From: owner-cdn-firearms-digest@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca on behalf of Cdn-Firearms Digest [owner-cdn-firearms-digest@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca] Sent: Tuesday, 17 April, 2001 20:20 To: cdn-firearms-digest@broadway.sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Subject: Cdn-Firearms Digest V3 #723 Cdn-Firearms Digest Tuesday, April 17 2001 Volume 03 : Number 723 In this issue: Moderator National Post April 14,2001 opinion police officer admits selling secret files Re: Cdn-Firearms Digest V3 #722 Scholars challenge gun history Re: Scholars challenge gun history Relevance of court proceedings in the digest 'short barreled handguns' not prohibited Re: CILA Recommendation: A Wake Up Call from Jim Powlesland ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2001 15:04:14 -0600 From: "Ross" Subject: Moderator The missve by Joe Canada with respect to xde-taxing himself, is not a new concept, but the court precedents that have arisien from it are relevant. It distincltly boils down to What rights do we have that are real, vesus what we must do with the governemt because they say so. Such postings whilst a little convoluted was very interesting reading. Let it stay. My two cents worth J Ross ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2001 15:47:27 -0600 From: EUGEN SINGER Subject: National Post April 14,2001 UNITED NATIONS - Less than three months before the United Nations hosts a major conference on international gun control, its showpiece disarmament project in West Africa has been exposed as an utter failure by a confidential internal evaluation obtained by the National Post.
Canada was the first country to sign on to the project, which promised to galvanize international efforts against gun-running in a region where rebels have killed and maimed hundreds of thousands of innocents.
Donor nations have given up to $9-million in financing, and pledged more. Total budget requirements approach $20-million.
But the evaluation says the project, launched in March, 1999, by the UN Development Program (UNDP), has done little or nothing to fulfill its mandate.
"Very few results that could be described as tangible have been identified as a result of [the project's] activities," the evaluators' report says.
Presented to UNDP behind closed doors less than two weeks ago, the evaluation has caused great concern.
The UNDP reacted quickly, removing the project's director, Ivor Richard Fung of Cameroon. One senior UN official called for an audit, UN sources say. Mr. Fung remains chief of the UN's Regional Centre for Peace & Disarmament in Africa, based in Lom=E9, capital of Togo.
But some UN officials fear the controversy will make it harder to renew a West African arms sale moratorium, which expires in October after being established for an initial three-year period in 1998.
The officials wanted to postpone Mr. Fung's removal until after the renewal deadline. They were overruled.
The document says: "It is essential that some substantive results be achieved [by the project] before the end of the moratorium" to keep West African nations and international donors on side.
The turmoil at the top will mean an embarrassing lack of good news to trumpet at the first major international meeting on small-arms control. The Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects is scheduled to take place in New York from July 9 to 20.
Though the evaluation contains no allegations of major misdirection of funds, it does list several "financial irregularities."
For example, Mr. Fung took over a project vehicle for his "exclusive usage ... on personal grounds," it says, citing the vehicle's log book.
It attributes these irregularities to a "lack of competence" in UN bookkeeping procedures in Lom=E9.
Reached in Lom=E9, Mr. Fung said, "I have rejected the report because it was written by amateurs. I founded the project. I directed it until last week. The report has totally distorted the facts.
"We need first and foremost the consent of the country to go and do weapons collection correctly. To obtain that consent needs a lot of time."
He also said the report fails to reflect bureaucratic difficulties within the UN system that "have hampered progress on the=20 ground."
But he conceded UNDP had "accepted and acted on" the report. "What is important for me is the survival of the project," he added.
Omar Gharzeddine, a UNDP spokesman, said, "The agency has no comment at this time."
Illicit gun-running has been on the rise around the world as regional and ethnic conflicts proliferate after the Cold War. It is helped by lax export controls, especially in former Soviet bloc countries.
Private brokers and front companies, sometimes working with national intelligence agencies, have fuelled wars in Colombia, Afghanistan, the former Yugoslavia and Sri Lanka.
But African countries have suffered the most. In some, "it is easier and cheaper to buy an AK-47 [assault rifle] than to attend a movie or provide a decent meal," says a U.S. State Department study.
The West African bid to end small-arms trafficking was sparked by Mali, a landlocked Saharan state, which asked the UN for help in ending a conflict in its north in 1993.
A UN advisory commission that visited seven countries in the region concluded small-arms controls were "essential for ... economic and social development."
That led to the three-year moratorium on manufacturing and trading in light weapons.
The UNDP's project, formally known as the Program for Co-ordination and Assistance for Security and Development (PCASED), aimed to publicize the moratorium, set up a registry to track arms sales and help West African countries establish commissions to destroy confiscated weapons.
Mr. Fung was to head the project until he could be replaced by a deputy director, based at the project's headquarters in Bamako, capital of Mali.
Canada's Liberal government, which considered international gun control to be central to its "human security" goal of protecting civilians in war, quickly signed on. The Canadian International Development Agency chipped in $400,000, a fraction of the $30-million Ottawa has earmarked for "peacebuilding."
No CIDA official with knowledge of the project was available for comment.
But by last summer, donor countries had begun to suspect progress was less than as advertised and called for a study.
Two evaluators scrutinized the project from Nov. 22 to Dec. 14. Their report rejects Mr. Fung's claims the project has helped destroy weapons, as well as train border and security forces in weapons detection.
The evaluation complains about Mr. Fung's "unwillingness ... to recognize the weakness of the program," but admits he has been effective at raising money. "The director has been instrumental in securing donor funding," it says.
He is also praised for "facilitating dialogue with [weapons] producers and suppliers."
The evaluation suggests Mr. Fung clung to the job, saying he has shown "little inclination to transfer his functions to the deputy director, as originally intended."
In deciding to support the project, donor nations had been most impressed by its promises to set up commissions in 16 West African countries to rid the region of illicit light weapons and to establish an arms register to track arms sales.
So far, only three commissions have materialized -- in Mali, Niger and Guinea -- and the first two existed before the project began.
Plans for the arms register not only remain unfulfilled, but are too grandiose, says the evaluation.
Instead of developing a simple information Web site, the project budgeted $360,000 for a sophisticated regional network with "an advanced intranet system or elaborate software configurations."
The evaluation recommends pulling the plug on this system, which it says has a "technological capacity far in excess of PCASED's requirements." The money saved should be used to beef up efforts to gather small-arms information from member states.
------------------------------ Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2001 20:15:39 -0600 From: "jim davies" Subject: opinion > >for the copy-claim/right/authority: Borkovic: Supercargo: 2001:04. > > > > > > Moderator: I would like teh Group's opinion on this type of > posting- does it belong here? GPH > > Sure, if the extraneous stuff was edited out. The question, of course, is who would do that? Joe-Taxpayer-in-court stories are somewhat relevent even if they do not pertain strcitly to our area of interest. Maybe the first paragraph and a website? Moderator: I have no control over whether they supply a web site etc. Nor will I "edit" the content. Moderator: GPH ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2001 20:46:40 -0600 From: owner-cdn-firearms@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Subject: police officer admits selling secret files Annie, tell me again that information about my restricted prohibited firearms, including my home address where they are stored, is "safe" from criminals with a shopping list. Que. police officer admits selling secret files WebPosted Sat Apr 14 18:36:51 2001 http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?/news/2001/04/14/quecops_01 0414 MONTREAL - A disgraced Montreal police officer and his ex-partner pleaded guilty Saturday to a crime that has angered and sickened the force. Two days after being arrested, Sgt.-Det. Alain Desrosiers admitted selling confidential police files to criminal gangs. Desrosiers was given a conditional sentence - which means he won't serve time in jail as long as he doesn't break any more laws. He was also fired, after 23 years on the force. His former partner, Claude Aubin, received a more severe punishment for his part in the operation: two years in jail. Prosecutors said that Aubin, who retired in 1999 after 33 years on the force, was the person who actually sold the computer files and made a profit. A third man, Michel Charbonneau, also pleaded guilty to selling police files and was handed a conditional sentence. Charbonneau was a civilian who helped run a security agency in Montreal. Defence lawyers said the evidence against their clients was too overwhelming to justify a trial. Investigators have refused to identify who bought the computer records. There have been reports that the files were sold to biker gangs and members of a Russian mob. At a news conference Thursday, Montreal police chief Michel Sarrazin called the crime surprising, distressing, and revolting. Sarrazin denied that there are security problems on the force, pointing out that protective measures in place on the computer system helped nab all three crooks. (Ah, Chief Sarrazin, if your protective measures worked, then how come the article says computer records were sold to bikers and Russian mafia???) - -- Why did we just have an election in Canada? a) to bury the Auditor Generals report on the HRDC scandal, b) to block the report on criminal misdeeds by top Liberals, c) to feed Jean Chretiens ego, d) all of the above. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 15 Apr 2001 05:31:43 -0600 From: ejohnston@ns.sympatico.ca (E Johnston) Subject: Re: Cdn-Firearms Digest V3 #722 On 14 Apr 2001, at 10:29, Cdn-Firearms Digest wrote: > > Moderator: I would like teh Group's opinion on this type of > posting- does it belong here? GPH NO!! Earl Johnston, ejohnston@ns.sympatico.ca "The registering of hunting rifles is the first step in the social re-engineering of Canadians". - - Liberal Senator Sharon Carstairs. Jan.26, 1996 at the Community Legal Education Associations Conference, Winnipeg, Manitoba ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 15 Apr 2001 05:39:09 -0600 From: j galt Subject: Scholars challenge gun history The notion that early colonial settlers had few firearms is another one of those 'fuzzy science' ideas like "guns cause violence" and "it would be a peaceful world with no guns". Such beliefs just don't stand the test of historical fact. Canadien census records from the late 1600's show the names and ages of household members, the husband's trade, as well as number of "armes" i.e.firearms, "bestes" cattle and homestead area of cleared or cultivated land. In a typical seignory or hamlet of about 200 people on average sized homesteads of 2 to 10 acres, there would be a baker, a shoe-maker, a barrel-maker, a blacksmith-gunsmith, a blackpowder maker, a rope-maker, a tanner, and a few carpenters. The records also show that about 4/5 of the households listed at least one 'fusil' or rifle/musket, and about half of the households listed more than one. This isn't 'gun registration', but rather a tally of who was equipped to defend the settlement should the need arise. Household firearm ownership was important enough to be included in census records, and like the ownership of land and cattle, it was a measure of status and self reliance in the community. The Canadian Archives show that public records of this period included ordinances for households to maintain a specified minimum supply of blackpowder and ball, as well as a freshly loaded rifle and ammunition within easy access. These same public records show that crime was virtually non existent, and instances of violent crime extremely rare. Much like present times, the occasional homicide was between 'willing' combatants, and involved bare hands, sharp edged tools or blunt objects. Of the hundreds of records I've viewed from the early colonial period, I've not seen one instance of gunshot homicide or crime involving firearms. I'm not suggesting a simplified cause and effect relationship, however social crime as we know it does not become prevalent in the public records till about a hundred years later under the centralized control model of the anglish colonial regime. This socialist system of centralized colonial control persists today in Scotland, Ireland, Quebec, Australia and Western Canada with varying degrees of success. JG Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2001 14:31:35 -0600 From: "Linda & Rory" Subject: Fw: NCPA - Scholars challenge gun history > Michael Bellesiles's "Arming America" is criticized from across > the political spectrum....WALL STREET JOURNAL > * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * > SCHOLARS CHALLENGE GUN HISTORY > > Emory University professor Michael Bellesiles recently published > a book that disputed the long-held conviction that many colonial > Americans owned guns. In "Arming America: The Origins of a > National Gun Culture," Bellesiles claims gun-ownership was rare > back then. > > His thesis was embraced by anti-gun activists, but a growing > number of respected scholars from across the political > spectrum are saying his research and conclusions are wrong. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get email at your own domain with Yahoo! Mail. http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2001 09:38:00 -0600 From: "Linda & Rory" Subject: Re: Scholars challenge gun history John, have you written letters with this information? Do you have any idea where to get a sample of one of these old census forms? Not only is this good letter writing info, but an actual sample would be an idea for the billboard campaign also. Would also be kind of a good idea to write a book similar to the one focussing on American info. Linda - ---------- > The notion that early colonial settlers had few > firearms is another one of those 'fuzzy science' ideas > like "guns cause violence" and "it would be a peaceful > world with no guns". Such beliefs just don't > stand the test of historical fact. > > Canadien census records from the late 1600's show the > names and ages of household members, the husband's > trade, as well as number of "armes" i.e.firearms, > "bestes" cattle and homestead area of cleared or > cultivated land. > In a typical seignory or hamlet of about 200 people on > average sized homesteads of 2 to 10 acres, there would > be a baker, a shoe-maker, a barrel-maker, a > blacksmith-gunsmith, a blackpowder maker, a > rope-maker, a tanner, and a few carpenters. The > records also show that about 4/5 of the households > listed at least one 'fusil' or rifle/musket, and about > half of the > households listed more than one. This isn't 'gun > registration', but rather a tally of who was equipped > to defend the settlement should the need arise. > Household firearm ownership was important enough to be > included in census records, and like the ownership of > land and cattle, it was a measure of status and self > reliance in the community. > > The Canadian Archives show that public records of this > period included ordinances for households to maintain > a specified minimum supply of blackpowder and ball, as > well as a freshly loaded rifle and ammunition within > easy access. These same public records show that > crime > was virtually non existent, and instances of violent > crime extremely rare. Much like present times, the > occasional homicide was between 'willing' combatants, > and involved bare hands, sharp edged tools or blunt > objects. Of the hundreds of records I've viewed from > the early colonial period, I've not seen one instance > of gunshot homicide or crime involving firearms. I'm > not suggesting a simplified cause and effect > relationship, however social crime as we know it does > not become prevalent in the public records till about > a hundred years later under the centralized control > model of the anglish colonial regime. > > This socialist system of centralized colonial control > persists today in Scotland, Ireland, Quebec, Australia > and Western Canada with varying degrees of success. > > JG > > Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2001 14:31:35 -0600 > From: "Linda & Rory" > Subject: Fw: NCPA - Scholars challenge gun history > > > Michael Bellesiles's "Arming America" is > criticized from across > > the political spectrum....WALL STREET JOURNAL > > * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * > * * * * > > SCHOLARS CHALLENGE GUN HISTORY > > > > Emory University professor Michael Bellesiles > recently published > > a book that disputed the long-held conviction that > many colonial > > Americans owned guns. In "Arming America: The > Origins of a > > National Gun Culture," Bellesiles claims > gun-ownership was rare > > back then. > > > > His thesis was embraced by anti-gun activists, but a > growing > > number of respected scholars from across the > political > > spectrum are saying his research and conclusions are wrong. > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Get email at your own domain with Yahoo! Mail. > http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2001 09:40:11 -0600 From: Jhogue Subject: Relevance of court proceedings in the digest I vote YES, they are relevant. Instead of being a channel for technical information on firearms, reloading and recreational activities, the digest is about opposing government abuse agaisnt gun owners. Exposing court abuses is directly relevant. At the very least, the uniform resource locator link should be listed with a short highlight of the case. I would ask contributors to be short and to the point though. Donald Neuls writing did not make for easy reading. Seems Antonio Lamer, former boss of the supreme court, is miffed over Alliance criticism of judges. It is not just that pathetic ignorants are "yapping", the aggressive tone of the critics is perceived with alarm by Lamer. [Ref: La Presse, Sunday, April 15, p. A4] - -------- On a lighter side: La Presse, Sat. April 14, p. F3, Claude Picher, "Le pécu et le crétin" pécu is a play on word linking the way the initials of the parti québécois sound in French and the old French écu currency. During the 1980 Quebec separation referendum, the federal Finance minister came up with a propaganda tool to scare people into voting against separation. He organized a publicity campaign with a phony currency bill called the pécu which would be worth only $0.65 USD, with a caption "pay to the bearer" transformed into "payer au porteur d'eau" (a menial job of carrying water pails). That Finance minister was Jean Chrétien. Today, the canadian dollar is about 63 cents US. A reader ironically referred to Chrétiens .63 cent dollar as the "crétin". What goes around comes around. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2001 09:40:14 -0600 From: "Brian" Subject: 'short barreled handguns' not prohibited re Ross' post in CFD V3#722: Not all 'short barreled handguns' are prohibited. It is true that = modern firearms with certain barrel lengths fall into the prohibited = category and the Firearms Act means owners will require more expensive = licenses (museum license, dealer license) etc in order to legally keep = their peashooters. Of course one need only disassemble the firearm and = replace the barrel with a government-approved length barrel in order to = transform many of these 'prohibited nasties' into normal everyday = 'restricted' handguns as viewed by the law.=20 But it gets better. Because short barreled handguns may only be viewed = as prohibited if they are not 'antique firearms' you or anyone can = purchase an antique snubbie with 0 paperwork. One relatively = inexpensive type to look at might be the common Webley Royal Irish = Constabulary (RIC) antique revolvers, which give 45 ACP level ballistics = and which I've seen for under $300 in rough but shootable condition. = That might even be less than the cost of a custom barrel on your old = 'prohibited' handgun - and the 'new' (antique) one is exempt from the = meaningless paperwork which plagues the legitimate owners of modern = handguns. Cheers, Brian ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2001 20:19:00 -0600 From: Jim Powlesland Subject: Re: CILA Recommendation: A Wake Up Call from Jim Powlesland Organization: Calgary Community Network Assoc. On Thu, 12 Apr 2001, "John E. Stevens" wrote: > http://www.petitiononline.com/Outdoors/petition.html > > Only 165 signatures as of noon, Apr 12th Now at #396. I just added mine. Again. (for some reason my first submission wasn't sucessful) ------------------------------ End of Cdn-Firearms Digest V3 #723 ********************************** 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".) If you find this service valuable, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to the freenet we use: Saskatoon Free-Net Assoc., 1702 20th St. West, Saskatoon SK S7M OZ9 Phone: (306) 382-7070 modem lines: (306) 956-3700 and (306) 956-3701 Home page: http://www.sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca/ National Firearms Association (N.F.A.) Box 4384, Station C Calgary AB T2T 5N2 ph.: (403) 640-1110 fax: (403) 640-1144 mailto:nfainfo@nfa.ca Web site: http://www.nfa.ca/ DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED! Automatic, monthly donations may be made to the N.F.A. by sending postdated cheques, or your Visa/MasterCard number and expiry date, to the Membership address above, along with the amount you would like to donate: $5, $10, or another amount. Automatic donations may be cancelled at any time. N.F.A. memberships: families: $40; seniors: $25; individuals: $30; businesses: $50. Included are regular issues of the N.F.A. newsletter Point Blank, as well as magazines like "Canadian Sportsman". Add just $4.75 per person for $5,000,000 insurance! Clubs: get associate memberships for just $3 per member ($45 minimum) and members will be still eligible for $5,000,000 liability insurance for just $4.75 each! These e-mail digests are free to everyone, and are made possible by the efforts of countless volunteers. Permission is granted to copy and distribute this digest as long as it not altered in any way.