The following is the text of a letter of mine which was published in the Globe and Mail on Saturday, January 14, 1995: Letters to the Editor, The Globe and Mail, 444 Front St. W., Faxed to (416) 585-5085 Toronto, Ontario M5V 2S9 Dear Sir or Madam: Although I am neither a gun owner nor a Westerner, I can certainly understand the fears and concerns of the Calgary gun enthusiasts who confronted Justice Minister Rock earlier this week. Mr. Rock has said repeatedly that the government has "no intention of confiscating any legally owned guns." This is just semantic sorcery. Sure, it will be easy to keep this promise--just reclassify legal weapons as illegal and then confiscate them. In fact, this is exactly what Rock's proposed legislation will do. It will classify weapons which were formerly unrestricted or restricted into the prohibited category. Current owners of such guns will be allowed to keep possession of them, but will not be allowed to sell them, trade them, or give them away, even by bequest in their wills. They will probably not even be allowed to use them--Mr. Rock has spoken out of both sides of his mouth on this point. Upon the death of the current owner, the guns will be seized. If someone said that the land registry office would continue to show your name as owner of your house, but that you couldn't sell it, trade it, leave it to your heirs when you die, and perhaps not even live in it, you would probably conclude that your house had just been confiscated. Only the collection procedure would have been postponed. In the face of such brazen contradictions and obfuscation it is no wonder that people are concerned about Mr. Rock's intentions. If this is how he behaves now, what might we expect from him when the population is disarmed and only the police and the military have legal guns? And even if Mr. Rock turns out to be harmless, there's another problem: he cannot vouch for his successors in perpetuity. It was the democratic government of the Weimar Republic that enacted gun registration in Germany in 1928. It was Hitler who later used the registers to confiscate guns. Yours truly, Karen Selick ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Karen Selick Reynolds O'Brien Kline & Selick P.O. Box 1327, Belleville, Ont. Canada K8N 5J1 Phone:(613)966-3031 Fax:(613)966-2390 E-mail: kselick@connect.reach.net ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~