is a very positive outdoor activity, he said. “Every hunter and
trapper is trained . . . They are great students of natural history.

Dibblee suggested that hunting shouldn’t be viewed as barbaric, noting that
the actual killing of the animal is a very small part of the sport, but an important
role in assisting a healthy balance of nature.

Dempsey, who likes hunting ducks and grouse in P.E.I., said there is a great allure
to hunting.

“It’s the chase. It’s getting out. It’s the preparation: building
the duck blind, taking a new hunter with you.

The Second Amendment IS Homeland Security !