Licensing:
A Cancer of the Soul

Tuesday, 24 March 2009

Dear Responsible Firearms Owners,

Re: Time to Send a Clear Message to your Government

Mr. Harper and his government are sending mixed, confusing, contradictory messages to firearms owners.
Mr. Harper and his “new” Conservative government have over the past two years introduced legislation that would have ostensibly repealed the “long gun registry” portion of the Firearms Act. But after two halfhearted attempts, Mr. Harper let the legislation die. Earlier this year, Conservative Party MP Gary Breitkreuz introduced a private member’s bill, C-301, that would have the same assumed effect, plus make a few additional changes for handgun owners.1

CUFOA vehemently attacked the Conservatives’ commitment to repealing the Firearms Act because Bill C-301 does not question the largest and most unjust part of the Firearms Act, that is, the personal licensing of firearms owners and would by default entrench the Liberals’ 1995 law.2

But last week a firestorm erupted over Bill C-301. In the face of political and news media condemnation, the CSSA withdrew an invitation to Mr. Breitkreuz to speak at their annual general meeting where a handgun would be a raffle prize.3

Not content with being thus spared any further public scrutiny, Mr. Breitkreuz promptly posted on his website that he was withdrawing all reference to handguns from his private member’s bill.4

As if to emphasize this retreat, a spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, said "Our government obviously doesn't endorse the raffle [of the handgun]."3

The next day Prime Minister Harper appeared before the Ontario Federation of Hunters and Anglers 5, spoke proudly about “self-reliance”, “preserving what our ancestors left to us”, and challenged them to press their “MPs to follow their consciences" in support of Bill C-301.

Immediately thereafter an official with the Prime Minister's Office “frantically contacted the media to point out there is no government [firearms] legislation currently before the House of Commons.”5

Now yesterday Robert S. Sciuk, an avowed proponent of licensing,6 posts on the Firearms Digest that, “Mr. Breitkreuz is attempting to salvage C-301 in its initial form.”7 From whom would Mr. Breitkreuz be attempting to salvage his bill, the Liberals, the NDP, or the Prime Minister himself?

We obviously have enemies in very high places. And we must acknowledge and face the fact that we have unrelenting foes who will never cease in their attempts to strip us of our Right to defend ourselves. Therefore, unlike the mixed, contradictory messages of Mr. Harper and his Conservative government, firearms owners need to speak with a strong, clear voice.

CUFOA’S message is defiant, concise, and has neither changed nor waivered: Repeal the entire Firearms Act and its subsidiary sections of the Criminal Code.8 Specifically we demand the Government repeal the mandate that requires responsible citizens to have a licence to acquire a firearm. Though licensing, the Government controls the gateway to the ownership of firearms, demanding, “Your papers, please” merely to possess a firearm. Thereby the Government is destroying our Right to have ‘Armes for their Defense’, a Right that Canadians have responsibly employed for over four hundred years. As Dr. Gary Mauser of Simon Fraser University says, “Registration of firearms is bad, but licensing of firearms owners is worse. Licensing will kill us.” This perverse government licensing and monitoring of honest, responsible citizens has not stopped criminals from acquiring or possessing firearms and having bloody shootouts in our major cities.

Rather than calling or writing your MP to encourage him or her to support this misguided bill that does not address the major problem, we urge you to send a clear, simple message to our Prime Minister. Inform Mr. Harper and his so-called Conservative government that you will not surrender your Right to have arms for self-protection. Tell Mr. Harper you will accept nothing less than the total repeal of the entire Firearms Act.

Make your resolve public. Burn your firearms licence and send Mr. Harper the ashes.

Sincerely,
Edward B. Hudson DVM, MS
Secretary