http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/americas/050800canada-guns.html
May 8, 2000
EDMONTON JOURNAL
Across Canada's Mild West, Gun Rebels
Glower
Related Articles
Issue in Depth: Gun Control
Forum
Join a Discussion on Gun Control
By JAMES BROOKE
DMONTON, Alberta, May 3 -- With dolphins making arcs
through an artificial lagoon, submarines taking children on a "deep
sea adventure," and golfers driving balls on the roof, the West Edmonton
Mall proclaims itself the world's largest shopping mall.
Next month, shoppers bored with the casino, the six night clubs, the 40
restaurants, or the triple loop roller coaster will be able to try a new
diversion: blasting away at targets in the mall's new pistol range, the Wild
West Family Shooting Center.
"We believe it will be the first
range in a family shopping mall in
North America," Ken Kupsch, the
range owner, said as an employee
sorted empty brass cartridges at a
sales counter.
While Canada's central
government tries to carry out the
strictest gun control legislation
ever seen in North America,
western Canada is marching to a
more laissez-faire beat on
firearms.
Canada has had a handgun
registration program for decades,
and a system of registering purchases of other guns for several years. But
under the new national law, each of Canada's estimated three million
owners of long-barreled guns, including shotguns, is to apply for a license
to own a firearm with the federal government by the end of this year.
The owner will also be required to register the gun itself, by the end of
2002.
But, 18 months after the licensing system opened, licenses have been
issued to only 150,000 people, about 5 percent of the owners.
Starting next January, any Canadian found with a gun and without a
license would face penalties that go as high as 10 years in jail.
In a country built on respect for authority, the majority of gun owners
seem to be taking a very un-Canadian path: civil disobedience. One new
group, the Law-abiding Unregistered Firearms Association, already
boasts 15,000 members.
Hunting and shooting groups, many based in the West, are urging their
members to boycott the licensing program. They are waiting for a
decision by Canada's Supreme Court on a legal challenge filed by a
group of provinces led by Alberta.
There has also been speculation that many of the gun owners who have
applied for licenses may be trying to sabotage the computerized data
base. Last fall, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police complained that
there were errors in 90 percent of license applications and in 99 percent
of gun registration applications.
"People opposed to it may be trying to sabotage it," said Garry
Breitkreuz, a Saskatchewan member of Parliament from the Canadian
Alliance, a conservative, Western-based party.
With Alberta and other provinces refusing to have local law enforcement
officials register gun owners and their guns, the Federal government has
hired or reassigned almost 1,500 employees to carry out the program,
which has cost $230 million so far.
"Some say the government's financial commitment makes sense only if the
ultimate goal is the disarming of Canada," The Alberta Report, a
conservative publication edited here in the provincial capital, said
recently.
Two weeks ago, reflecting the government's growing desperation, the
Canadian Firearms Center, the Justice Ministry agency in charge of
registration, treated 40 leaders of Canada's largest hunting and shooting
clubs to a free weekend at an Ontario resort to try to persuade them to
take part in the licensing system. Mr. Breitkreuz said the club leaders
refused to help out the government as long as criminal penalties are
attached to noncompliance.
In the lobbying war, a famous American visitor, Charlton Heston,
president of National Rifle Association, outmaneuvered the government
last month. In a speech at the annual meeting of the British Columbia
Wildlife Federation, a hunting group, Mr. Heston said that Canadians'
surrender to gun controls started in 1934, when handgun registration
went into effect.
"First you gave in on handguns, then you compromised on long guns, then
came registration, next comes confiscation," he told a packed ballroom
decorated with deer, elk and sheep trophies. "Can this be the Canada of
old, carved out of the wilderness by independent men and women of
uncommon valor?"
As a warning to American gun owners, Mr. Heston said, his group has
started distributing a video about Canada's new gun laws. Mr. Heston's
foray into western Canada was roundly criticized by central Canadian
newspapers and by federal officials in Ottawa.
Seeking to regain the initiative, Justice Ministry officials stressed their
determination to meet the goal of universal gun owner registration by the
end of this year. Jean Valin, spokesman for the Firearms Center, said,
"We are planning to get all of them done."
"We look at this as an investment in public safety," he continued, crediting
the computerized firearms databank for crime fighting successes.
"Yesterday it was a smuggling ring, the day before a wife beater."
Whittling down the numbers, he predicted that about one quarter of
Canadian gun owners will sell or destroy their guns rather than take the
trouble of applying for a license. Of the remaining 2.2 million, about
250,000 gun owners have applied for licenses, and 263,000 more have
the older "acquisition certificates" that are now valid as licenses.
But, no matter how the numbers are shaved, if Canada is to register even
1.7 million gun owners by the end of this year, it will have to issue more
owner licenses each month than have been issued in all of the last 18
months.
The vast majority of Canadian gun owners seem to be ignoring the
appeals for registration made daily in government ads in western
newspapers: "Don't Delay! Apply Now!"
While a Gallup Poll taken last fall indicated that about three quarters of
Canadians supported the new gun control laws, support in the prairie
west dropped to about one half.
"I don't know anybody that is registering them," said Mr. Kupsch, the
gun range owner. "I just won't register until I have to."
May 8, 2000
EDMONTON JOURNAL
Across Canada's Mild West, Gun Rebels
Glower
Related Articles
Issue in Depth: Gun Control
Forum
Join a Discussion on Gun Control
By JAMES BROOKE
DMONTON, Alberta, May 3 -- With dolphins making arcs
through an artificial lagoon, submarines taking children on a "deep
sea adventure," and golfers driving balls on the roof, the West Edmonton
Mall proclaims itself the world's largest shopping mall.
Next month, shoppers bored with the casino, the six night clubs, the 40
restaurants, or the triple loop roller coaster will be able to try a new
diversion: blasting away at targets in the mall's new pistol range, the Wild
West Family Shooting Center.
"We believe it will be the first
range in a family shopping mall in
North America," Ken Kupsch, the
range owner, said as an employee
sorted empty brass cartridges at a
sales counter.
While Canada's central
government tries to carry out the
strictest gun control legislation
ever seen in North America,
western Canada is marching to a
more laissez-faire beat on
firearms.
Canada has had a handgun
registration program for decades,
and a system of registering purchases of other guns for several years. But
under the new national law, each of Canada's estimated three million
owners of long-barreled guns, including shotguns, is to apply for a license
to own a firearm with the federal government by the end of this year.
The owner will also be required to register the gun itself, by the end of
2002.
But, 18 months after the licensing system opened, licenses have been
issued to only 150,000 people, about 5 percent of the owners.
Starting next January, any Canadian found with a gun and without a
license would face penalties that go as high as 10 years in jail.
In a country built on respect for authority, the majority of gun owners
seem to be taking a very un-Canadian path: civil disobedience. One new
group, the Law-abiding Unregistered Firearms Association, already
boasts 15,000 members.
Hunting and shooting groups, many based in the West, are urging their
members to boycott the licensing program. They are waiting for a
decision by Canada's Supreme Court on a legal challenge filed by a
group of provinces led by Alberta.
There has also been speculation that many of the gun owners who have
applied for licenses may be trying to sabotage the computerized data
base. Last fall, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police complained that
there were errors in 90 percent of license applications and in 99 percent
of gun registration applications.
"People opposed to it may be trying to sabotage it," said Garry
Breitkreuz, a Saskatchewan member of Parliament from the Canadian
Alliance, a conservative, Western-based party.
With Alberta and other provinces refusing to have local law enforcement
officials register gun owners and their guns, the Federal government has
hired or reassigned almost 1,500 employees to carry out the program,
which has cost $230 million so far.
"Some say the government's financial commitment makes sense only if the
ultimate goal is the disarming of Canada," The Alberta Report, a
conservative publication edited here in the provincial capital, said
recently.
Two weeks ago, reflecting the government's growing desperation, the
Canadian Firearms Center, the Justice Ministry agency in charge of
registration, treated 40 leaders of Canada's largest hunting and shooting
clubs to a free weekend at an Ontario resort to try to persuade them to
take part in the licensing system. Mr. Breitkreuz said the club leaders
refused to help out the government as long as criminal penalties are
attached to noncompliance.
In the lobbying war, a famous American visitor, Charlton Heston,
president of National Rifle Association, outmaneuvered the government
last month. In a speech at the annual meeting of the British Columbia
Wildlife Federation, a hunting group, Mr. Heston said that Canadians'
surrender to gun controls started in 1934, when handgun registration
went into effect.
"First you gave in on handguns, then you compromised on long guns, then
came registration, next comes confiscation," he told a packed ballroom
decorated with deer, elk and sheep trophies. "Can this be the Canada of
old, carved out of the wilderness by independent men and women of
uncommon valor?"
As a warning to American gun owners, Mr. Heston said, his group has
started distributing a video about Canada's new gun laws. Mr. Heston's
foray into western Canada was roundly criticized by central Canadian
newspapers and by federal officials in Ottawa.
Seeking to regain the initiative, Justice Ministry officials stressed their
determination to meet the goal of universal gun owner registration by the
end of this year. Jean Valin, spokesman for the Firearms Center, said,
"We are planning to get all of them done."
"We look at this as an investment in public safety," he continued, crediting
the computerized firearms databank for crime fighting successes.
"Yesterday it was a smuggling ring, the day before a wife beater."
Whittling down the numbers, he predicted that about one quarter of
Canadian gun owners will sell or destroy their guns rather than take the
trouble of applying for a license. Of the remaining 2.2 million, about
250,000 gun owners have applied for licenses, and 263,000 more have
the older "acquisition certificates" that are now valid as licenses.
But, no matter how the numbers are shaved, if Canada is to register even
1.7 million gun owners by the end of this year, it will have to issue more
owner licenses each month than have been issued in all of the last 18
months.
The vast majority of Canadian gun owners seem to be ignoring the
appeals for registration made daily in government ads in western
newspapers: "Don't Delay! Apply Now!"
While a Gallup Poll taken last fall indicated that about three quarters of
Canadians supported the new gun control laws, support in the prairie
west dropped to about one half.
"I don't know anybody that is registering them," said Mr. Kupsch, the
gun range owner. "I just won't register until I have to."
