From: owner-cdn-firearms-digest@scorpion.bogend.ca (Cdn-Firearms Digest) To: cdn-firearms-digest@scorpion.bogend.ca Subject: Cdn-Firearms Digest V15 #217 Reply-To: cdn-firearms-digest@scorpion.bogend.ca Sender: owner-cdn-firearms-digest@scorpion.bogend.ca Errors-To: owner-cdn-firearms-digest@scorpion.bogend.ca Precedence: normal Cdn-Firearms Digest Thursday, August 16 2012 Volume 15 : Number 217 In this issue: HILL TIMES: Firearms part of Canadian culture Re: Peace officer's death may lead to armed workers [TIME] The Case for Gun Control Inaccurate Assumptions About Semi-Automatic Rifles TORONTO SUN: Cops bust teen with loaded pistol How come .... ? Letter to the National Post Re: TORONTO SUN: Cops bust teen with loaded pistol Response to "More guns equal more deaths" 'Anonymous' hacked parliamentary website, government files show Wonder what these numbers are for Canada? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, August 14, 2012 10:01 am From: "Dennis R. Young" Subject: HILL TIMES: Firearms part of Canadian culture THE HILL TIMES - Published: Monday, 08/13/2012 12:00 am EDT Firearms part of Canadian culture http://www.hilltimes.com/letters-to-the-editor/politics/2012/08/13/firearms-part-of-canadian-culture/31782 To View the rest of this article, please choose one of the following ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2012 20:37:15 -0600 From: 10x@telus.net Subject: Re: Peace officer's death may lead to armed workers At 08:36 AM 14/08/2012 -0600, you wrote: >http://www.thestarphoenix.com/news/Peace+officer+death+lead+armed+workers/7085748/story.html > >Peace officer's death may lead to armed workers > >Canadian Press August 14, 2012 >Alberta's justice minister says a review into the alleged murder of a peace >officer will examine whether he should have been armed and working with a >partner. > >Jonathan Denis said Monday the review will begin immediately and he doesn't >want to make any policy changes until it's complete. > >"At this point we don't know if the officer was armed, if that would have >actually had an impact or not," he said. > >"Basically at this point everything's on the table. But I want to see what >the review has to say just so we can make the most educated decision >possible for law enforcement, for the public and for the taxpayer." > >Retired Mountie Rod Lazenby was responsible for enforcing bylaws in the >municipal district of Foothills. He was working alone, unarmed, when he >responded to a dog complaint on a ranch southwest of Calgary last week. > >Trevor Kloschinsky, who lived at the property, appeared in court Monday >charged with first-degree murder. > >The 46-year-old suspect seemed skittish as he appeared via closed-circuit >television. It looked like he was hiding behind a wall in the room while he >was on camera. Many accused people look into the camera, but Kloschinsky >stared at the door silently. > >Defence lawyer Steven Jenuth said it was difficult to interview Kloschinsky. >Guards had to hold the phone up to his ear. Stephen Junuth is a rabid anti gun owner, and a liberal. He used to be very active promoting gun control on the usenet group can.talk.guns His support of the firearms act can be found here (if you care to read what is left of usenet threads) https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/ns.general/-z_UIxXA2-4%5B1-25%5D ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2012 08:04:24 -0700 (PDT) From: Bruce Mills Subject: [TIME] The Case for Gun Control http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2121660-2,00.html The Case for Gun Control By Fareed Zakaria Monday, Aug. 20, 2012 Update Appended: August 10, 2012 After the ghastly act of terrorism against a Sikh temple in Wisconsin on Aug. 5, Americans are pondering how to stop gun violence. We have decided that it is, in the words of New York Times columnist David Brooks, a problem of psychology, not sociology. We are trying to fathom the evil ideology of Wade Michael Page. Only several weeks ago, we were all trying to understand the twisted psychology of James Holmes, the man who killed 12 innocents at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo. Before that it was the mania of Jared Loughner, who shot Congresswoman Gabby Giffords last year. Certainly we should try to identify such people and help treat and track them. But aside from the immense difficulty of such a task--there are millions of fanatical, crazy people, and very few turn into mass murderers--it misses the real problem. Gun violence in America is off the chart compared with every other country on the planet. The gun-homicide rate per capita in the U.S. is 30 times that of Britain and Australia, 10 times that of India and four times that of Switzerland. When confronted with such a large deviation, a scholar would ask, Does America have some potential cause for this that is also off the chart? I doubt that anyone seriously thinks we have 30 times as many crazy people as Britain or Australia. But we do have many, many more guns. There are 88.8 firearms per 100 people in the U.S. In second place is Yemen, with 54.8, then Switzerland with 45.7 and Finland with 45.3. No other country has a rate above 40. The U.S. handgun-ownership rate is 70% higher than that of the country with the next highest rate. The effect of the increasing ease with which Americans can buy ever more deadly weapons is also obvious. Over the past few decades, crime has been declining, except in one category. In the decade since 2000, violent-crime rates have fallen by 20%, aggravated assault by 21%, motor-vehicle theft by 44.5% and nonfirearm homicides by 22%. But the number of firearm homicides is essentially unchanged. What can explain this anomaly except easier access to guns? Confronted with this blindingly obvious causal connection, otherwise intelligent people close their eyes. Denouncing any effort to control guns, George Will explained on ABC News that he had "a tragic view of life, which is that ... however meticulously you draft whatever statute you wind up passing, the world is going to remain a broken place, and things like this are going to happen." I don't recall Will responding to, say, the 9/11 attacks--or any other law-and-order issue for that matter--with a "things happen" sentiment. The other argument against any serious gun control is that it's unconstitutional, an attempt to undo American history. In fact, something close to the opposite is true. Adam Winkler, a professor of constitutional law at UCLA, documents the actual history in Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America. Guns were regulated in the U.S. from the earliest years of the Republic. Laws that banned the carrying of concealed weapons were passed in Kentucky and Louisiana in 1813. Other states soon followed: Indiana in 1820, Tennessee and Virginia in 1838, Alabama in 1839 and Ohio in 1859. Similar laws were passed in Texas, Florida and Oklahoma. As the governor of Texas (Texas!) explained in 1893, the "mission of the concealed deadly weapon is murder. To check it is the duty of every self-respecting, law-abiding man." Congress passed the first set of federal laws regulating, licensing and taxing guns in 1934. The act was challenged and went to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1939. Franklin Delano Roosevelt's solicitor general, Robert H. Jackson, said the Second Amendment grants people a right that "is not one which may be utilized for private purposes but only one which exists where the arms are borne in the militia or some other military organization provided for by law and intended for the protection of the state." The court agreed unanimously. Things started to change in the 1970s as various right-wing groups coalesced to challenge gun control, overturning laws in state legislatures, Congress and the courts. But Chief Justice Warren Burger, a conservative appointed by Richard Nixon, described the new interpretation of the Second Amendment in an interview after his tenure as "one of the greatest pieces of fraud--I repeat the word fraud--on the American public by special-interest groups that I have ever seen in my lifetime." So when people throw up their hands and say we can't do anything about guns, tell them they're being un-American--and unintelligent. On Friday, August 10, Fareed Zakaria issued the following statement about this article: "Media reporters have pointed out that paragraphs in my TIME column this week bear close similarities to paragraphs in Jill Lepore's essay in the April 22nd issue of The New Yorker. They are right. I made a terrible mistake. It is a serious lapse and one that is entirely my fault. I apologize unreservedly to her, to my editors at TIME, and to my readers." TIME has since issued its own statement: "TIME accepts Fareed's apology, but what he did violates our own standards for our columnists, which is that their work must not only be factual but original; their views must not only be their own but their words as well. As a result, we are suspending Fareed's column for a month, pending further review." ------------------------------ Date: Wed, August 15, 2012 12:00 pm From: "Dennis R. Young" Subject: Inaccurate Assumptions About Semi-Automatic Rifles Inaccurate Assumptions About Semi-Automatic Rifles Submitted by National Shooting Sports Foundation on Aug 14, 2012 http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/guns/media-bias-inaccuracy-and-worse Recently, we noted Time magazine managing editor Richard Stengel's misrepresentation of America's most popular sporting rifle when he wrote that the "AR-15 has little or no sporting purpose." Though millions of Americans use these rifles for target shooting, Stengel apparently thinks he knows best. Last week, Time magazine editor and columnist and CNN television host Fareed Zakaria was caught plagiarizing in his article The Case for Gun Control, which he ends with this line: "So when people throw up their hands and say we can't do anything about guns, tell them they're being un-American-and unintelligent." Apparently, Zakaria thinks he knows best, too. Zakaria has been suspended by both Time and CNN for borrowing language from an April 23 piece about the Second Amendment in The New Yorker. Newsbusters, a website that prides itself on "exposing and combating liberal media bias," points out the similar passages in this blog post. Then this article by Dan Roberts at Ammoland.com notes the 2012 Associated Press Stylebook, the guide to proper language usage followed by professional and amateur writers, defines the term "assault weapon" in unbelievably anti-gun terms: "Assault Weapon: A semi-automatic firearm similar in appearance to a fully automatic firearm or military weapon. Not synonymous with assault rifle, which can be used in fully automatic mode. Wherever possible, be specific about the type of weapon: semi-automatic rifle, semi-automatic shotgun or semi-automatic pistol." This definition brands every semi-automatic pistol, rifle and shotgun as an assault weapon since nearly any of these firearms can be "similar in appearance" to a military weapon. As NSSF points out in its Modern Sporting Rifle Fact Card, the term "assault weapon" is a manufactured political term created by California anti-gun legislators to ban some semi-automatic rifles there in the 1980s. When they allowed that definition into the stylebook, the AP editors thought they knew best. It's clear from these examples that firearms owners need to be "newsbusters," too, in order to expose and correct media bias at both the national and local levels because, when it comes to firearms, we know best. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, August 15, 2012 12:04 pm From: "Dennis R. Young" Subject: TORONTO SUN: Cops bust teen with loaded pistol Cops bust teen with loaded pistol By Alex Consiglio, Toronto Sun - Updated: Tuesday, August 14, 2012 09:52 PM EDT http://www.torontosun.com/2012/08/14/cops-bust-teen-with-loaded-pistol A 15-year-old boy riding an E-Bike had a loaded .357 Magnum, cocaine and marijuana in his possession, Toronto Police said Tuesday. Officers of 11 Division were doing routine patrols Monday near the Cooper Mills and Gooch Toronto Community Housing projects, by Dundas St. W. and Scarlett Rd. The boy was pulled over on a borrowed E-Bike, a type of electronic bicycle that looks similar to a Vespa, for a highway traffic act violation. In order to ride an E-Bike, you must wear a helmet and be at least 16-years-old, said Det.-Sgt. Mike Leone. "Once officers engaged with him, the gun and drugs were discovered," said Leone, noting the boy wasn't wearing a helmet. "It's extremely important we got that gun," said Leone. "Anytime we can get a gun off the street it's a big win for us." Leone said the Gun and Gang Task Force will now look into determining how the pistol came to be in the boy's possession. The boy faces gun, drug and highway traffic related charges. He cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2012 18:07:51 -0700 From: Todd Birch Subject: How come .... ? Been thinkin' .... How come mass shootings only occur in "Gun Free Zones"? If the problem was the mere presence of guns, then rifle/pistol ranges would be as dangerous as an afternoon walk in Syria. This alone ought to be sufficient evidence for anti-gunners that guns and gun owners do not constitute any kind of threat to society, in fact, just the opposite. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2012 21:31:40 -0400 From: Dan Haggarty Subject: Letter to the National Post A slightly edited version of the following letter was published on August 14th in the National Post. - --- Re: Gun registry data should be preserved: legal clinic, Aug 11, 2012 The legal effort to preserve the long gun registry data sponsored by the Barbra Schlifer Clinic is a waste of time and money. The reasons are simple. Any inventory system needs ongoing updates if the quality of its data is to be maintained. In the case of the gun registry, firearms owners have been legally buying and selling long guns across Canada and in Toronto since the registry was killed without these transactions being processed by the Canadian Firearms Centre. As a consequence, the registry is now a historical artifact that is increasingly outdated, inaccurate and irrelevant as time passes. There's also no viable way to resurrect the registry and bring it up to date. The seller of a firearm does not need to record the details of the purchaser's firearms license. If questioned, people forget and memories fade. Rebuilding the registry without a record of transactions to trace would be just another expensive firearms program. Whatever you may think of the gun registry, saving an obsolete copy of its database won't help keep our streets safe. Dan Haggarty Toronto, Ontario ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2012 21:05:46 -0600 From: 10x@telus.net Subject: Re: TORONTO SUN: Cops bust teen with loaded pistol At , you wrote: >Cops bust teen with loaded pistol >By Alex Consiglio, Toronto Sun - Updated: Tuesday, August 14, 2012 09:52 PM >EDT > >http://www.torontosun.com/2012/08/14/cops-bust-teen-with-loaded-pistol > >A 15-year-old boy riding an E-Bike had a loaded .357 Magnum, cocaine and >marijuana in his possession, Toronto Police said Tuesday. Officers of 11 >Division were doing routine patrols Monday near the Cooper Mills and Gooch >Toronto Community Housing projects, by Dundas St. W. and Scarlett Rd. The >boy was pulled over on a borrowed E-Bike, a type of electronic bicycle that >looks similar to a Vespa, for a highway traffic act violation. In order to >ride an E-Bike, you must wear a helmet and be at least 16-years-old, said >Det.-Sgt. Mike Leone. "Once officers engaged with him, the gun and drugs >were discovered," said Leone, noting the boy wasn't wearing a helmet. "It's >extremely important we got that gun," said Leone. "Anytime we can get a gun >off the street it's a big win for us." Leone said the Gun and Gang Task >Force will now look into determining how the pistol came to be in the boy's >possession. The boy faces gun, drug and highway traffic related charges. He >cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. Just another example of the failure of the Canadian gun owner licensing system. Keeping guns out of the hands of the law abiding since December 1, 1998 and not doing a thing to stop criminals from getting guns.... ------------------------------ Date: Wed, August 15, 2012 10:33 pm From: "Dennis R. Young" Subject: Response to "More guns equal more deaths" Note: Forwarded with the permission of the author. - ---------------------------- Original Message ---------------------------- Subject: Re: National Post Letters: Guns will make us safer From: decline@pteradon.tera-byte.com Date: Sun, August 12, 2012 1:17 pm To: Letters@nationalpost.com - -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Re: Letter by Steve Lussing RE: More guns equal more deaths Over a MILLION murders in Detroit?? Hardly likely!! What rocks do these prevaricators live under? A large portion of the murders that DO occur are beatings, clubs, or knives. Even with the average number of murders at around 500 per year, that makes it only 25,000 murders in 50 years. ( http://www.ask.com/wiki/Crime_in_Detroit ) ONE MILLION?? How stupid does Steve Lussing think people are? He has proven conclusively that he is willfully ignorant, or a complete liar. Unfortunately there are those who will swallow his prevarication. Every jurisdiction that has concealed carry in the USA has had a resultant dramatic decrease in violent crime. Misuse of the right to carry and defend oneself and family is virtually invisible. Normal people are every bit as responsible, and many more so, than trained military and police. Unfortunately, police can only clean up after foul deeds take place and can never prevent attacks, especially on infirm or women who must submit and/or die since they are legislated out of any form of self defence in Canada. Don Klein Secretary Valley Rifle Club NATIONAL POST LETTERS - AUGUST 10, 2012 http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/08/11/todays-letters-guns-will-make-us-safer/ Letter: More guns equal more deaths Evidently, Walt Wawra would like to see us embrace the personal handgun, ostensibly for protection, as the status quo for Canadians. He should know better, coming from a land where gun ownership is ubiquitous. Since 1950, over a million murders have been committed in Detroit, proving once again that people don't kill people, guns kill people. Steve Lussing, Vancouver. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2012 09:03:06 -0600 From: "Joe Gingrich" Subject: 'Anonymous' hacked parliamentary website, government files show http://www.thestarphoenix.com/technology/Anonymous+hacked+parliamentary+website+government+files+show/7097753/story.html 'Anonymous' hacked parliamentary website, government files show By Jordan Press, Postmedia News August 16, 2012 A group of online hacktivists took down the parliamentary website earlier this year, striking after the government introduced a controversial online surveillance bill. IT security staff with Shared Services Canada identified the group known as Anonymous as being behind the attack that shut down the House of Commons website for more than four hours in mid-February, according to documents released to Postmedia News under access to information laws. When the outage happened on Feb. 17, right in the midst of an online outcry over the government's anticybercrime legislation, staff in the House of Commons wouldn't say publicly why the website was down. "As you may be aware, parl.gc.ca is currently under an Anonymous DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack," reads an unsigned email sent Feb. 17 to Stephan Aube, the chief information officer for the House of Commons. A DDoS attack occurs when online users hijack computers to flood a website with traffic and overload its server to bring down or slow down a webpage. The documents don't say how the Commons staff determined that Anonymous was behind the attack. "This DDoS attack against House of Commons is likely directly related to Public Safety Minister Vic Toews' recent and controversial appearance in the news," noted Shared Service Canada IT operations worker Denis Godin in an internal email sent in the middle of the DDoS attack. "They are also flooding his (Toews) email account @ parl.gc.ca and his (Twitter) account." When he introduced bill C-30, Toews said opposition critics could either side with the government, or with child pornographers, a statement he later apologized for but one that caused an Internet backlash against C-30 and Toews. A followup email Godin sent a few minutes later noted that someone should have known "an Internet storm was a brewing." "I'm somewhat surprised that we weren't advised/put on (heightened) awareness." ------------------------------ Date: Thu, August 16, 2012 9:30 am From: "Dennis R. Young" Subject: Wonder what these numbers are for Canada? In 2011, 13.7 million hunters in the USA spent $34 billion, an average of $2,484 per hunter. In 2011, 33 million anglers in the USA spent $41.8 billion, an average of $1,262 per angler. THE OUTDOOR WIRE - AUGUST 16, 2012 http://www.theoutdoorwire.com/archived/2012-08-16_tow.html FEATURE: Reversing Decades of Decline, the Number of Hunters and Anglers is on the Rise Salazar: Preliminary Survey Delivers 'Great News for America's Economy and Conservation Heritage' MILWAUKEE, WI - Highlighting the reversal of decades of declining numbers, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has announced the preliminary results of a comprehensive national survey of outdoor recreation showing a significant increase in hunters and a double-digit increase in anglers over the past five years. "Seeing more people fishing, hunting, and getting outdoors is great news for America's economy and conservation heritage," said Salazar. "Outdoor recreation and tourism are huge economic engines for local communities and the country, so it is vital that we continue to support policies and investments that help Americans get outside, learn to fish, or go hunting. That is why, through President Obama's America's Great Outdoors initiative, we have been focused on helping Americans rediscover the joys of casting a line, passing along family hunting traditions, and protecting the places they love." The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's 2011 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation found that hunters nationwide increased by 9 percent while anglers grew by 11 percent. Nearly 38 percent of all Americans participated in wildlife-related recreation in 2011, an increase of 2.6 million participants from the previous survey in 2006. They spent $145 billion on related gear, trips and other purchases, such as licenses, tags and land leasing and ownership, representing 1 percent of the nation's gross domestic product. "The Fish and Wildlife Service is dedicated to connecting people and families with nature," said Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe. "We look forward to continuing to work with the States, non-governmental organizations, and additional partners to help keep recreational fishing, hunting, and wildlife watching going strong for people across America's great outdoors." Other key findings include: - - In 2011, 13.7 million people, 6 percent of the U.S. population 16 years old and older, went hunting. They spent $34.0 billion on trips, equipment, licenses, and other items in 2011, an average of $2,484 per hunter. - - More than 33 million people 16 and older fished in 2011, spending $41.8 billion on trips, equipment, licenses, and other items, an average of $1,262 per angler. - - More than 71 million people engaged in wildlife watching in 2011, spending $55.0 billion on their activities. At the request of state fish and wildlife agencies, the Fish and Wildlife Service has been conducting the national survey every five years since 1955. It is viewed as one of the nation's most important wildlife-related recreation databases and the definitive source of information concerning participation and purchases associated with hunting, fishing and other forms of wildlife-related recreation nationwide. "State agencies, hunters and anglers are the key funders of fish and wildlife conservation through their license and gear purchases," said Dr. Jonathan Gassett, Commissioner of the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Resources Commission and President of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. "An increase in participation and expenditure rates means that agencies can continue to restore and improve habitat and fish and wildlife species, bring more youth into the outdoors and provide even greater access to recreational activities." The U.S. Census Bureau interviewed 48,627 households across the country to obtain samples of sportspersons and wildlife watchers for detailed interviews. Information was collected through computer-assisted telephone and in-person interviews. The Survey is funded through a Multi-State Conservation Grant from the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program, which celebrates 75 years of conservation success in 2012. The preliminary report is the first in a series that the Service will release. The next report of preliminary findings will contain State data and will be available in the coming months. In late November, the National Report with more detail participation and expenditure estimates will be available online. From December 2012 to May 2013, the 50 State reports will be released on a rolling basis. - ---------------------------- http://www.theoutdoorwire.com/ ------------------------------ End of Cdn-Firearms Digest V15 #217 *********************************** Submissions: mailto:cdn-firearms-digest@scorpion.bogend.ca Mailing List Commands: mailto:majordomo@scorpion.bogend.ca Moderator's email: mailto:owner-cdn-firearms@scorpion.bogend.ca 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".)