From: owner-can-firearms-digest@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca (Cdn-Firearms Digest) To: cdn-firearms-digest@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Subject: Cdn-Firearms Digest V10 #816 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 Monday, September 24 2007 Volume 10 : Number 816 In this issue: Re: [SPAM] Cdn-Firearms Digest V10 #815 [US] With shootings declining, Hub sees more stabbings David Tomlinson Gathering In Remembrance Interesting crime stat's Three charged in robbery of pedestrian [US] How To Write To Congress "Quebec victims' group calls for tougher sentences for violent..." Preventing another Columbine ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2007 09:32:26 -0300 From: "M.J. Ackermann, MD" Subject: Re: [SPAM] Cdn-Firearms Digest V10 #815 The answer to prison over crowding may be to reorganize our sentencing structure. What if only violent criminals went to jail? After all we keep saying that jail should be to protect the public. So let it protect us from those who would beat, rape, molest, mug, kill, kidnap, etc., and deal with the grifters, druggies, and shop-lifters in the community. I'd bet that would free up some space while not endangering any civil servants' tenure or pensions. - -- M.J. Ackermann, MD (Mike) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2007 10:24:28 -0400 (EDT) From: Bruce Mills Subject: [US] With shootings declining, Hub sees more stabbings http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/09/18/with_shootings_declining_hub_sees_more_stabbings?mode=PF With shootings declining, Hub sees more stabbings By Maria Cramer, Globe Staff | September 18, 2007 Despite a much-touted reduction in shootings in Boston, police are now confronting a troubling rise in the number of stabbings, which have jumped 10 percent over the same period last year and are on track to reach their highest point in four years. Savvy criminals, aware of the tougher punishments levied for gun violations, have begun wielding blades instead, Boston law enforcement officials believe. Gangs are instructing members to carry knives rather than risk an 18-month minimum sentence for possessing an unlawful firearm, Superintendent Daniel P. Linskey said, and more young people are carrying the weapons for protection, then using them to hurt rivals during fights. "Carrying a knife is not going to expose anyone to a minimum of 18 months or beyond," said Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley. "And they're more easily accessible, too. You can pick up a knife at an army-navy store, or mom-and-pop variety store." Police reported 350 stabbings from Jan. 1 to Sept. 10, which was 10 percent more than in the same period last year. Shootings, meanwhile, plunged nearly 18 percent, from 283 to 233 for the same time period. The number of stabbings through Aug. 26, the latest date for which year-to-year comparisons were available, is at the highest level since 2004. "It's certainly a cause for concern," Conley said. "It takes a lot of inhumanity to plunge a knife into another human being. It's frightening to think it's trending upwards." Most of the city's homicides are still caused by guns. Of the 49 homicides so far this year, 38 were shootings, and six were stabbings. And 26 percent of all 2007 stabbings occurred during domestic disputes. But with more people apparently carrying knives on the street, Linskey said, officers are worried that fights that once might have ended with a few punches and a bruised ego could become more serious. "It's clear that minor altercations, when someone has a knife, will escalate," he said. "When you don't have a knife, you walk away, and five minutes later you realize it was just a punch in the face. Now, they have a knife, and they react very quickly." In July, four people were stabbed, including a 15-year-old girl, during a fight after a house party in Mattapan, according to a police report. All of the victims survived. No arrests have been made, and police said they are still investigating the stabbings. The girl, whose 18-year-old brother was stabbed in the hand during the fight, said she was in the hospital about a week and lost so much blood she is still taking iron supplements. She asked that her name be withheld because she is afraid of retribution. The girl said she was attacked by about 10 other girls, who began kicking and punching her outside the house where the party was held on Woodruff Way. The fight was sparked when the group of girls became angry after the host of the party, held in memory of a 2006 homicide victim, tried to send everyone home. The girl said she began fighting with the group after they assaulted her brother, who had come to pick her up. After the attack, she staggered away to find her brother, unaware of how injured she was. A concerned neighbor told her she was bleeding heavily from the face. When the ambulance arrived, emergency workers told her she had been slashed across the face, and stabbed in her arm and under her armpit. "I think it's crazy," she said in a telephone interview last week. "To think that people would stab people over stupid things." In early 2006, after Boston saw its 2005 murder rate spike to a 10-year high of 75, the state toughened sentencing laws for gun charges, raising the minimum sentence for carrying an unlawful firearm from one year to 18 months. If the gun was loaded, the perpetrator could receive two more years in prison. Criminals were quick to adapt, said Jorge Martinez, executive director of Project Right, a nonprofit organization in the Grove Hall section of Roxbury. "These guys are not stupid," he said. "Of course, you're not going to be walking around with a gun. The weapon of choice would be your knife. You get caught, you just get it taken away from you." About six years ago, Martinez helped Conley, who was then a city councilman, draft an ordinance that would outlaw street sales of knives. Conley also introduced an ordinance making it illegal to carry knives longer than 2 1/2 inches. But that ordinance is confusing, Linskey said. Even if officers find someone with a knife, they might not be able to confiscate it if the person using the knife says it is for hunting, fishing, or other recreation or if the person identifies himself as a chef or as involved in another trade that requires carrying a sharp object, he said. State law bans carrying knives that can be drawn to a locked position or have a double edge. It also bans knives with an automatic spring release through which the blade is released from the handle and is over 1 1/2 inches long. The law also forbids carrying throwing stars and nunchucks, but does not regulate the size of a knife that is not a switchblade, Linskey said, adding that it might be time to update the law. "You can carry a machete or a sword, and it's no crime," he said. Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2007 15:14:25 EDT From: PATHJM@aol.com Subject: David Tomlinson Gathering In Remembrance There will be a Gathering in Remembrance for David Tomlinson, National President of the National Firearms Association, who passed away the evening of Tuesday, September 18th 2007 in Edmonton. Time and Date: Saturday, September 29th. 2:00 PM Location: Freemason's Hall 10318, 100th Avenue Edmonton, Alberta. This will an opportunity for all of those who knew Dave, spoke to Dave, or only knew him by reputation to join his family and the National Firearms Association in honoring a very great man, who gave so much of his life in the service of the firearms community of Canada. Please join us if you can. Blair Hagen Vice President, Communications National Firearms Association _www.nfa.ca_ (http://www.nfa.ca/) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2007 00:13:43 -0400 From: Lee Jasper Subject: Interesting crime stat's > > > Now, as we saw, Canada is too squeamish to collect crime statistics by > race, but the United States is not. We know, for example, that blacks > commit robbery and murder at approximately eight to ten times the > white rate, that Hispanics commit these crimes at three to four times > the white rate. Hispanics are 19 times more likely than whites to be > in youth gangs, and blacks are 18 times more likely. I would suspect > there are equally striking racial differences in Canada, but no one > knows because the government doesn't want to know. > From: Is Racial Diversity Good for Canada? by Jared Taylor http://www.amren.com/0702issue/dalhousie.html ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2007 10:21:39 -0400 (EDT) From: Bruce Mills Subject: Three charged in robbery of pedestrian No actual gun used, which I guess makes everything ok... Yet again, a bunch of criminal thug pukes committing more crimes while out on a recognizance. http://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=705559&auth=By+GALEN+EAGLE%2fExaminer+Staff+Writer Three charged in robbery of pedestrian Posted By By GALEN EAGLE/Examiner Staff Writer Posted 9 hours ago | Updated 9 hours ago Three teens face charges after a robbery on Sherbrooke Street Saturday night, police said. A 19 year-old man was walking with two female friends at about 10:11 p.m. in the area of Sherbrooke Street and Clonsilla Avenue, police said. A group of three youths approached them and one grabbed the 19-year-old man by the shirt and demanded money, threatening that he had a gun and also threatening to stab him if he didn’t comply, police said. The 19-year-old emptied his pockets to show the attacker he had no money, at which time the other two youths grabbed the attacker and the group fled on foot and were seen boarding a city bus, police said. Police were called and a police dogs were able to track the three teens to the area of Sherbrooke Street and Kenneth Avenue, police said. Corey Warren, 18, was charged with robbery with violence and breaching his probation. He was held in custody and is to appear in court Monday. A 15-year-old and a 17-year-old were charged with failing to comply with an undertaking as they were breaching release conditions. Both were released on conditions and will appear in court on Oct. 29. There were no injuries sustained and no weapons used, police said. (Online at 1 a.m. Monday) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2007 10:33:30 -0400 (EDT) From: Bruce Mills Subject: [US] How To Write To Congress While american, this does provide some interesting tips on how to write to our employees in gummint. http://consumerist.com/consumer/your-government/how-to-write-to-congress-302775.php How To Write To Congress Writing to Congress is the single best way to express your view on public policy. The average consumer has a surprising ability to influence legislation by crafting a well written missive and avoiding several common mistakes. Why Personal Letters Beat Form Letters Don't get suckered in by the quick and easy "Write to Congress!" form letters littering the internet. Form letters are not an expression of values; they are a show of organizational strength. If the NRA convinces five million people to send letters opposing gun control, it shows that the NRA can muster five million people to action, not that five million people necessarily care about gun laws. Congressional offices know this and generally disregard form letters. So what happens when you send a letter? Every office has its own procedures for tabulating constituent correspondence, but most will produce a report at the end of week breaking down how many letters were received by issue area, separating out form letters from letters sent by individual constituents. Members treat each type of letter differently, but most look for individual letters as a barometer of their district's concerns. These are the letters that have the most influence, the ones we will show you how to write. What Should Your Letter Say? We adhere to the three paragraph rule: introduce yourself, introduce your issue, request action. Congressional offices have staffers whose days are spent solely on the mail, so make their lives easier by keeping letter succinct and to the point. # Introduce Yourself: There is a two-prong test for determining your worth: 1) Are you a constituent? 2) Are you an important constituent? Feel free to puff up your chest. Are you a lifelong member of the district? Are you associated with community groups? Say so! Convince the reader that yours is a voice of experience and wisdom. # Be specific: Don't just ask a Member to oppose mandatory binding arbitration agreements. Ask them to rush to the floor to support S.1782, The Arbitration Fairness Act of 2007. # Marshall Facts: Your argument - and you are making an argument - must be supported by facts. Feel free to use facts gleaned from us or other sources, but don't copy and paste paragraphs of pre-written text from form letters. Personal experiences are particularly effective, and often moving. Share them! # Be Exceedingly Polite, Please: Congress attracts haughty personalities. Staffers don't appreciate being spoken down to or insulted. You are trying to rally them to your cause, so be nice! # Clearly State Your Request: Plainly tell your representative that you want them to support or oppose a certain bill. If you want a response, explicitly (but politely!) ask for one. It should go without saying that your letter should follow all formal style guidelines, such as a return name and address, and should be free of spelling and grammatical errors. Send Your Letter To The Right Place Only write to your representatives. You have three: one Representative in the House, and two Senators. Do not send more than three letters. Some citizens try to get their voice heard by writing to all 435 members of the House. Congressional courtesy compels the 434 Members who do not represent the zealot to forward his letter to the one lucky Member who does. This angers the Member's staff greatly at the expense of any point you are trying to make. The addresses for your Representatives and Senators are available online, but don't waste your time with an email. Letters carry significantly more weight. Send your letter to the Capitol, where the legislative staff is based, though it will take a while to arrive since all incoming Congressional mail is irradiated thanks to those still-unidentified Anthrax mailers. For an even greater impact, send your letter care of the staffer covering the issue. These staffers - called Legislative Assistants - are the Member's eyes and ears on their assigned issue areas. Finding the staffer destined to read your letter is easy: call the Capitol switchboard (open 24 hours a day!) at (202) 224-3121, ask for your Member's office, and ask the person who answers for the name of the staffer handling the issue area or bill number. Once you get that name, address your letter like this: Member Of Congress c/o Staffer Office Building/Number Washington, DC 20515 What Should You Expect In Return? Depends. There are 535 Congressional offices and each handles constituent correspondence differently. The vast majority respond to letters with either a form letter pre-written by a Legislative Assistant, or with a more personal response written by a Legislative Correspondent. Controversial issues that attract many letters normally receive a form letter response, while smaller issues or specific questions often receive the attention of a personalized response. Conclusion Members of Congress work for you. Without your votes, they won't stay in office. They go to great lengths to cultivate a positive relationship with you, their boss. Very few people take the time to write to a Member of Congress, so the few that do carry a disproportionate influence. Fifteen minutes is well worth the time to influence a $2 trillion enterprise. (Photo: pingnews.com) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2007 10:41:04 -0400 (EDT) From: Bruce Mills Subject: "Quebec victims' group calls for tougher sentences for violent..." Subject: "Quebec victims' group calls for tougher sentences for violent crime" http://www.timminspress.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=705998 Quebec victims' group calls for tougher sentences for violent crime Posted 35 mins ago A Quebec victims' rights group is calling on federal politicians to serve tougher justice in Canada, demanding an end to concurrent sentences for offenders who commit multiple violent crimes. Victims' rights advocate Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu says Canada should force violent criminals to serve sentences consecutively to ensure each victim gets equal justice. Federal law now allows criminals to serve several sentences at the same time. Boisvenu says concurrent sentences give victims' families the impression justice has been served, but frustration sets in when they discover convicts get out of prison after serving all their sentences at once. "For a family who has lost a loved one, the most frustrating thing is to know ... a convict can benefit from more freedoms sooner," Boisvenu said in a recent interview from his Sherbrooke, Que., home. Boisvenu also says a guarantee that a life sentence actually involved a full 25 years in prison would help make sentencing more transparent. But that isn't the case. "For us the notion of a life sentence doesn't exist in Canada," he said. "It's completely artificial and serves as an appearance of justice." Consecutive sentences for homicide would help make sure multiple murderers stay in jail, he said. Boisvenu was thrust into the public limelight when his own daughter Julie, 27, was raped and murdered in June 2002. Hugo Bernier, a Montreal man, was sentenced to life in prison for the crime in 2004. Since his daughter's murder, Boisvenu has devoted his life to helping the families of victims of violent crime and missing persons through an organization that includes the parents of other Quebec murder victims. Boisvenu has support for his proposal outside Quebec. Gary Rosenfeldt, whose son Daryn was murdered by Clifford Olson in 1981 and has spent nearly a quarter century trying to bring victim's rights to the forefront, says his organization would be willing to back Boisvenu's push for consecutive sentences. Both Rosenfeldt and Boisvenu say Canadians agree with them on the issue of sentencing, despite a feeling that harsher penalties would create a more American brand of justice. "There are a lot of other countries in the world that believe that you should pay the penalty," Rosenfeldt said. "A lot of people believe in justice. It's not just an American thing." Prime Minister Stephen Harper's decision to prorogue parliament meant highly touted Tory anti-crime legislation died on the order paper, including mandatory sentences for gun crimes and raising the age of sexual consent. In an e-mail, Genevieve Breton, spokeswoman for Justice Minister Rob Nicholson, said the government remains committed to creating mandatory consecutive sentences for select multiple violent or sexual offences, as well as pursuing their other legislation. Federal Liberal Albina Guarnieri, who introduced a private member's bill about 11 years ago that advocated more time in prison for multiple murderers, says despite widespread support, the bill is now stalled in the Senate. "It seemed to me there was a built-in obscenity into the justice system where the second, third (and further) victims didn't count," Guarnieri said. "If we don't acknowledge proportionality in sentencing, how are you going to acknowledge it for other crimes?" Boisvenu says he plans to seek an audience with Nicholson and Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day. "I think the Canadian public believe firmly that a crime is a crime is a crime," said Rosenfeldt, who founded the advocacy group Victims of Violence in 1984 with his wife Sharon. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2007 11:15:10 -0400 (EDT) From: Bruce Mills Subject: Preventing another Columbine http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/search/article/80246# Preventing another Columbine Training RCMP in province learn tactics to prepare themselves for dire emergency situations Tammy Scott-Wallace Telegraph-Journal Published Monday September 24th, 2007 Appeared on page C6 HAMPTON - Police are being conditioned to pounce on an emergency situation when waiting isn't an option. Advertisement Through RCMP-developed tactical training, officers throughout the province are preparing themselves to react swiftly to the most serious scenarios, instead of waiting for their Emergency Response Team. For parents, the sound of a shooter's gun blasting from inside a populated school would be their worse nightmare. At the mall, trauma would rise over bystanders aware of an active shooter claiming lives within its aisles. Just imagine if all the while police waited outside. The Columbine High School massacre of 1999 created a disturbing picture that helped push the RCMP to develop the Immediate Action Rapid Deployment program. At that time, as the community listened outside the Colorado school, they could hear the shots fired by two rampaging students that killed 12 youths and a teacher, and wounded 24 others before killing themselves. As that massacre was happening, outside police waited for their SWAT team, similar to an ERT team here. "At Columbine, police were outside waiting as people were being shot inside. You can't afford to wait when people are being killed," said Sgt. Don Allen of the Sussex RCMP. "You have to go in." Over the weekend in Hampton, District 3 RCMP officers wrapped up their two-day training in the rapid deployment tactics. Their training ground was Hampton Middle School. The specialized training teaches techniques in swift response in cases of dire emergencies. Allen went through the exercises during the training in Hampton. Simply put, officers first on the scene have few calls to make when they know a shooter is on the loose, he said. They need to move in, locate and isolate the perpetrator, and apprehend or neutralize him at the earliest opportunity. This also means that unlike ERT teams that are highly skilled in tactical entries, officers won't always be approaching the most dangerous scenes with body armour, automatic weapons, shields and helmets. Of course it's a risk, Allen said, but one that can be done safer with the right training. "With Columbine, you wonder if it would have been different if the police who were there just went in," the sergeant said. "It probably could have been different." Allen said the Immediate Action Rapid Deployment training provides the officers responding to scenes in local towns and cities every day the skills they need to stop a true life-or-death threat. "Of course you hope these things never happen, but if they do, that's why we're here," Allen said. "When there's an emergency, police should be running towards the threat as others are running away from it." On the flip side of Columbine, the Dawson College shootings in Montreal a year ago had a different result when, within minutes of the first shot fired by perpetrator Kimveer Gill, police entered and shot him in the arm. Gill then committed suicide. "Dawson College is one that went right," Allen said. "The crew went in while he was actively shooting. They didn't set up a perimeter and wait for a tactical team." Allen stressed the swift deployment plan only comes into play when time is of the essence. The focus in training, he said, is how to perform a safe entry and attempt to turn the killer's attention away from their targets and on to police. "In a hostage situation there's not the same urgency because normally they're not killing people," he said. "There's time to cordon off the scene, get the ERT team in and negotiate." During Sussex, Hampton and Grand Bay-Westfield's training exercises Friday and Saturday, officers were in lock-down at the Hampton school. They played out different scenarios, using paintball guns as weapons for the hypothetical shootings. "It's important in training to create an environment as realistic as possible," Allen said. "These incidents don't always happen in a school so the training could also apply in the mall or anywhere else, but schools, of course, seem to be the most prevalent." While not specifically connected to the Immediate Action Rapid Deployment program, Allen said the RCMP's new School Action for Emergencies (SAFE) Plan is complementary in that it also helps prepare officers for school tragedies. Through SAFE police officers have access to blueprints, layouts, aerial photos and safety information contained in a computer database developed for all schools within RCMP jurisdictions. "If we need to deploy, we can have everything as a vision reference on our computer," Allen said. "We may get called to Hampton, and if an officer has never been in the school, they may not know where the gym is if there's a dangerous situation occurring there. "Now we have the details of the schools plotted out on computer for us." Allen said RCMP detachments in Atlantic Canada are ahead of many other provinces in getting the Immediate Action Rapid Deployment training underway. newsroom@nbpub.com ------------------------------ End of Cdn-Firearms Digest V10 #816 *********************************** Submissions: mailto:cdn-firearms-digest@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Mailing List Commands: mailto:majordomo@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Moderator's e-mail address: mailto:d.jordan@sasktel.net 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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