CUFOA

Canadian Unlicensed Firearms Owners Association
Association canadienne des propriétaires d’armes sans permis

Title: Firearms Licensing; a Cancer of the Soul
Author: Edward B. Hudson
Date: 22 January 2008

The recent agitated discussion among firearms owners after Toronto Mayor David Miller’s demand for an “absolute ban” on handguns brings to mind one of the darkest period of World War II. With the Allied forces in retreat all around the globe late in 1941, American officials criticized the Chinese Nationalist leader for diverting so much of his army’s strength into the fight against the Communists rather than concentrating on fighting the Japanese. Chiang Kai-shek replied, The Japanese are a disease of the skin; it can be cured. The Communists are a disease of the soul; it will destroy the whole body.*1

In Canada today the situation firearms owners face is much the same. The problem is not some senseless, politician’s call for a ban on handguns; this is merely a symptom of a ‘skin disease’. The real danger we face is the ‘cancer’ of the licensing of firearms owners.

Introduced by the Firearms Act in 2001, licensing makes the mere possession of a firearm a criminal offense. If we do not rid our ‘soul’ of this deadly, insidious disease, the malignancy of licensing will destroy the ownership of firearms in Canada.

Far too many of our elected politicians try to make firearms owners the ‘whipping boy’ of all their problems. Note well Prime Minister Harper’s reply to reporters in the wake of the September 2006 shooting at Montreal's Dawson College. Mr. Harper said that steps must be taken to “minimize the possibility of these events,'' adding that possessing a firearm “is not a right, it is a privilege.''*2

If we foolishly accept Mr. Harper’s assertion that possession of firearms is not a Right, but only a mere privilege, then we can expect endless calls for more bans on firearms and the restrictions to ownership to increase.

Sadly, neither Mr. Harper, nor many in Parliament, understand where our Rights originate. Our Rights did not suddenly emerge in 1982 with Mr. Trudeau’s government issued Charter. Our Rights predate even Confederation: Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of the government. *3

Our Liberty is innate and inalienable.*4 Our Rights are not subject to government negation; not by the Crown, not by Parliament, not by judicial decree.

Unfortunately, the malignancy of licensing lulls us into accepting the erroneous concept that we only have the few numbered Rights which the government deigned to grant and the courts condescend to acknowledge.

Unless we are willing to accept former Justice Minister Alan Rock’s dictum that “the only people in this country who should have guns are police and soldiers”*5 we must firmly establish that we have the Right to possess “Armes for their Defense” as the English Declaration of Rights of 1689 affirms. We must ensure that the government repeals the entire Firearm Act.

To ensure that our government ceases and desists from its misguided attempt to usurp from responsible citizens the legitimate possession of firearms, we must assert our Right of armed self-defense. We do this by peaceful, nonviolent noncompliance. We refuse to submit to licensing.

Excising the cancer of licensing will cure the handgun bans.

Edward B. Hudson DVM, MS
Secretary

Canadian Unregistered Firearms Owners Association
402 Skeena Crt Saskatoon
Saskatchewan S7K 4H2
(306) 242-2379 (306) 230-8929
edwardhudson@shaw.ca
www.cufoa.ca

Footnotes:

*1 Chiang Kai-shek, 1941
quoted by Theodore H. White
in The Fruits of Hatred, Time Friday, 27 January 1967

*2 Sylvania Larocque
Le Devoir, 26 September 2006

*3 “Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come
from the subjects of the government. The history of government is a
history of resistance. The history of liberty is the history of the
limitation of government, not the increase of it.”
Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924), U.S. president. Address, 09 September 1912,
to the New York Press Club. The Public Papers of Woodrow Wilson, vol.
25, p. 124, ed. Arthur S. Link.

*4 “the rights and liberties asserted and claimed in the said
declaration are the true, ancient and indubitable rights and liberties
of the people of this kingdom”
English Declaration of Rights, 1689

*5 "I came to Ottawa with the firm belief that the only people in this
country who should have guns are police officers and soldiers."
Liberal Justice Minister Allan Rock
Maclean's 25 April 1994