Personal View of the Gun Registry

Being the child of 2^nd generation of Sami (“marken”) immigrants , crossed with generations of Metis (French) on the western prairies, I have many good memories, which have a direct connection with “Explosive Actuated Tool’s”: as I was taught that a fire arm is a tool, not a toy: and have witnessed when accidents happen, luckily no harm to others, just objects. Most times by caused by neglect, amateurs & professionals alike, their accidents are the excuses, though it all comes down to one thing, due to NOT KNOWING your TOOL.

Since I could walk, my Metis Grandfather & I, would go out culling gophers, coyotes, deer & fish, either in his truck or on a horse drawn wagon, which is where I learned about a very useful tool, a tool for food, predator control & “Plinking”. He taught care and control of fire arms, along with his knowledge of animals, plants, religion and people.

He had been a coal miner when his first child was born, by the time I came along, he had 8 more children and managing a Co-operative Ranch, he setup and managed 3 ranches for a Government /Indigenous Agricultural program, from which he retired.

Only to keep living with the same practices and beliefs until he passed:

His practices and beliefs were about “living with the land and it will supply you with more then you need,

You work against the land,you will starve”, which is why he had plenty to share.

My Sami Grandfather passed 8 years before I came along, but though his close friends I got to know him, there it wasn’t so much of living with the land; it was living off the land. All were experienced miners, builders, blacksmiths who learned to become Farmers, including my Grandfather; after their arrival to Canada.

The similarities of the two cultures, as I found out later in life, pertaining to religion, health and way of life are similar comparison of Pyramids of the east to Pyramids of the west.

My Father ,having been raised on one section of land and the gift of music, he went on to be a grain buyer in the elevators that used to dot our landscape, to being honored in a Provincial parade for his musical talents. Those same small communities that had helped him gain so much, began closing down, he then went into the Hotel/Restaurant Industry, from there to a successful career in the Industry of  Broadcasting .

It was when he became the proprietor of the Hotel, is where I learned more about “Explosive Actuated Tools*”.

We lived in separate quarters inside the 9 room hotel; it was a hunting hot spot for Water fowl, upland birds and larger game, rooms were booked five years ahead of time, from across Canada, United States and a few from Europe.

The only hotel for 11 miles to the south, 15 miles to the east, 30 miles to the north & 60 miles to the west, it was a busy place.

I had heard many stories about the community and E.A.T’s , many of those who I knew were veterans of 1^st, 2^nd , Korea, Vietnam & other Peace Keepers, of whom all I had hunted & fished with and privileged to sit in on their stories.

The Hotel was built about 1890, with many stories, such as a man riding his horse into the Hotel with a rifle in his hands, shooting the lights off the ceiling ( 1950’s), building a bon fire inside the Bar when the temperature dropped no power or water: more importantly was to keep the beer from freezing (1960’s) or having the whole town inside the hotel, bachelors, widows, children,whole families, all there for survival, when a blizzard hit and locked in the town for 7 days: that’s when snowmobiles were able to travel 11 miles to get propane, took another 3 days for roads to get cleared (1970’s), Bar room brawl of 1 against 5, home town boy won (1980’s).

At the age of seven, business was put upon me, working with my family in the business of rooms, food and bar,until hunting/ harvest season came around and that is when the business flourished and went a little to the wild side.

Along with daily chores, when the hunters came I took care of cleaning and eviscerating the hunter’s game, an average day would bring in 250 ducks/Geese and upland, $0.25 per duck, $0.50 per goose, prices went up the following year.

At that time I was the age of eight and became involved in wildlife conservation, at eleven I was Guiding hunters for Game Birds, Big Game, Varmints and Fishing, hunters from across North America: I did this by getting the land owners permission, cooking breakfasts, taking them to location , my mother and sister would be looking after their laundry and food, my father would be tending the bar, most times 11:00am till 1:00am, while still juggling other obligations to our community and I would be cleaning their day's game, along with their fire arm's, repairing when I could or send them to a gun smith/home with it if I couldn't.

Three times a week or more, there would be “near misses”, like laying down in a goose pit and your client “Wants” you beside them due to your age, and pulls both barrels on a 10 gauge shotgun, 6 inches from your face; the poetic justice here is that it was his first and last hunt for the next 2 weeks, he dislocated his shooting shoulder, his buddies went on to have their best game bird hunt in years.

Two customers, showed up one year and had more ammunition / guns then what we had for game, they had full automatics and their truck was weighted down with ammunition, I didn’t want to see what all else they had, last I heard, they were caught with over limits and and possession of an endangered species.

Many hunter’s I took out, did not know the difference between species of game, of either birds or deer, let alone eagles, swans, goats, cattle and horses ( Canadians and non-Canadians).  Being harassed about my Mother hunting with me at an evening river shoot,(she was delivering cooked food) yet she out shot that Skeet Shooting Champion on a pie plate I tossed up, my Grand father had many students.

I would go alone behind the grain elevators, in town, to shoot rodents ,both those who ran and that flew.
My first Fire Arms Safety when I was nine with our conservation club, repeated it again for a hunter safety course at our school when I was twelve. A couple of years later, I was exposed to RCMP firearms training/competition shooting while in cadets, where I took an interest in biathlon. During my life from first steps to adulthood, I was surrounded by E.A.T’s, basically always within my reach.

I went on to enroll into being a Gun Smith and after the first few sessions of the course, the  Long Gun Registry was brought into law.

At that point we were informed of the extra training we will need to comply with the registry and its complications, when to me the only thing that was needed instead was to register the user, not the tool.

If you were to go to a point in time and stop the invention of Fire Arms, you would have to go back to the time of Marco Polo, when he took the knowledge of gun powder and rockets from China to Europe, it was Europeans that put it into tubes too use as a projectile for warfare, first was “Thundersticks” used to scare enemies, then came the cannon and hand cannon, which both have evolved into the Explosive Actuated Tool’s we have today.

Today is a different world, then what it was then most of us when we grew up on the Prairies of Western Canada or across Canada for that matter, attitudes have changed, people have become disassociated with the effects of violence, it is a common thing now for violence to erupt, knives, guns etc; but then look at our television, movies, toys and games, all promoting violent acts with a weapon.

In my opinion those who wish to have an E.A.T, should be able to prove the need for one, register both the firearm and the owner, make sure they have every bit of training to the firearm for the purpose they need, similar to the classes of drivers licenses, the higher the class of training the different levels of caliber, breech function, type and magazine size.

·        Rural/Hunter: keep the registrant to the necessary caliber needed for the game that they wish to hunt, there is no need for any more then a three shot clip unless it is a plinking rifle eg .22 cal

·        Range shooters: they can have their E.A.T’s unregistered and at home, ammunition can only be purchased at the Gun Club that person is registered too and leave any extra ammunition behind: none to be made available in the same residence as the E.A.T, unless they can prove they are hunters in which case, the sales of ammunition are only during hunting season with a max quota for possession, all present storage laws apply.

Personally I believe that only three types of E.A.T’s are necessary , big game, birds and rodents,  a rifle, shotgun and a small caliber varmint rifle, personally I never had the need for any more then a single shot fire arm , unless its for rodents.

Although it only takes one piece of expelled ammunition to cause death, the lesser amount available to use will make the difference between a massacre and an incident.

I have heard many arguments from those who, never held a rifle, let alone own one, that want this registry to be abolished, main argument I heard was” I want protection for my person /family”: trust me, if your faced at the spur of the moment, a rifle or shot gun will not protect you : if you do have enough time to grab your rifle/shotgun chances are your intruder is either unarmed, a barrier/long distance between you.

 Best to know who has Explosion Actuated Tool’s then not to know, especially the knowledge/ mentality of the person who has their finger on the trigger.