Cdn-Firearms Digest Sunday, July 20 2008 Volume 11 : Number 763 In this issue: Toronto Sun: Gunfire sprayed at cops, crowd Supreme Court Gun Ruling Spawns Challenges From Felons Calgary Sun: Happiness is a destroyed gun... Column: Park wardens brought low ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, July 20, 2008 8:29 am From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 2" Subject: Toronto Sun: Gunfire sprayed at cops, crowd PUBLICATION: The Toronto Sun DATE: 2008.07.20 EDITION: Final SECTION: News PAGE: 3 ILLUSTRATION: 1. photo by Rob Lamberti, Sun Media Family members grieve in the parking lot of a mall where Michael Watson, 28, was killed at a nightclub early yesterday. 2. photo by John Hanley, Sun Media Police exit the club on Rylander Blvd. BYLINE: ROB LAMBERTI, SUN MEDIA WORD COUNT: 418 - -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gunfire sprayed at cops, crowd Man murdered in mall nightclub - -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Police are wondering if the gunman who killed Michael Watson in a Scarborough nightclub early yesterday later opened fire on cops responding to the shooting. In a further twist, two loaded handguns were seized after police raided a Jane St. apartment which sources said may be related to the slaying. Homicide detectives say they're aware of the seizures but aren't sure if it fits in with their case yet. Two brothers, aged 18 and 14, were arrested. Now, police want to know if the killer of Michael Watson, 28, is the same man who shot at the crowd which was peppered with responding officers. The shots came from a car driving along the westbound ramp of Hwy. 401 at Port Union Rd. behind the mall at around 1 a.m. Police believe about 18 shots were fired during the city's 32nd slaying of the year. "There were reports of shots being fired towards the crowd where police officers were," Det. Wayne Banks said. "There's no direct evidence it was directed at the police themselves. Whether it's related with the homicide, it's very early in the investigation, we don't know." Watson was in the The Inner Circle, a restaurant-nightclub at the Abbey Lane Shopping Centre on Rylander Blvd. There were about 100 people in the club, and in one area there, a birthday bash was under way, when shots were fired. Watson was hit just inside the front door and was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. A crush of people fled through the front and rear doors of the club to escape the gunfire. The front door was knocked off its hinges. One woman said it appeared as if shots were coming out of the door as people fled. She was angry that "the violence won't stop." It has been a violent week in Toronto, with the shooting slaying of Shazad Khawaja, 17, on Thursday, and the shooting in the same Mornelle Court last Saturday of a friend who was reported left paralyzed. Yesterday, Watson's family members began arriving shortly after the shooting and stayed until the body was brought out of the nightclub about nine hours later by morticians working for the Coroner's office. They cried, they hugged and held each other up, hoping the support would dampen the anguish of losing a family member to violence. "Bring him back," cried one woman. The victim's mother cried and collapsed, but was held up by family, and was then walked to a vehicle to be taken home. Det. Banks didn't know if Watson was a guest at the birthday or just in the club with friends. There were three paid-duty officers watching the front door when the gunman opened fire. He said he's not sure if Watson was the target of the gunman, or if he was caught between the killer and his intended victim. "Oh, I think we were extremely lucky" there weren't more victims inside the club, Banks said. As far as he knew, Watson was the only victim, but he hasn't ruled out the possibility of others who may have been wounded by gunfire. Forensic officers did take pictures of blood droplets on the outside of the club's front window. Witnesses have been coming forward and detectives are reviewing video surveillance, Banks said. "He was always a nice guy," said a man who said he was in the parking lot when the shots rang out. The victim had attended Father Michael McGivney Catholic Academy and the two had lost track of each other since leaving the school, he said. "I haven't seen him for years." Banks asks witnesses to call him at 416-808-7411 or his partner Det. Doug Sansom at 416-808-7391 or Crime Stoppers at 416-222-8477. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Jul 2008 08:11:22 -0600 From: Joe Gingrich Subject: Supreme Court Gun Ruling Spawns Challenges From Felons http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,386641,00.html Supreme Court Gun Ruling Spawns Challenges From Felons Saturday, July 19, 2008 WASHINGTON - Twice convicted of felonies, James Francis Barton Jr. faces charges of violating a federal law barring felons from owning guns after police found seven pistols, three shotguns and five rifles at his home south of Pittsburgh. As a defense, Barton and several other defendants in federal gun cases argue that last month's Supreme Court ruling allows them to keep loaded handguns at home for self-defense. "Felons, such as Barton, have the need and the right to protect themselves and their families by keeping firearms in their home," says David Chontos, Barton's court-appointed lawyer. Chontos and other criminal defense lawyers say the high court's decision means federal laws designed to keep guns out of the hands of people convicted of felonies and crimes of domestic violence are unconstitutional as long as the weapons are needed for self-defense. So far, federal judges uniformly have agreed these restrictions are unchanged by the Supreme Court's landmark interpretation of the Second Amendment. "The line I'm proposing, at the home, is entirely consistent" with the Supreme Court ruling, said Chontos, a lawyer in Turtle Creek, Pa. A court hearing on the issue is scheduled for late July. The legal attacks by Chontos and other criminal defense lawyers are separate from civil lawsuits by the National Rifle Association and others challenging handgun bans in Chicago and its suburbs as well as a total ban on guns in public housing units in San Francisco. People on both sides of the gun control issue say they expect numerous attacks against local, state and federal laws based on the high court's 5-4 ruling that struck down the District of Columbia's ban on handguns. The opinion by Justice Antonin Scalia also suggested, however, that many gun control measures could remain in place. Denis Henigan, vice president for law and policy at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said Scalia essentially was reassuring people that the laws keeping guns from felons and people with mental illness and out of government buildings and schools would withstand challenges. But Henigan said he is not surprised by felons pressing for gun-ownership rights. "The court has cast us into uncharted waters here. There is no question about that," Henigan said. "There is now uncertainty where there was none before," he said. "Gun laws were routinely upheld and they were considered policy issues to be decided by legislatures." At the Justice Department, spokesman Erik Ablin said the agency's lawyers "will continue to defend vigorously the constitutionality, under the Second Amendment, of all federal firearms laws and will respond to particular challenges in court." Cities' outright bans on handguns probably are the most vulnerable laws following the Supreme Court ruling. Many lawyers and Second Amendment experts believe that restrictions on gun ownership in public housing also will be difficult to defend. The question for courts will be whether the government has more power when it acts as a landlord, as it does in public housing, than in general. "I think there's a very substantial chance that these kinds of ordinances will be struck down because they are aimed at people who have shown no reason to be viewed as untrustworthy," said Eugene Volokh, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, who has written about gun rights. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has said the city will defend the policy as good for public safety. "Is there anyone out there who really believes that we need more guns in public housing?" Newsom said when the suit was filed a day after the Supreme Court ruled on Washington's handgun ban. In the District of Columbia, the city housing authority is considering whether its prohibition on firearms in public housing can survive the court ruling, spokeswoman Dena Michaelson said. But Volokh and some gun rights proponents said people convicted of crimes are less likely to succeed in their challenges. "Many felons may need self defense more than you and I, but the government has extra justification for limiting that right because they have proven themselves to be untrustworthy," Volokh said. Judges may find it harder to resolve cases in which nonviolent criminals, particularly those whose only offense happened long ago, are charged with gun possession. "Do you think Scooter Libby should have a gun?" asked Douglas Berman, a law professor at Ohio State University who says the ruling will complicate the work of the courts, prosecutors and police. He was referring to former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who was convicted of perjury, obstruction and lying to the FBI in the CIA leak investigation. A more plausible case for being allowed a gun might be made by someone now in his 50s or 60s who was convicted as a teenager of taking a car for a joyride, said Stephen P. Halbrook, a gun rights supporter and lawyer. "You might have a court look at that differently," Halbrook said. The Supreme Court has a case on its calendar for the fall that could indicate whether the justices are inclined to expand their ruling. In United States v. Hayes, the government is asking the court to reinstate a conviction for possession of a gun for someone previously convicted of a domestic violence crime. In 1994, Randy Hayes received a year of probation after pleading guilty to beating his wife. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the conviction because the West Virginia law Hayes violated does not specifically deal with domestic violence crimes. The question for the high court, then, is a technical one: whether the law has to include domestic violence to be used in the future to prevent someone from owning guns? Advocates on both sides of the gun control debate will be watching closely to see whether the court's D.C. decision is relevant to the Hayes case and, if so, how. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, July 20, 2008 8:27 am From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 2" Subject: Calgary Sun: Happiness is a destroyed gun... PUBLICATION: The Calgary Sun DATE: 2008.07.20 EDITION: Final SECTION: News PAGE: 18 ILLUSTRATION: 3 photos by Lyle Aspinall, Sun Media 1. City police Const. John Burke silences a gun forever at an undisclosed Calgary location. 2. Police use torches to slice guns into pieces, which are later squashed and recycled into sheet metal to be reused as mundane things such as manhole covers and poles at bus stops. 3. This is as close to being trashed as guns get. Each year, about 1,000 firearms and tens of thousands of rounds of ammo are listed for destruction in a bid to get them off the streets. BYLINE: NADIA MOHARIB, CALGARY SUN WORD COUNT: 570 - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- happiness IS A DESTROYED GUN ... at least it is for city police trying to keep streets safe - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rifles and handguns seized by authorities are cut into pieces and turned into sheet metal before they are ultimately transformed into everything from manhole covers to sign posts. It's a chop shop, so to speak, so weapons no longer pose deadly peril but also get a reprieve from simply being trashed, says Sgt. Todd Robertson with the police service's evidence and property unit -- it's where guns go to die. "It can never be put back together," he says. "We use an oxy-acetylene torch to chop them up into little pieces then they get squashed again in a metal recyling shop and get turned into manhole covers, poles at bus stops, pipes and fittings in buildings -- used anywhere metal gets reused. "We don't just throw it in the garbage," he says. "It gets put to good use." Each year, that is the fate of more than 1,000 firearms and tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition, which are either seized during a crime investigation or earmarked for destruction in a bid to get them off the streets in the interest of public safety. Sometimes, if an owner is found not guilty of a criminal offence, firearms will be returned and occasionally, rare and collector-types are turned over to a museum. The goal is to render the weapons inoperable -- melting handguns and rifles until the metal bubbles fuse the parts together and the firearms barely resemble previous incarnations -- a process also applied to replica and pellet guns. Then a Calgary-based metal company free-of-charge further destroys the guns, transforming them into sheet metal. Ammunition is destroyed in a so-called ammo burner, technology which runs about $70,000 to buy, and is an oven of sorts where rounds are placed on a large screen before the door is closed and heat cranked up. "We're left with a big pile of metal and we recycle that as well," Robertson says. Although others are part of the process, it all starts with the police. "It's a high liability exhibit -- we don't want it getting out anywhere and we don't want to send it to a contractor to be destroyed," Robertson says. "We can say, 'The last time I saw it, it was a paperweight.'" Navajo Metals processes the metal, putting it in cars, which are then shredded, says manager Darrell Hofer. The vehicles and firearms are "basically pounded," and pushed through fist-sized slots and sorted into steel, aluminium, copper and non-metals before being crumpled like bits of paper and loaded into rail cars, which are sent to a Regina company to be processed further, Hofer says. "They melt it down and it is turned into coil and a large portion is turned into pipe for the oilfields," he says, adding they also take care of other crime-scene finds from crowbars to screwdrivers. In a bit of a departure from that process, hundreds of firearms collected in the 2006 gun amnesty program are now raw material for artists, says Staff Sgt. Paul Stacey who ran the program. The plan began when a local businessman approached Mayor Dave Bronconnier with the proposal. After approval for the creative endeavour from the solicitor general's office, justice officials and the police chief, the metal -- gleaned from than 10,000 rounds of ammunition and in excess of 1,400 firearms -- the material was turned over to a group of artists now working on giving the guns new life. Plans are not yet finalized but possibilities range from a statue to a peace park or metal benches and street lamps. "The caveat was -- as long as they were no longer guns by definition," Stacey says of approval criteria. "We were planning on destroying the guns," he says. "They are really just scrap metal at this point, and they want to make something out of them -- I thought it was a great idea (and) you probably wouldn't even be able to tell they were guns." Bronconnier says he embraced the idea when the Calgarian, who wants to remain anonymous, made the offer to donate the piece to the city. "In true Calgary fashion, an anonymous donor comes forward and offered to turn the guns into artistic pieces, for example a peace statue or some type of public art," Bronconnier says. "It sends a message, Calgary is a very peaceful city and this is a good example (of) taking something which can have a negative connotation and turning it into something very positive -- a symbol." He says the finished art will likely find a permanent place somewhere in the downtown core. http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/Alberta/2008/07/20/6211941-sun.html ------------------------------ Date: Sun, July 20, 2008 8:33 am From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 2" Subject: Column: Park wardens brought low PUBLICATION: WINNIPEG FREE PRESS DATE: 2008.07.19 PAGE: A19 SECTION: Focus WORD COUNT: 1224 - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Park wardens brought low - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Freelance Writer Sid Marty Subhead:Handgun issue reduces proud institution to T-shirt and ball-cap cops Canada's National Park Warden system will marks its centennial next year. But, as a result of politically correct attitudes about handguns and policies designed to save face in the bureaucracy, it is fair to ask whether there will be any wardens to celebrate. Before tackling the politics, it is useful to recall that since their origin in l909, national parks wardens in their traditional green and khaki uniforms and Stetson-style hats have done whatever is required to protect parks and visitors throughout Canada, mounting perilous search and rescue missions, managing resources and wildlife and enforcing the law. The warden way is a proud way and the competition to don that uniform is fierce; there may be 3,000 candidates for a position. Most wardens today have at least a bachelor of science degree while others hold either a master's or doctorate. In their law-enforcement role, it has always made good sense to have wardens, operating in remote areas, to be the first responders in dealing with game poachers or other offenders. In my own warden days, police backup was not always available, so we had little more than our fists and a sense of humour to ward off assaults by rioting drunks during summer punchfests in park campgrounds. In this new era of violence entitlement, assaults and threats against park wardens have been on the rise. One in six park offenders may have a criminal record. For some offenders, the stakes of being caught are very high. Game poachers could be fined $100,000 or more, or face five years imprisonment. Starting in l993, Parks Canada required its warden recruits to pass a rigourous seven-week police training course at RCMP Depot Regina. Recruits were issued police batons, handcuffs and pepper spray and trained in self-defence and police procedures. Following this, they took annual retraining to keep their skills current. Graduates were issued vests designed specifically to stop handgun bullets (it won't stop rifle shots or knife thrusts) but Parks Canada refused to issue handguns, which are the UN global standard for police officers. In 2001, the handgun issue gave rise to a legal battle between Parks Canada and the Public Service Alliance of Canada. The result was a ruling by a Human Resources and Development Canada officer that wardens should be given sidearms (handguns) to protect themselves or be removed from law enforcement. But wardens were up against a distant political phenomenon, the anti-gun lobby prevalent in eastern cities, which had the ear of the Liberal government. For wardens, the unstated message seemed to be: "Wear this vest in case some redneck shoots at you. We just don't want you shooting back." In 2001, former Parks Canada's CEO Tom Lee, backed by minister Sheila Copps, abruptly removed his wardens from law enforcement and appealed the ruling. The Chretien government next gave $40 million to the RCMP to take over policing regulations in the national parks. Under RCMP control, enforcement of park regulations declined drastically. Today's Mounties are not trained for backcountry park enforcement and were ordered not to hike more than 30 minutes away from their squad cars. In B.C.'s Yoho National Park, visitor services clerks watched looters raid a high-altitude UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Burgess Shales fossil beds, on closed-circuit cameras while wardens were forbidden to intervene and RCMP were unavailable. Stolen fossils were later listed on E-Bay. In Alberta's Waterton National Park, a scofflaw poached a moose and got away with it when the RCMP declined to follow up on evidence collected by wardens who could not arrest the culprit by order of Parks Canada, even though they were fully trained peace officers. In Jasper, Alta., the warden search-dog master was forbidden to help the RCMP track down a criminal who had assaulted a Mountie. Eventually, a new directive was issued that returned wardens to the field under reduced powers to intervene when lawbreakers were in action. They were to "take notes" and "make observations" -- and run away if the perp looked threatening. The warden service is the memory bank and conscience of Parks Canada, constantly giving careerist bureaucrats the news they need to hear, whether they want to or not. The service is resented by some Parks Canada managers as a result. Now many are wondering if there will be a warden service left to celebrate its 2009 centennial. On May 9, new CEO Alan Latourelle, having lost the latest appeal on the handgun issue, ordered his wardens to take off their uniforms and don the T shirts and ball caps worn by visitor services clerks. This was so they would not be identified as authority figures, which might have put them at risk if caught spying on criminals, who resent having their privacy violated. It was a final slap in the face that reduced some wardens to tears of frustration. The decision to issue sidearms to federal officers (such as federal Fisheries officers and Canadian Wildlife Service officers, armed for many years now) is at the discretion of cabinet. A public safety directive posted by the government in 2003 says the policy is not to arm federal officers except under exceptional circumstances. It was up to the CEO, having lost the appeal, to argue the warden's case before the Harper cabinet. Instead, Minister John Baird will now create a new -- armed -- national park police force of 100 persons, at a cost of $12 million initially, to do the work done previously by 425 police trained park wardens. This duplicate police force, like the RCMP, will not report to local resource managers or be directed by them. Unlike the wardens, who typically spent 15 to 25 per cent of their time on law enforcement, the new cops will do park enforcement only. Spread thinly over 41 parks and park reserves, they are unlikely to be on hand when something bad goes down, leaving wardens (if they still exist) to observe and take notes. Specialists will be of little use when a grizzly bear mauls a camper or a campfire burns out of control. Some $52 million and counting has now been either squandered or allocated on what clearly looks like a face-saving exercise for Chretien-era senior management. Inefficient law enforcement will be the result. If cabinet had armed park wardens in 2001, it might have done so at a cost of approximately $1.5 million, according to Duane Martin, who recently retired as senior enforcement specialist for the western and northern national parks. Arming wardens can still be done at a fraction of the cost. Not all wardens want to carry sidearms; some may not need to, as the U.S. park ranger experience has demonstrated. In America's parks, most employees wear the ranger hat and uniform, but only designated rangers (who still participate in other park duties) carry guns. Minister Baird, summer is here and our national parks are not being protected and those who could fix it are not free to speak out. You have inherited a national disgrace, but there is still time to rein in this $52-million farce. Please don't risk destroying a well-trained, well-educated and dedicated force of men and women who are an international icon of our magnificent parks system. Sir, give them back their uniforms and their law-enforcement powers, and give the warden service the pat on the back that it deserves to honour its 2009 centennial. Sid Marty, a former park warden, is the author of A Grand and Fabulous Notion, the centennial history of Canada's national parks. His latest book is The Black Grizzly of Whiskey Creek. http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/subscriber/westview/story/4201200p-4793114c.html ------------------------------ End of Cdn-Firearms Digest V11 #763 *********************************** Submissions: mailto:cdn-firearms-digest@scorpion.bogend.ca Mailing List Commands: mailto:majordomo@scorpion.bogend.ca Moderator's e-mail address: mailto:drg.jordan@sasktel.net List owner: mailto:owner-cdn-firearms@scorpion.bogend.ca FAQ list: http://www.canfirearms/Skeeter/Faq/cfd-faq1.html Web Site: http://www.canfirearms.ca CFDigest Archives: http://www.canfirearms.ca/archives To unsubscribe from _all_ the lists, put the next four lines in a message and mailto:majordomo@scorpion.bogend.ca unsubscribe cdn-firearms-digest unsubscribe cdn-firearms-chat unsubscribe cdn-firearms end (To subscribe, use "subscribe" instead of "unsubscribe".)