Licensing:
A Cancer of the Soul

Friday, 22July 2011

Mr. Brent Rathgeber, MP
220-20 Perron Street
St Albert, Alberta T8N 1E4

Dear Mr. Rathgeber,

I am 77 years old. I was born and raised in Canada. My family legally owned and legally possessed firearms for as long as I can remember. I have personally owned and possessed firearms since I was a twelve-year-old boy. And for all these many years I did so in a responsible manner and without a federal gun possession licence. So I am sick and tired of hearing Stephen Harper brag about his plans to end the long-gun registry this fall.

‘Scrapping the long-gun registry’ will NOT fix the licencing mess that the Liberals created in 1995 with the abomination called the Firearms Act. Allan Rock and Jean Chrétien crammed down our throats a law that makes me a criminal for doing what I have done all my life – owning a firearm without a licence.

I consider the responsible ownership and possession of a firearm without a licence part of our proud Canadian history and culture. And I will either go to jail or to my grave owning my guns without a firearms licence. The Firearms Act ignores the criminals who abuse firearms. I refuse to submit to an unjust, ineffective law that only punishes honest gun owners and destroys our Canadian heritage.

I ask you to study the Firearms Act. See for yourself that putting my name and address on a gun owners’ list in Ottawa or Miramichi will not make you safer. Tell Mr. Harper to repeal all of the Firearms Act this fall. Then introduce legislation that is based on plain old common sense. Focuses on violent criminals.

If all you do is end the long gun registry you have wasted your time.

Sincerely,

James Ivan Turnbull
Box 114
Jarvie, Alberta T0G 1H0
(780) 954-2669