From: owner-can-firearms-digest@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca (Cdn-Firearms Digest) To: cdn-firearms-digest@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Subject: Cdn-Firearms Digest V7 #163 Reply-To: cdn-firearms-digest@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Sender: owner-can-firearms-digest@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Errors-To: owner-can-firearms-digest@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Precedence: normal Cdn-Firearms Digest Thursday, May 20 2004 Volume 07 : Number 163 In this issue: PM TO TAKE SHOT AT GUN LAW CHANGES Ottawa to announce gun-registry changes affecting fees, costs Letter: Ballistic incentive Editorial: Pursue criminals, not gun owners: GUN, KID PORN TRIAL SET FOR COP Target of shooting counts himself lucky Father guns down son, then kills self Shots fired during standoff; Top Corner killer jailed 13 years ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 05:59:37 -0600 (CST) From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" Subject: PM TO TAKE SHOT AT GUN LAW CHANGES PUBLICATION: The Ottawa Sun DATE: 2004.05.20 EDITION: Final SECTION: News PAGE: 27 BYLINE: CP DATELINE: TORONTO COLUMN: Parliament Hill - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PM TO TAKE SHOT AT GUN LAW CHANGES - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now mere days away from an expected election call, the federal government is expected to announce a package of reforms to the much-reviled gun registry, CBC-TV's The National reported yesterday. The reforms, to be introduced today, would include the elimination of registration and transfer fees -- although those won't be retroactive. Police officers can also expect increased public safety measures to deal with gun crime, the CBC said. As for the program's $1-billion budget -- the government is expected to spell out a plan to control those cost overruns, the network reported. Earlier yesterday, the Globe and Mail reported reforms were expected to be released soon. The reform package focuses on public safety -- targeting the criminal use of guns rather than law-abiding owners such as hunters and farmers, other reports indicated. Its central element, sources said, is a proposed Criminal Code amendment that would create a legal definition of domestic violence. That would enable authorities to prohibit for a specific number of years the ownership of guns by people who use or threaten to use them in a domestic situation. LESS RED TAPE Insiders told the newspaper that the package also proposes major cost-saving measures that would reduce red tape, paperwork and bureaucracy around the registry. An election call is expected this Sunday. Prime Minister Paul Martin ordered the review just after he was sworn in to office last December, saying he wanted the registry revamped. The registry was originally budgeted to cost only $2-million after taking into account registration fees. But costs have spiralled, leading the auditor general to estimate the total price tag at about $1 billion by 2005. The registry now costs more than $100 million a year to run. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 06:03:51 -0600 (CST) From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" Subject: Ottawa to announce gun-registry changes affecting fees, costs PUBLICATION GLOBE AND MAIL DATE: THU MAY.20,2004 PAGE: A7 BYLINE: DREW FAGAN AND JANE TABER CLASS: National News EDITION: Metro DATELINE: Ottawa ON - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ottawa to announce gun-registry changes affecting fees, costs - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OTTAWA The federal government plans to announce a package of changes to the controversial gun registry today, including a commitment to cap annual costs and eliminate fees. Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan, who is responsible for the package, is to make the announcement this morning in her home city of Edmonton, accompanied by Treasury Board President Reg Alcock. The gun registry has dogged the Liberals since its inception, especially in Western Canada, where the party is hoping to gain seats in the election expected in June. Ms. McLellan, who faces an uphill battle to retain her riding, has been the target of registry protests. The government, sources say, will commit itself to limiting the annual budget for operating the registry to $25-million. A separate vote will be taken in the Commons to appropriate the money for the registry, rather than putting it through the usual process for government spending, in which large numbers of expenditures are approved at the same time. The changes would include the elimination of registration and transfer fees -- although that won't be retroactive, CBC reported last night. Under the registry's complex system of fees, charges to register a weapon range from $18 to $25. Police officers can also expect increased public-safety measures to deal with gun crime and a streamlining of the process. The Globe and Mail reported yesterday that a package to revamp the $1-billion registry has been before cabinet for more than a month, stalled by differences of opinion among ministers. A last-minute push has been under way in recent days, however, to get agreement on changes before the election, expected to be called on Sunday for June 28. The proposed changes focusing on public safety -- targeting criminal use of guns rather than law-abiding owners -- are expected to be popular with voters in the West and in rural areas throughout the country. The package of changes is the culmination of a process put in motion last December by Mr. Martin. He had asked Civil Preparedness Minister Albina Guarnieri to make recommendations to revamp the $1-billion gun registry to bring its excessive costs into line. Mr. Martin said he was not in favour of scrapping the registry but reforming it. Ms. Guarnieri travelled the country for more than three months, consulting on every side of the issue. She delivered a comprehensive package of recommendations more than a month ago. A series of cabinet consultations and presentations followed. Insiders say that one recommendation had been made to fold the registry, which is now a stand-alone agency, into a department or agency such as the RCMP. This would reduce the registry bureaucracy and significantly lower costs. Sources say that the amount of paperwork and forms that law-abiding gun owners are now forced to fill out will be cut. The Liberal government also hopes that this action will improve its reputation somewhat as a steward of the public purse. The registry was originally budgeted to cost only $2-million, taking into account registration fees. But costs have spiralled, leading the Auditor-General to estimate the total price tag at about $1-billion by 2005. The registry now costs more than $100-million a year to run. Most provinces want it scrapped. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 06:13:18 -0600 (CST) From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" Subject: Letter: Ballistic incentive PUBLICATION GLOBE AND MAIL DATE: THU MAY.20,2004 PAGE: A24 BYLINE: GREIG BIRCHFIELD CLASS: Letter to the Edit EDITION: Metro DATELINE: Ottawa ON - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ballistic incentive - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Re Cabinet Squabble Stalls Overhaul Of Gun Registry (May 19): This and the ever-imminent election call are just the most recent examples of the squabbling and dithering that the Liberal government has been practising ever since Paul Martin took power. Perhaps what is required to get them to actually do something is to apply the proverbial gun to their heads. A registered gun, of course. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 06:13:36 -0600 (CST) From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" Subject: Editorial: Pursue criminals, not gun owners: PUBLICATION: Times Colonist (Victoria) DATE: 2004.05.20 EDITION: Final SECTION: Comment PAGE: A14 SOURCE: Times Colonist - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pursue criminals, not gun owners: Firearms registry needs a drastic overhaul, with a new focus on weapons used in offences - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- One of the first things Paul Martin did after taking office in December was to order his associate Defence minister, Albina Guarnieri, out on a reconnaissance mission to gauge the public mood on the gun control registry. Last month she submitted her recommendations for salvaging whatever it can from what has become an extravagantly wasteful, useless program. Cabinet ministers, though, like deer caught in the headlights, don't know which way to jump, or whether to jump anywhere before the election is called. Guarnieri's recommendations are said to include reducing or eliminating user fees which can amount to as much as $80, extending the five-year renewal period to 10 years from the current five, removing criminal penalties for those -- particularly hunters, farmers, fishermen and aboriginals who use long guns -- who fail to register, cutting the bureaucracy in the New Brunswick firearms centre, and turning the whole mess over to the Mounties. This exercise, undertaken for the purpose of reducing crime involving weapons and helping police track those weapons down, is costing taxpayers about $113 million a year. Its anticipated $2 million price tag has risen about 500 times so far and by 2010 will reach an Olympian $2 billion, according to the government's own estimates. Meanwhile, many gun-owners are refusing to register, despite successive extensions to deadlines; some people have registered things like electric drills; and a former sergeant-at-arms in the Alberta legislature has succeeded, after months of trying, in being arrested for defying the law. Meanwhile, there continue to be reports of people receiving registration forms for the wrong, or non-existent guns, and a paucity of court cases, if any, where the usefulness of the registry has been demonstrated, though police chiefs stubbornly insist it's a good thing. The way it's set up now, it's a bad thing. It seems to assume gun-owners are potential terrorists; it turns citizens into criminals, not for causing harm, but for failing to fill out forms. As Guarnieri herself acknowledges, it has to be changed to recognize "the realities of this country." There are some who would argue that the realities demand the registry be scrapped and the money that is left be diverted to real crime-fighting. But so much money has gone into this program -- including what was spent on consultant's reports and however much was wasted through awarding untendered contracts a la Adscam -- that we should be able to salvage something. Turning the registry over to the RCMP would make sense, since the force already operates a DNA and criminal information data base. Removing criminal penalties for failing to fill out forms is an obvious improvement. But one of Guarnieri's reported suggestions is to increase penalties for those committing crimes involving guns, and confiscating weapons from owners who even threaten to use them in domestic disputes. This should have been the focus from the start, and shouldn't be hard to sell in an election campaign. Cabinet should stop dithering and act before the election campaign starter's gun goes off. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 06:23:04 -0600 (CST) From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" Subject: GUN, KID PORN TRIAL SET FOR COP PUBLICATION: The Winnipeg Sun DATE: 2004.05.20 EDITION: Final SECTION: News PAGE: 3 ILLUSTRATION: photo of JOHN SCOTT ALLINGHAM Administrative leave BYLINE: DAVID SCHMEICHEL, COURTS REPORTER - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GUN, KID PORN TRIAL SET FOR COP VETERAN OFFICER'S ARREST SHOCKS COLLEAGUES - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A 23-year police veteran will stand trial on firearms and child pornography charges, a judge has ruled. Former patrol Sgt. John Scott Allingham, 45, was committed to stand trial yesterday on one count of possession of child pornography and 17 firearms charges, most of them having to do with careless storage. The committal, from provincial Judge Cathy Everett, follows a preliminary hearing that began in April 2003. ARRESTED IN FEBRUARY 2002 Details of that hearing are protected by a court-ordered publication ban. Allingham was arrested in February 2002, following an investigation by police, independent counsel and the prosecutions division of the Department of Justice. At the time, police said their searches were conducted on Allingham's personal computer. No police computers were involved, and the weapons linked to the firearms charges were Allingham's personal guns, not police property, they said. Allingham's arrest shocked other officers. He once won the police force's top award for attempting to rescue a child who had fallen through river ice in 1996. Allingham was released on his own recognizance following his arrest, and was placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of his court case. A trial date has not been set. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 06:36:45 -0600 (CST) From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" Subject: Target of shooting counts himself lucky PUBLICATION: Calgary Herald DATE: 2004.05.20 EDITION: Final SECTION: City & Region PAGE: B1 / FRONT BYLINE: Jason van Rassel SOURCE: Calgary Herald ILLUSTRATION: Colour Photo: Greg Fulmes, Calgary Herald / A man looks athis car after it was hit by a stray bullet in front of the Express Food Mart on Whitefield Drive Wednesday afternoon. - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Target of shooting counts himself lucky - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After escaping a drive-by shooting unharmed, why not try your luck on the lottery? That's what a 27-year-old Calgary man did minutes after dodging shots fired from a car at a northeast Calgary strip mall Wednesday afternoon. "It's just another day," said the man, outwardly calm but still wide-eyed as he filled out a Pro-Line sports lottery card at a convenience store steps from where a gunman in a car shot at him. While investigators believe the man may know at least one of the men in the car, he would only say he was shot at because of "previous altercations" with the assailants. Some community leaders have expressed concern about a spate of violent incidents in the city's northeast, but the victim said he believes there's little connection between recent events. "All this stuff is about ego. It's guys trying to act cool," he said. "I've filed a police report and I can only hope further police actions get individuals like this off the streets." The man was walking in front of the strip mall on Whitefield Drive at 36th Street N.E. shortly before 2 p.m. when he exchanged words with four men in a car at the east end of the parking lot. "They were leaving the parking lot and saw me, so they backed up," he said. "They were trying to intimidate me, but I wasn't going to do anything -- there was four of them." As the man turned toward the convenience store, one of the men pulled out a gun and fired. "It was like a pop-pop-pop," he said. The victim said the firearm looked like a sawed-off shotgun, but police weren't able to confirm what type of gun was used. "A gun is pulled from inside the vehicle, at least one shot -- more likely two or three -- is fired," Sgt. Mark Colcy said. One shot hit a parked car, piercing its driver's side door. The man sought shelter in the office of Calgary McCall MLA Shiraz Shariff, where staff called police. "He was calm, cool and collected," said passerby Robert Ward, who heard the shots and went to check on staff in Shariff's office. The shooter's vehicle, believed to be a greyish-green or silver sedan, fled eastbound on Whitefield Drive and was being sought by police. jvanrassel@theherald.canwest.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 06:42:09 -0600 (CST) From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" Subject: Father guns down son, then kills self PUBLICATION: The Province DATE: 2004.05.20 EDITION: Final SECTION: News PAGE: A14 BYLINE: Suzanne Fournier and Lena Sin SOURCE: The Province ILLUSTRATION: Photo: Nick Procaylo, The Province / A clean-up crew entersthe scene of a murder-suicide on the Squamish reserve yesterday. - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Father guns down son, then kills self - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shocked friends were in mourning yesterday after the murder-suicide of a father and son on the Capilano reserve. "In my 52-plus years here I can't recall a tragedy like this one," said Squamish hereditary Chief Gibby Jacob. "We are all in shock." The father, aged 60, shot his 30-year-old son in the kitchen of a new house on Ikwikws Road, in the shadow of the Lions Gate bridge, just after 1 a.m. After shooting his son in the head, the father then put the gun to his own head and was dead by the time police arrived, said West Vancouver police Sgt. Paul Skelton. The son died of his injuries in Vancouver General Hospital about 4 a.m. "They had a domestic dispute just before the shooting incident and obviously part of the investigation now is to determine if this was the sole cause of this to occur," said Skelton. "Or do they need to go further back to see if there were a series of incidents to culminate in this event?" A female family member and a family friend witnessed the father pointing the gun at his son, but neither saw the shooting, said Skelton. Police do not believe it was an accident. Jacob said "there will be healing circles and the deaths will be mourned in our traditional way." "It's just a tragic event. In a blink of an eye, your life could change for the worst nightmare you could imagine." School bus driver Jim Harry, his head down and a hand to his heaving chest, fought back tears yesterday as he talked about how he and his friend liked to watch hockey and root for the Vancouver Canucks. "He was a very nice guy, pretty quiet until you get a couple of beers in him and then you can't shut him up. I'd always tease him about his little goatee and mustache, he was pretty proud of them. He and his mom had just moved back here. He was pretty close to his mom. I didn't know the dad very well." Two cars sat in the driveway of the death house yesterday, while a restoration firm took in cleaning equipment and removed blood-soaked panelling. Police say the younger man had a son living on Vancouver Island and a brother in the Lower Mainland. Neither the father, who was non-native, nor the son were known to police. sfournier@png.canwest.com lsin@png.canwest.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 07:16:06 -0600 (CST) From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" Subject: Shots fired during standoff; PUBLICATION: The Daily News (Halifax) DATE: 2004.05.20 SECTION: Local News PAGE: 4 BYLINE: Cuthbertson, Richard PHOTO: Dunlop, Scott Dembeck, Mike DATELINE: Halifax ILLUSTRATION: STREET EMPTIED: Police escort a Shirley Street resident fromher home yesterday, after a man barricaded himself inside another house on the street.; DELIVERY: A police robot takes a package to 6161 Shirley St. yesterday. - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shots fired during standoff; Police cordon off neighbourhood as man barricades self inside house - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A south-end Halifax neighbourhood was still under siege late last night after a man barricaded himself in a Shirley Street house, a home across the street was hit by gunfire, and police cordoned off three city blocks, telling local residents to take cover in their basements. At one point yesterday, 50 officers from Halifax Regional Police and the RCMP surrounded 6161 Shirley St. At presstime, the man was still holed up in the house. Police said the man had barricaded himself early yesterday when police came to the door about midnight. Neighbours said the man was Larry Finck. Other people were in the house, but police wouldn't say how many. Police called the man around 2:20 a.m. and there was a short conversation, said Const. Mark Hobeck. At presstime, police wouldn't confirm whether they'd had any further contact with the man. Things escalated when bullets penetrated a house across the street at 3:05 a.m. Catrina Brown lives in the house that was hit. She said she was startled at 6:20 a.m. by a police sniper, who had broken into her house. 'Holes in the window' "I was woken up at about 6:20 a.m. this morning by a pretty officious voice saying, 'Hello, hello.' And I went into my kitchen in my nightgown, and there was a sniper in my kitchen, who said ... there was an incident across the street, and he wanted to use my house. "(He) asked me if the holes in the window had been there before," Brown said. "And I said, no they had not, and he informed me they were rifle shots." Brown said one-centimetre bullet-holes in her second-storey window had splintered glass around them. She said she and her four-year-old daughter had slept through the whole thing. By the time most people awoke to go to work, police were evacuating nearby Pepperell Street and telling people on Shirley Street to take cover in their basements. Officers also cordoned off streets around the home with yellow tape. Shirley Street looked desolate throughout the day, except for well-armed police officers stealthily patrolling the road. They carried submachine-guns and high-powered sniper rifles, and wore full body armour and helmets. George Lee, who said he lived near the barricaded house, fled his home with the help of a heavily armed cop. He said police first came calling about 3:30 a.m. "(The police) told us to go down to the basement and shut all the lights down," he said. Brown, too, said the police had helped her escape. "I was taken out of my house with my four-year-old this morning, with a police escort through the back way, climbing over fences. "I felt I was in a James Bond movie, or something." The street's stillness was broken shortly before 7:30 p.m., when a remote-controlled bomb-disposal robot delivered a small plastic bag to the front door of the house. The robot extended its manipulator arm and dropped the small plastic bag on the home's front step. Someone inside the house opened the front door and used a pole to retrieve the bag. It's not known what the unmarked bag contained. 'Holding pattern' As night fell, police allowed some people evacuated earlier in the day to move back to their homes. Hobeck said the police and the people inside the house are "in a holding pattern." "We are prepared to stay here as long as possible to bring this to a successful conclusion," he said. - With files from Richard Dooley citydesk@hfxnews.ca ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 07:16:22 -0600 (CST) From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" Subject: Top Corner killer jailed 13 years PUBLICATION: The Daily News (Halifax) DATE: 2004.05.20 SECTION: Local News PAGE: 8 COLUMN: Courts BYLINE: MacDonald, Andrea - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Top Corner killer jailed 13 years - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Almost three years after a Halifax man died a hero at the Top Corner Club pool hall, his killer is off to jail. "It's about time," a former co-worker of victim Harold George Parsons said yesterday. He did not wish to comment further. Parsons, a 29-year-old cook at the Economy Shoe Shop bar, took a fatal shot to the chest while trying to stop a robbery at the Top Corner on June 3, 2001. Another patron, Stephan Boivin, was shot in the leg. Justice Felix Cacchione handed William Harry Cooke, the trigger man, an 1811/42-year sentence yesterday, which the Crown called the second-longest prison term in Canada for manslaughter. Cooke got the standard double-time credit for time spent on remand, however, so his net sentence is 13 years. Lesser charge Cooke was originally charged with first-degree murder, but pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter yesterday. He had been scheduled to go to trial for the second time on the murder charge. Cacchione declared a mistrial the first time, in 2003, after Cooke fired his lawyer partway through the case. Parsons got caught in the crossfire after he tried to intervene during the armed robbery. The driver of the getaway car, John Edward Johnson, dropped Cooke and a man named Stephen John Gibson off at the Argyle Street pool hall on the evening of June 3, 2001. Cooke carried a loaded handgun and Gibson had some pepper spray. Both men wore nylon masks and latex gloves throughout the robbery. Once inside, Gibson stayed at the door while Cooke ordered everyone to the floor. Cooke then pointed the gun at bartender Hope Salter and demanded all of the club's money. She gave him between $300 and $400 in cash and coins. Stood up Boivin stood up to confront Cooke, who promptly shot him in the leg and pointed the gun at Boivin's head. "Does anyone else want to be a hero?" he asked the others. With two patrons trying to hold him back, Parsons sprang at Cooke from where he was crouched beneath the bar and pinned him to the wall. A struggle ensued and Parsons was shot with Cooke's gun. Gibson pepper-sprayed a couple of patrons and fled with Cooke. Johnson later received three years for robbery. Gibson also got three years on the same charge, with credit for remand time. amacdonald@hfxnews.ca ------------------------------ End of Cdn-Firearms Digest V7 #163 ********************************** Submissions: mailto:cdn-firearms-digest@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Mailing List Commands: mailto:majordomo@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Moderator's e-mail address: mailto:moderator@hitchen.org 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 v04.n192 end (192 is the digest issue number and 04 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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