From: owner-cdn-firearms-digest@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca on behalf of Cdn-Firearms Digest [owner-cdn-firearms-digest@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca] Sent: Monday, 02 April, 2001 12:42 To: cdn-firearms-digest@broadway.sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Subject: Cdn-Firearms Digest V3 #704 Cdn-Firearms Digest Monday, April 2 2001 Volume 03 : Number 704 In this issue: Letter: Obsession with gun registration defies logic Cops not supporting us. (CPA) Letter: Gun registry is ineffective and a waste of time, money Senator Anne Cools Web Page SPOILS OF WAR Fw: Bird-wing Butterflies Guns were pointed at their heads during the ordeal. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2001 08:15:55 -0600 From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" Subject: Letter: Obsession with gun registration defies logic PUBLICATION: Edmonton Journal DATE: 2001.04.01 EDITION: FINAL SECTION: Letters PAGE: A11 BYLINE: A.W. Parsons - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- - ---- Obsession with gun registration defies logic - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- - ---- A quote from Sir John A. Macdonald during debate on the 1877 gun law: ``It might have the effect of disarming the person who ought to be armed, and arming the rowdies.'' Approximately a billion tax dollars have been spent by the Liberal government on Bill -<68> in attempting to register firearms, and it has had no effect at all on the criminal element of Canada. It only penalizes law-abiding Canadians. And still the government cannot find money to aid our farmers or find and deport criminal immigrants. A sad commentary on a government that, in pursuit of social engineering and political correctness, has strayed so far from the logic and common sense exhibited by our forefathers. A.W. Parsons, Edmonton ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2001 09:27:12 -0600 From: "Randy Nelson" Subject: Cops not supporting us. (CPA) Here's a thought.... How about proposing a motion at your local range to revoke membership for all serving Police Officers if their particular force supports C-68? For the most part, Cops still need to be members of a range to posses personal restricted/prohibited firearms. Yes, I know that larger forces have their own clubs/ranges but many forces do not. Let us just call this a gesture in kind. Cheers...Randy ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2001 08:01:02 -0400 From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" Subject: Letter: Gun registry is ineffective and a waste of time, money PUBLICATION: The Ottawa Citizen DATE: 2001.04.02 EDITION: FINAL SECTION: News PNAME : Letters PAGE: A11 BYLINE: Rob Pierce SOURCE: The Ottawa Citizen - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- - ---- Gun registry is ineffective and a waste of time, money - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- - ---- I recently tried to use the federal government's new gun-control registry in New Brunswick to transfer the ownership of a hunting rifle already registered in its system. After waiting on hold for an hour, I was referred to the B.C. centre, which, in turn, referred me to the Ontario centre, which referred me back to New Brunswick. Yes, that's right -- a complete circle. Then I waited on hold again for another 45 minutes. When I got through on this second try to the New Brunswick office, believe it or not, they tried to pass me off again to the B.C. centre -- until I managed to convince them that it was, indeed, the New Brunswick office that had to handle my request. This system has cost Canadian taxpayers $600 million so far and it took me, an unpaid citizen, to tell the individual in New Brunswick how to do his job. Is this an efficient use of our money? I think not. There is only a small percentage of the in Canada registered so far, and the system does not work now. There is no way that this registry will function once more begin to be registered as the Jan. 1, 2003 deadline for registering all in Canada approaches. I fully agree that owners should be licensed. I strongly disagree, however, with the notion that all hunting rifles and shotguns must be registered. It is outrageously expensive, will not improve public safety and takes funds away from other programs such as health care, social housing, and policing. The gun registry should be scrapped and those monies used for tangible benefits for Canadian taxpayers. Rob Pierce, Ottawa ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2001 09:27:31 -0600 From: "Jim Hinter" Subject: Senator Anne Cools Web Page Organization: National Firearms Association http://www.sen.parl.gc.ca/acools/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2001 09:27:41 -0600 From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" Subject: SPOILS OF WAR PUBLICATION: The Edmonton Sun DATE: 2001.04.01 SECTION: Sunday PAGE: SE12 SOURCE: Edmonton Sun BYLINE: Erik Floren ILLUSTRATION: 7 photos 1. photo by AP First World War medals from Nurse Edith Hudson of Winnipeg. 2. War pennants on display at MilArm. 3. Allan Kerr holds a canvas tunic worn by a Red Deer man in the Boer War. 4. A First World War flying jacket, lined with ocelot fur. 5. Allan Kerr holds an 1851 Navy Colt that was used in the Fenian Raids of 1866. 6. A First World War poster. 7. Poster from the Second World War. - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- - ---- SPOILS OF WAR - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- - ---- Housed in Allan Kerr's sprawling gun and sports shop in downtown Edmonton is what might well be the largest private collection of Canadian war memorabilia in the country. Rifles, posters, books, photographs, uniforms, headgear, medals and swords crowd the shop's walls. There are also trench art displays, pistols, badges, newspaper front pages from the Second World War, postage stamps, postcards, diaries and Red Cross posters. And much more. In all, some 10,000 items comprising 200 years of Canadian military history - - from rare War of 1812 campaign medals to modern weaponry - are contained within the two-storey confines of MilArm Co., 10769 99 St. Kerr says his collection is the start of an eventual museum devoted to the colourful history of the Canadian military. Start? Heck, right now even the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa can't compete with some of Kerr's historical war exhibits. "Amongst collectors in Canada, it's probably the largest universal collection covering the whole Canadian field," said Kerr, standing proudly amid his amazing acquisitions. "There are better collections in medals, in swords. There's maybe the odd collection that's better in , although mine's pretty complete. But there's nobody else who goes across all the fields." Kerr, who has spent the last 40 years collecting the goods, says the goal is to illustrate the military history and tradition of the Canadian Armed Forces. His extensive collection includes the finest array of military war prints and Victory Bonds in Canada. "People have been here from the War Museum and they've indicated that they would like our posters. What we're doing, we're negotiating with a number of museums to give our collection to them. Eventually. We've taken out an insurance policy of a quarter-million dollars which will go with the collection to whatever museum ends up with it." Last year Kerr donated the uniform of Col. Charles Ross, inventor of the Ross rifle which was used in the First World War, to the War Museum in Ottawa. "That's really where it should be, because the uniform was unique to Ross. I have other general uniforms of First World War officers so I didn't need that particular one," explained Kerr. "Ross was an inventor. He started making in Canada in 1903. His were excellent target rifles but in World War I, they didn't handle the dirt of the battlefields and they tended to seize up." Just by listening to the man as we wade through the history in his shop, it's evident this assemblage is a labour of love. Point to almost any item and Kerr can easily spin a story or spout its history. For example, I point to articles on display from the famous Devil's Brigade - - insignia, medals and a tunic. "The Devil's Brigade was a joint Canadian and U.S. force that was put together mainly as a commando force," began Kerr. "They were going to go into Norway and take out the heavy-water plant the Germans were building. When that was taken out by the Norwegians, the brigade was used as shock troops in Europe. "They were highly trained, they trained in Montana. They skied, they parachuted, they climbed mountains." The 1968 Hollywood movie The Devil's Brigade, starring William Holden and Cliff Robertson, "was fairly good," added Kerr. "But it sort of indicated that the Americans were all criminals that got out of jail because they joined up and the Canadians were all elite soldiers ... and I think you've got to stretch both of those one way. "The Canadians weren't all elite and the Americans weren't all criminals. But they made a good fighting force when they got together. The competition between the two countries made everyone better." It may come as a surprise to some but among the collector's most prized possessions are personal articles from someone who never fired or even toted a weapon - decorated war nurse Edith Fanny Hudson. "She was from Manitoba (born in 1885) and she joined early in the First World War. She was one of the first 160 Canadians to land in Europe. For that she got the 1914 Star. Later on she was awarded the bar to the 1914 Star, for working while being under enemy fire. She also received the Royal Red Cross medal, one of only 64 Canadians to receive it. I have boxes full of her diaries from the war, her uniform. "She was just a very famous nurse." Hudson never married. When she died, her relatives sold off her medals and belongings but Kerr was able to track down most of the stuff and purchased them for his collection. A display has been set up in her honour. As we moseyed past more acquisitions, stowed and tucked in every nook and cranny of the shop, Kerr chatted about the work ahead. "I need a lot more signs. Right now it's sort of an accumulation, a lot of it, rather than a true museum display." Eventually, here on the second floor of his shop, there's 360 square metres he would like to convert into a real museum for the articles. "As staff take over the store and I get less and less into the store to work, then this is what I'd like to do. Perhaps in another five or six years," smiled the 62-year-old. "I'll work in my museum and make it as it should be displayed." I ask him how it all began. "I started collecting in 1962 when I was doing my master's degree in Saskatoon and my wife was a nurse. It was the year we were married. And she bought me a rifle for Christmas from a mail order firm in Montreal called Century Arms. "By spring I had a dozen rifles. And now she cannot complain about me collecting rifles because she started me in the hobby." Kerr still has that first rifle. In those days, to save money, Kerr used to put money aside daily representing the cost of two packages of cigarettes. He didn't smoke but many around him did and that's what led to the idea. From this fund, he was able to buy one or two rifles a month. And so it went. Today Kerr's collection consists of 150 Canadian rifles and handguns ("which gives a very good representation of all the Canada has used since the late 1700s up to 1960"). He also has machine-guns from both World Wars but doesn't put them out on display. "We have medals starting with the War of 1812, which was the first war Canada issued campaign medals. And we have almost all the medals given by Canada right up to the United Nations peacekeeping medals that have been given to date." Kerr and his wife started MilArm in Lethbridge in 1963, starting it as a trading place for collectors of militaria. It's been in business in Edmonton since 1967, where it's grown into a full-scale retail/wholesale outlet with four full-time employees. Both Allan and Sharon Kerr share a military background. Sharon served in the Canadian military from 1959 to 1962 while Allan served as a lieutenant 1963 to 1967. Kerr travels Canada and the U.S. to trade and collector's shows for new stock. The Internet also plays a big part in his collecting and trading these days. Kerr uses a Web site at www.milarm.com to conduct a lot of his business. Transactions, mostly for collectibles, are done through e-mail, fax and the Web auction house eBay.com. "I'm a collector at heart, I guess," said Kerr. "As a child I collected stamps and I collected Indian artifacts. I've always collected all my life. With my wife buying that first gun in '62 - it just went from there." "I'm just interested in history and it's a way to spend your time both educationally and financially. "This store grew out of my collecting. I used to have to buy entire collections to get one or two items. You had to have a way to get rid of the extra stuff. That's how the store came about. Now it's almost the other way around. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2001 09:27:23 -0600 From: "Bert van Ingen" Subject: Fw: Bird-wing Butterflies > The melodrama! Imagine the incredulous faces of heartless killers and >hardened criminals in a federal institution upon being told of a "butterfly >bootlegger" incarcerated in the same cell block. > The Ottawa Citizen reported on an international butterfly smuggling >operation in Canada. It comes as no surprise though, as in the war on >illicit drugs and arms, that the human world still operates on the principle >of "supply and demand" regardless of government initiatives to do otherwise. > Now we hear that in a remote jungle area of New Guinea equisitely >beautiful birdwing butterflies were deemed "endangered" and that the typical >"non-problem-solving knee-jerk" response by governing bodies was to ban the >collection and sale of these animals. In other words; create new criminals >and then hire public servants to catch them. > The article attributes the decline of these butterflies to habitat loss >and collecting. What I read is that it's OK to cut the forest but it's not >OK to profit from the animals that used to live there. However, we are >talking about the lavish international protection of an insect. A bug like a >cabbage white, blackfly, wasp, termite or cockroach! > I have been curious about insects all my life and even collect the >occasional butterfly. Even stranger I have been raising giant Cecropia moths >for 20 years merely out of scientific curiousity. The concept is simple >enough; provide the caterpillers with suitable food and away they go! What >I have rudely discovered over the years is the brutality of the natural >world in which they live. Virtually everything out there is either >inedible, poisonous, a competitor or a predator. I have yet to witness the >completion of the life cycle of any one of the 1000 eggs that one moth can >lay if I place the eggs in a food tree and simply stand back. There is a >continual onslaught of hungry spiders, wasps, assassin beetles, parasitic >flies and northern orioles on the juicy caterpillers. Even woodpeckers and >bluejays are cunningly adept at accessing the sturdy silk cocoons. For me to >"produce" 10 moths from 1000 eggs requires a concerted artificial >intervention and protection strategy while I watch a single caterpiller >consume the equivalent of a 2 metre high tree. > Which gets me to the gist of this letter. If birdwing butterflies have >such collector appeal why can't people be encouraged to help these animals >in exchange for a "cut" in the lucrative collecting trade. "Kill two birds >with one stone" as it were. Having non-government interests self-regulate >the trade through the acquisiton, preservation and cultivation of habitat >and food plants would benefit everyone, as well as the less desirable, but >equally important, critters that also live in that area. > History shows us we can never curtail illegal activity but we sure can >reduce the incentive. All it takes is practicality and common sense. I >wouldn't mind displaying one of these butterflies on my wall one day in >exchange for the knowledge that I was actually benefitting the birdwing >butterfly population as a whole. Bert van Ingen, Manotick, 692-4793 > ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2001 12:42:04 -0600 From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" Subject: Guns were pointed at their heads during the ordeal. PUBLICATION: The Kingston Whig-Standard DATE: 2001.03.31 EDITION: FINAL SECTION: Community PAGE: 1 / Front BYLINE: Annette Phillips SOURCE: The Kingston Whig-Standard - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- - ---- Teens, child traumatized by takedown: `Please don't shoot,' begged young boy with gun held to his head - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- - ---- A 911 call that led city police to handcuff two teens and a child at gunpoint has prompted a flurry of apologies, allegations of racism and an investigation by the Ontario Provincial Police. ``We are very, very sorry for what happened,'' said Police Chief Bill Closs in an interview yesterday. ``We were responding to a 911 call. We thought we were looking at a violent offender. What we found were innocent kids.'' On March 16, a 17-year-old boy, his girlfriend and his 12-year-old brother were visiting family friends with the boys' father. The father gave his son the car keys and sent the kids to the store for soft drinks. When he looked out the window minutes later, he saw police cruisers with lights flashing surrounding the car. Fearing his sons had been in an accident, the man bolted to the scene where he was restrained by police. He says he was forced to watch in helpless as police officers held a gun to the head of his 12-year-old son and ordered him to to kneel on the pavement. The youth was searched with his hands cuffed behind his back. ``Please don't shoot me,'' the sobbing boy begged the police officer. His older brother was already in the back seat of a police cruiser, in handcuffs. The female teenager, a passenger in the back seat, was also searched and handcuffed. Guns were pointed at their heads during the ordeal. The kids never tried to run. They were not violent and never argued with officers, who eventually let them go with no explanation and no apology. The kids are sports stars and honour students who have never been in trouble with the law. The boys are black. When the parents told Closs of the incident, he wrote formal apologies to both families. He also asked the OPP to investigate the conduct of his officers, who were responding to a 911 report of a violent offender. The caller identified the car, a 2000 Mercedes, gave a description of the suspect and the general area in which the car could be found. In interviews yesterday, the boys' mother and the girl's father said an apology can't begin to ease the trauma inflicted on the terrified children. All three are working with trauma counselors at school. They are plagued by nightmares and their school work is suffering. Their parents are troubled, afraid and sick at the breach of trust that has caused such to three good kids. ``I'm not the one they should be apologizing to,'' the girl's father said yesterday. ``I'm not the one who was put through hell.'' Police never told the kids why they were being targeted. Their parents say police never even bothered to ask their names. ``You explain to your children the police are there to protect them, but when something like this happens, it takes all the trust away,'' the father said. ``[My daughter] works hard. She's a good kid. They are all good kids. They were held at gunpoint and they were not even told why this was happening to them.'' The father says it's racism in its simplest form. His daughter is white. ``This is a racist thing. It was two black kids in a Mercedes. If [my daughter] had been driving that car, it probably wouldn't have happened.'' Closs says the 911 caller gave police specific information about the car, its occupants and their location. He denies the suggestion that the boys were subjected to police aggression because they were black. ``If they had blond hair, blue eyes and red shirts they would have been stopped in the same manner,'' he said. ``The [911 caller] provided descriptions of the suspect and gave information about who and what we were to look for.'' It is systemic racism, the boys' mother maintains. Police wouldn't listen to the boys' father when he arrived at the confrontation. The father, who is also black, was restrained by officers, kept away from the kids and ignored until he was incoherent with panic. Police ignored his cries of ``these are my kids,'' he said. They refused to tell him what was going on. ``Perceptions determine how you treat people,'' said the boys' mother yesterday. ``A white father would have been noticed and listened to.'' Her oldest son is a high school athlete, well-liked, well-known and well-respected. He volunteers as a coach for his younger brother's sports team. A letter of apology from the chief is cold comfort for the family, none of whom has slept a full night since the incident, the boys' mother said. ``After the , the humiliation and the degradation my kids went through as honest, upright citizens, this letter doesn't go far enough,'' she said. Closs' explanation that officers were responding to a 911 call on a violent offender does not account for why police continued to use force after they realized they were dealing with children. ``I understand there is a process to be followed, but - I'm sorry, they lost me after they saw young kids come out of the car,'' the mother said. ``This was a 12-year-old child.'' Closs says officers at the scene performed a standard high-risk takedown procedure that is employed when officers believe they are facing a dangerous criminal. ``We do not randomly stop vehicles using a high-risk takedown, but when there is a call for help from a citizen, we take it very seriously,'' Closs said. ``Unfortunately, the wrong people were identified to us.'' ``My heart goes out to those kids and their families because the kids were innocent. They had done nothing wrong.'' City police were involved in nine such takedowns involving motor vehicles in 2000. According to statistics collected over the past eight years, officers draw their weapons, on average, once in every 1,000 calls. ``That is a comforting statistic and it shows that officers do not frivolously draw their weapons,'' Closs said. ------------------------------ End of Cdn-Firearms Digest V3 #704 ********************************** Submissions: mailto:cdn-firearms-digest@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Mailing List Commands: mailto:majordomo@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Moderator's e-mail address: mailto:acardin33@home.com List owner: mailto:owner-cdn-firearms@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca FAQ list: http://www.magma.ca/~asd/cfd-faq1.html and http://teapot.usask.ca/cdn-firearms/Faq/cfd-faq1.html Web Site: http://teapot.usask.ca/cdn-firearms/homepage.html FTP Site: ftp://teapot.usask.ca/pub/cdn-firearms/ CFDigest Archives: http://www.sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca/~ab133/ or put the next command in an e-mail message and mailto:majordomo@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca get cdn-firearms-digest v03.n198 end (198 is the digest issue number and 03 is the volume) To unsubscribe from _all_ the lists, put the next five lines in a message and mailto:majordomo@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca unsubscribe cdn-firearms-digest unsubscribe cdn-firearms-alert unsubscribe cdn-firearms-chat unsubscribe cdn-firearms end (To subscribe, use "subscribe" instead of "unsubscribe".) 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