No Real Change in Gun Laws says NFA

By 250 News

The British Columbia President of the National Firearms Association and CNC instructor, Sheldon Clare, says he doesn’t see much in the new Conservative government’s moves in regard to the firearm registry. He says there will need to be dramatic action to make a difference in the way firearms owners are treated by the law. 

Clare says its more of the same:

"There isn’t anything new in this so-called amnesty.  There is no protection from prosecution; it merely allows people who haven’t complied (with non-restricted registration only) to get into the existing system.  This isn’t even a baby step, it merely states as policy what was actually going on for years.  A true amnesty would include people without licenses and those who haven’t registered any type of firearm, including restricted and prohibited.

Clare says folks who have remained suspicious about the process from the beginning have not had their concerns addressed in any way by this "new" policy. "I have been dealing with people who do not understand what the stated amnesty means, and many who do not now, and never have had, licenses who now think that they are okay to carry on as if they were back in the 1980’s.  The announcement as given and reported in the press has been very confusing to many folks." 

According to Clare, the difficulty is partially with the minority government situation that appears to prevent the necessary legislative changes from taking place.  The other parties have made it clear they will not  support any legislation designed to  scrap the gun registry.

Clare says  he can see a disturbing trend when he looks at the modern history of gun control in Canada from the time of Bill C51/1977 to today.
 
"Hostile Liberal governments enacting sweeping gun control laws. "Tory" governments being voted in to replace those laws, but large portions of the Liberal’s laws being kept on statute.
 
We saw it with Joe Clark’s government. They made minor changes to Trudeau’s law, but kept things like the short-barrelled rifle regulations, the ban on the transfer of Machine guns, and the F.A.C.
 
Then FN military rifle went restricted, and stayed restricted until finally going prohibited.
 
Under the Kim Campbell PC’s it got worse. Campbell’s PC government enacted more onerous regulatory regime for law-abiding firearms owners, users, and a wholesale restriction of classes of firearms that the Liberals later used in large part as a template for Bill C68."
 
Clare says when the  long gun registry is finally dead,  it must be considered a major change  in  firearms laws. "When it happens, the government will get full credit for keeping their promise. Apart from its cost and ineffectiveness, it will be important symbolism that this government sees no threat from law-abiding firearms owners and will not waste effort in unduly harassing them."
 
Thias may not be the end of it though,as Clare says  the devils are in the details "If this government does not take a close look at the accumulative firearms regulations resulting from years of anti gun regulatory and legislative initiative, we really will have won nothing. Any future Liberal government could pick up right where they left off.  The Conservatives are the most firearm friendly government that this country has had in decades.  I hope that they will live up to the expectations that they have created."

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