November/December 2014 Canadian w w w. n f a . c a Firearms Journal Fully Committed On all Fronts Canada’s national Firearms assoCiation November/ Canadian December 2014 November/December 2014 Canadian Firearms Journal w w w. n f a . c a Firearms Journal 19 Putting Common Sense Into 2014 Canadian Firearms Laws Graham Dalton 23 Fully Committed On Canada’s national Firearmsa a 23 ll Fronts ssoCiation Victoria Women Shooters The Club That’s Changing Perceptions 4 Myrna Francis On the Cover Thanks To Our NFA Members! 27 5 From The Editor’s Desk The Savage 99 Rifle Celebrating The Diversity Of Canada’s A Classic Rifle With A Long History Of Use Bob Campbell Firearms Community 27 Chris McGarry 31 Point Blank 6 Firearms & The Madness Of Modern Liberalism President’s Report Chris McGarry Consider Firearms Rights When Casting Your Vote 32 Sheldon Clare Should Lead Be Banned To Protect Public Health? 9 Is It Politics Or Science Behind The Idea To Ban Lead? Vice-President’s Message Gary Mauser Rights & Responsibilities Versus Privileges & Punishments 36 Blair Hagen Politics & Guns More Guns. Then What Happended? 11 Bruce Gold Preserving Our Firearms Heritage 38 Lest We Forget - One Hundred AnTIque FIReARm Years of Duty 32 Gary K. Kangas - The Huot Automatic Rifle Canada’s Contribution To Automatic Small 14 Arms Development During The Great War Legal Corner Blair Hagen The NFA Goes To The Supreme Court Of Canada Guy Lavergne 41 Ricochet Research 16 Team NFA Understanding Ricochets Is Important For Safety Al Voth Performing 46 Under Pressure 41 Megan Heinicke NFA Bookshelf Smith & Wesson - A Handbook For Collectors Bill Rantz Mission stateMent Canada’s National Firearms Association exists to promote, support and protect all safe firearms activities, including the right of self defense, firearms education for all Canadians, freedom and justice for Canada’s firearms community and to advocate for legislative change to ensure the right of all Canadians to own and use firearms is protected. The contents of the Canadian Firearms Journal are copyrighted and may be reproduced only when written permission is obtained from the publisher. November/December 2014 w w w. n f a . c a 3 Canadian Firearms Journal The Official Magazine of CANADA’S NATIONAL On The FIREARMS ASSOCIATION Cover Editor [email protected] Chris McGarry [email protected] General Manager [email protected] or Ginger Fournier 780-439-1394 [email protected] Thanks To Our Accounts/Membership/ General information [email protected] NFA Members! Legal Inquiries [email protected] National Executive A historic milestone has been reached. On Oct. National President 1-877-818-0393 8, 2014, for the first time in Canadian history, a pro- Sheldon Clare [email protected] firearm organization intervened at the Supreme EVP, Communications 1-877-818-0393 Blair Hagen [email protected] Court of Canada. We intervened in Quebec’s at- Treasurer 1-877-818-0393 tempt at obtaining the long-gun registry data, rep- Bill Rantz [email protected] resented by Guy Lavergne. In an unprecedented Secretary 1-877-818-0393 second opportunity, the NFA will be returning to Jerrold Lundgard [email protected] Executive Vice President 1-877-818-0393 the Supreme Court on Nov. 7, 2014, to intervene in Shawn Bevins [email protected] the Mandatory Minimum Sentence challenge, rep- resented by Solomon Friedman. The NFA is the only Regional Directors pro-firearm organization fighting for your rights at British Columbia/Yukon 1-877-818-0393 Sheldon Clare [email protected] the Supreme Court of Canada. Blair Hagen [email protected] Alberta/NWT/Out of Canada 1-877-818-0393 Jerrold Lundgard [email protected] Saskatchewan 1-877-818-0393 Kurt Luchia [email protected] Manitoba/Nunavut 1-877-818-0393 Ontario 1-877-818-0393 Bill Rantz [email protected] Darlene Mackenzie [email protected] Quebec 1-877-818-0393 Claude Colgan [email protected] Stephen Buddo [email protected] Maritimes/Newfoundland and Labrador 1-877-818-0393 Robert Bracken [email protected] Regional Co-ordinators British Columbia – Rodney Gilatica [email protected] 4 w w w. n f a . c a November/December 2014 NFA From The Editor’s Desk Chris McGarry Celebrating The Diversity Of Canada’s Firearms Community Using our broad base and narrow focus to educate Of late, anti-gun activists in Canada have been viciously stepping up their ef- Canadians of all varied backgrounds forts to discredit or outright attack members of this country’s law-abiding firearms and interests. community. The predominant tactic the antis employ in their smear campaign is Go to a shooting range in any Canadi- painting all firearms enthusiasts as the same negative stereotype: white male, rural an city and you will hear an assortment dweller, extremely conservative politically and narrow-minded (at least by the stan- of languages, often spoken by people dards of these loony progressives.) who’ve escaped oppressive regimes. There has been a lot of activity on social media recently, from those who argue Canada’s firearms owners are repre- for stricter gun laws or an outright prohibition on the private ownership of firearms. sentative of the diversity of Canadian These antis have been aggressive about making their views known. The NFA has be- society. While it is unfortunate that the gun to counter this assault on the firearms community by creating #psychoantigun, general public is unaware of the diver- which is a compilation of the worst of the anti-gun Twitter messages. To quote one sity of Canada’s firearms demographic, message, “Where does this Neanderthal brain come from. Boys and girls with guns. it is even more worrying that many left- Real ammunition. A culture of fear, bigotry, racism, homophobia and Islamaphobia.” leaning politicians are ignorant of this Because it has been so well promoted by Hollywood and the mainstream me- fact or chose to ignore it altogether. dia, this is an image of the modern-day firearms enthusiast that some Canadians A perfectly good example of this is have. In reality, nothing could be farther from the truth. While this false stereo- Canada’s New Democrat Party, which is type still rings true in many instances, Canada’s broadly-based firearms com- socially progressive on a number of is- munity is very much a diverse group of individuals. Our rising numbers include sues. However, the NDP is alienating many people, who would otherwise vote for its candidates, by attacking those who enjoy the ownership and use of firearms. There is no denying the fact that fire- arm ownership among women is grow- ing in this country. An increasing number of women are learning how to shoot for sport, as well as self-protection. In spite of this, the vast majority of politicians would still prefer to see women legis- lated unarmed and defenceless, instead of repealing laws that prevent them from effectively protecting themselves. The bottom line is that politicians and the media can no longer character- ize gun owners the way they’ve been doing for decades and expect the public to blindly go along with it. As Canada’s population becomes more diverse, so does our firearms community. Using our broad base and narrow focus, we will be able to educate our elected officials and the general public. Only then will we be Canada’s firearms community is made of people from all different walks of life. Together, we need to start educating elected officials and the public about what is means to be a able to bring about reform of Canada’s firearms owner. unnecessary and draconian gun laws. November/December 2014 w w w. n f a . c a 5 President’s Message Sheldon Clare Consider Firearms Rights When Casting Your Vote Firearms owners need to be heard by politicians One of the essential problems with and would be a crime, likely more than one. The presumption of innocence has been our expensive and unnecessary fire- replaced with a presumption of guilt – it has become the firearm owners’ responsi- arms laws is that there is an instant bility to prove that he or she is not committing an offence by producing a licence. stigma of guilt when someone is spot- That license is a get-out-of-jail-free card for doing what, for over 130 years, was ted with a firearm. The reason for this perfectly innocent and even respectable behaviour in Canada. calamitous situation is quite simple: it is What changed? Is there a higher crime rate? No. As the post-war baby boomers illegal in Canada to be in possession of have aged, they have taken crime rates down in most western countries, including a firearm, and it has been that way for Canada. What has changed is that there are more and more people in political office several years since the Liberal former who don’t seem to trust the people that put them into power. Many of them hold Bill C-68 came into effect. The licensing authoritarian views and simply don’t want citizens to have firearms, or choose to of firearms owners is tied to the pro- narrowly define the reasons that are permissible for people to possess, own and visions of S. 91 and 92 of the Criminal use firearms. Code that define the offense and make Of the three major political parties in Canada, two of them have clearly indicated the licence the defence to the charge. these authoritarian views as party policy. Those would be the Liberals and NDP. The The problem is that when someone third, the Conservative Party, has a significant number of elected members who is seen with a firearm, the presumption are not friendly to rights issues regarding firearms possession, ownership and use.