scooter
03-16-2009, 04:10 PM
The birth of the firearm legislation
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I received a number of phone calls and e-mails on the recent column on the firearms registry legislation, all on a positive note. One questioner asked how all this wasteful legislation, whose cost has accelerated from $2 million per year to $2 billion in tax dollars, ever got started.
For that, I had to dig deep into my file on this and found myself reading material from a Liberal MP who made the following statement back in 1971: "A store has set out guns in its windows as possible Christmas gifts. The easy availability of death-dealing weapons in Canada has become a scandal. It is a strange society where there is more control on the sale of liquor than there is over the sale of guns and ammunition."
The same Liberal MP proposed that all retail sales of firearms should be through government stores operated by a gun control agency. There should be an interval of two to three weeks between application to purchase and sale. Public notice should be given of such applicants, he said. Any citizen could file an objection. Applicants for gun permits would have to pass tests indicating they know how to handle the weapon and the laws governing their use.
Each permit-holder would have to file an annual report indicating the use and the condition of the weapon. No permit holder would be allowed to sell, trade or give away his weapon. Once it was no longer required, it would have to be turned in. Nobody but peace officers would be allowed to have or use a hand weapon, shortened rifles or machine guns.
The above was taken from the Jan. 3, 1972 as it was published in the Ottawa Citizen.
At the time the private member's bill was written, the Liberal MP was only a back bencher but the "Get firearms out of the hands of legal and responsible Canadians" struck a note with the Liberal top executive.
The back bencher, Warren Allmand, was promoted and became the Solicitor General,and the rest is but history.
The names of other Liberal historians attached to that bill are the late Ron Basford, Alan Rock, and former prime minsters Jean Chretien and Paul Martin.
Now we have Michael Ignatieff as leader, and one has to wonder if we will have more of the same.
I have a question to ask the above and those blind to the facts dealing with crime in Canada.
About 30 years ago, my brother's car was hit by a high-speed drunken driver's car.
The driver's car came right up over the hood and decapitated my brother. Was it the steel car that was responsible for the death of my brother or was it the human behind the wheel?
By the way, my brother's son was on that local police force.
It takes a human to pull the trigger, it takes a human to thrust a knife, it takes a terrorist to throw a bomb, it takes a human to strike a match that would burn down a building and on Sept. 11, 2001, it took a human to fly the airplanes into New York's twin towers.
People are responsible for killing people, not the instrument, and what part of that do some people not realize?
Take all the guns away from all law-abiding people and you will not resolve our crime problem. A politician or government who fears law-abiding citizens having legal firearms need to be feared themselves!
When Liberal MPs brought the firearms legislation into law, the estimate was $2 million taxpayers' dollars per year, but it has accelerated to $2 billion.
No other legislation has gotten so costly and out of control. No other legislation I know of has been directed to actually control law-abiding Canadian residents and does not affect the criminals.
When a legislated law defeats the initial purpose of the law, it then is a bad law. What part of that statement is not understood?
Even though a numbers of letter were sent to the present Liberal leader over a three-month period, no response was received.
Copies of such a letter were sent to our own Liberal MP asking for help to get a response from Ignatieff about his opinion on the legislation; still no response from Ignatieff.
It would seem that the attitude of the Chretien days that saw the costly legislation come into effect has continued to rub off on the present Liberal opposition, but, I hasten to hope, not on all Liberal members.
Although Saskatchewan Conservative MP Garry Breitkreuz's bill has been circulated across Canada and to our MP for more than a month, our own MP will not say if he will support the bill that could get rid of the wasteful registry as it's written.
Actually, our MP still claims he has not read the bill. Yet, he copied an e-mail letter addressed to Mr. Ignatieff to me that was from the coalition against firearms and supporting the continuous registry and even furthering the ban on what are now legal firearms. I have to wonder what that means about his decision. Abraham Lincoln said it all: "No guts, no glory!"
I am informed by our Liberal MP that people of the big cities want the legislation to remain as is.
Somehow, I must be adrift, because there are no big cities of one or two million in the Yukon, and the Yukon constituency is the people who elected our MP, not Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and such.
I suggest we should leave Toronto to Bob Rae and Ignatieff. Our MP represents the voices of the Yukon.
The old saying, elected by the people, for the people, and most important, responsible to the people of the Yukon.
Confused politics
Former Liberal leader Stephane Dion rose during Parliament's question period March 5 to ask Prime Minister Stephen Harper why the Canadian government had not interfered with the death sentence for Canadian Ronald Smith. He entered the United States in the 1980s and murdered, execution style, two Americans.
The former Liberal leader wants the U.S. to commute the first-degree murder sentence, then wants the convicted murderer to be returned to Canada.
This is the same Liberal leader who sent me a personal, signed letter stating his party would stick to its conviction on all people in Canada having to register all legal firearms.
To date, there is no record of a criminal registering his firearm he has just killed someone with.
Add to this, the question was presented in a number of letters starting three months ago asking Ignatieff if he still upheld the costly registry.
Even though it has been several weeks since Breitkreuz presented his private member's bill, our MP stated in a letter that he had not read it as of yet and could not give an opinion. Doesn't seem so hard to me - just represent the wishes of the constituents!
Animal rights group firebombs homes of researchers
According to FBI files, an animal rights group has breached the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act.
According to the FBI, the group broke into a home of a researcher from the University of California in Santa Cruz. Earlier, two homes of other university researchers were firebombed.
Four activists have been accused of harassing and intimidating researchers at the university as well as at their homes.
Earlier this year, the FBI swore out warrants of another animal rights group that was raiding mink ranches, releasing thousands of mink into the wild and burning down a $1-million mink ranch food manufacturer and warehouse.
I hasten to point out that although these groups are terrorists in the full name of it, all people speaking out for the humane treatment of domesticated animals are not to be bunched in with terrorists.
Organizations such as the Humane Society Yukon and especially the Mae Bachur Animal Shelter in Whitehorse are not part of these groups.
I would encourage all readers to please sit down and write out a cheque for whatever you can afford and send it today to the shelter. Visit the shelter and you will be convinced they need our help.
Tough financial times will be costly to wildlife
Washington state, like many other states and maybe provinces and territories, has hit hard times, and that has fallen on the shoulders of wildlife.
The state has cut 100 crucial jobs in its fish and wildlife department and may eliminate as many as 170 positions in the fish hatchery and those of enforcement officers, biologists, outdoor educators, and business and financial managers.
Their budget has been cut by $30 million over the next two years.
This in a state that has a heavy forest industry, commercial enterprises closing in on wildlife habitat, its share of poachers, and wildlife diseases, to mention just a few such problems facing wildlife of all kinds.
One has to wonder where the common sense ends and total ignorance begins. It did happen in Ontario, when the Liberal government cut wildlife project money, limited mileage in some cases, and took vehicles away from research people.
Fish and game conservation organizations kicked in thousands of dollars to see projects continued, and members of those organizations supplied the labour force.
Before that happens across Canada, thought might be given to looking at the budgets of elected representatives' travel all over the world that has not accomplished anything concrete, and cancelling limousines and other privileges.
Fishing in Nevada? Go ndow.org
The State of Nevada has the key to attracting fishermen to that state.
Recently, the state built a website that you can connect to by typing in ndow.org
You will see 79 of the most popular waters identified as fishable water maps identifying more than 650 most popular fishing streams, rivers and lakes thoughout Nevada.
What better, and inexpensive, way to promote Nevada? I have already passed it on to the Minister of Tourism as a possible way to promote the Yukon.
Nevada has gone one step further. The state is really promoting fishing, and asks its residents to buy fishing licences and go fishing.
Even Cabela's, the big store and catalogue house, has got into the show. If you buy $200 or more from Cabela's, you can get a $29 resident fishing licence free from that outlet, but only for the state of Nevada
* * *
A previous question: How many calories a day does a deer need to survive?
This is not a simple question, and something all wildlife managers have to consider to keep a herd healthy, and thus "only so many."
A deer needs a basic 1,140 calories per every 100 pounds ( 45.4kg) of body weight at a temperature of 32F (0' C) or higher.
It may surprise many, but a deer's metabolic rate actually drops rather than speeding up when the temperature goes below the freezing point.
Another point that may surprise most is that regardless of whether the deer has ample food, due to their lower metabolic rate, the deer will actually lose 12 to 15 per cent of their body weight when the cold weather sets in.
The fact is that deer do not take as much food in extreme cold. This is part of the management key in wildlife management that managers have to consider: "food plus shelter plus forest habitat for all four seasons."
Once again, it is a complex science that most would get lost in.
Yukon more complex than other parts of the country
Be thankful we have the best-qualified wildlife managers in the Yukon.
The weather plays a role anywhere in North America. Here in the Yukon, the weather plays a major role due to the way the temperature can drop to -40 or lower.
Generally, the drop is slow, and that is a plus for deer anywhere with a winter climate.
I have actually heard people use the excuse "if I was a deer," but the truth is, untrained humans can't think like a deer.
It's like standing in a wall of lures in Canadian Tire and thinking, "If I was a fish, I would go after that lure."
You may smell like a fish (I know a few who do) but you don't think like a fish.
The fact is the lures are there to catch you, and in most cases they do, and my three tackle boxes are a prime example.
The problem in our house is some of my best lures go missing, and Lisa's tackle box with a lock on it is getting heavier.
The inner workings of a deer differ greatly from those of humans, and many of their glands and such are very inactive in extreme cold months.
At the onset of winter, deer find themselves having to make a major adjustment, and feed heavily.
The deer can adjust to a gradual change in the weather, then will settle in and will eat very little, but flowing water is a must.
Should severe temperatures set in, all of a sudden, many deer will not be able to physiologically adjust. Many will die from shock, or, you might say, hypothermia.
The key is with the winter weather setting in gradually and allowing the deer to adjust slowly. Then the temperature can plunge, with little harm to the deer. Wildlife management gets even more complex. The management of habitat is key to wildlife management. For instance, plant protein value will actual drop from 25 to 45 per cent and consequently, the digestibility will also lesson.
Come spring, the deer will be able to digest up to 70 per cent of all fauna consumed. That will drop by 50 per cent as August and September come along, and then only 12 per cent come the winter months.
That all adds up to a lower protein value being utilized. Fortunately, deer have evolved over thousands of years, with the ability to know what browse has the highest food values.
Just because poplar trees (aspen) have a higher food value than cedar, does not mean it is the best food value for the deer.
The aspen takes more energy to turn the aspen into food value, while cedar consumed will change over with little energy use.
Deer will eat the cedar even if abundant popular is present.Years ago, when I noticed this, I did chew on some cedar and made tea of the leaf (needle).
I would advise everyone to not attempt to eat an aspen leaf, as this horrible taste will linger with you for days regardless how may tubes of toothpaste and mouthwash you use.
One thing I will suggest is that if you ever see a yellow birch (in the winter time only; not white birch), chew on the bark of the smallest twigs and you will get a wonderful winter green taste.
This week's question: When does a deer have a heavier (more hair) coat - winter or summer?
* * *
Something to ponder: how important does a person have to be before he or she is considered assassinated instead of just murdered?
* * *
Quote of the week: And now from that short, fat, bald, wonderful character from Arkansas, Don Hanney, that this week, I will dedicate to all the politician friends I have across the country (do I really have any?): "The impression you leave will last a lifetime!"
I'll say, amen to that, brother!
The Whitehorse writer is a member of the Outdoor Writers of Canada. Readers can suggest ideas to him by e-mailing him at:
murraywritesforu@northwestel.net
PUBLICATION: The Whitehorse Star
DATE: 2009.03.13
SECTION: Living
PAGE: 44
COLUMN: Voice of the outdoors
BYLINE: Martin, Murray J.
WORD COUNT: 1999
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I received a number of phone calls and e-mails on the recent column on the firearms registry legislation, all on a positive note. One questioner asked how all this wasteful legislation, whose cost has accelerated from $2 million per year to $2 billion in tax dollars, ever got started.
For that, I had to dig deep into my file on this and found myself reading material from a Liberal MP who made the following statement back in 1971: "A store has set out guns in its windows as possible Christmas gifts. The easy availability of death-dealing weapons in Canada has become a scandal. It is a strange society where there is more control on the sale of liquor than there is over the sale of guns and ammunition."
The same Liberal MP proposed that all retail sales of firearms should be through government stores operated by a gun control agency. There should be an interval of two to three weeks between application to purchase and sale. Public notice should be given of such applicants, he said. Any citizen could file an objection. Applicants for gun permits would have to pass tests indicating they know how to handle the weapon and the laws governing their use.
Each permit-holder would have to file an annual report indicating the use and the condition of the weapon. No permit holder would be allowed to sell, trade or give away his weapon. Once it was no longer required, it would have to be turned in. Nobody but peace officers would be allowed to have or use a hand weapon, shortened rifles or machine guns.
The above was taken from the Jan. 3, 1972 as it was published in the Ottawa Citizen.
At the time the private member's bill was written, the Liberal MP was only a back bencher but the "Get firearms out of the hands of legal and responsible Canadians" struck a note with the Liberal top executive.
The back bencher, Warren Allmand, was promoted and became the Solicitor General,and the rest is but history.
The names of other Liberal historians attached to that bill are the late Ron Basford, Alan Rock, and former prime minsters Jean Chretien and Paul Martin.
Now we have Michael Ignatieff as leader, and one has to wonder if we will have more of the same.
I have a question to ask the above and those blind to the facts dealing with crime in Canada.
About 30 years ago, my brother's car was hit by a high-speed drunken driver's car.
The driver's car came right up over the hood and decapitated my brother. Was it the steel car that was responsible for the death of my brother or was it the human behind the wheel?
By the way, my brother's son was on that local police force.
It takes a human to pull the trigger, it takes a human to thrust a knife, it takes a terrorist to throw a bomb, it takes a human to strike a match that would burn down a building and on Sept. 11, 2001, it took a human to fly the airplanes into New York's twin towers.
People are responsible for killing people, not the instrument, and what part of that do some people not realize?
Take all the guns away from all law-abiding people and you will not resolve our crime problem. A politician or government who fears law-abiding citizens having legal firearms need to be feared themselves!
When Liberal MPs brought the firearms legislation into law, the estimate was $2 million taxpayers' dollars per year, but it has accelerated to $2 billion.
No other legislation has gotten so costly and out of control. No other legislation I know of has been directed to actually control law-abiding Canadian residents and does not affect the criminals.
When a legislated law defeats the initial purpose of the law, it then is a bad law. What part of that statement is not understood?
Even though a numbers of letter were sent to the present Liberal leader over a three-month period, no response was received.
Copies of such a letter were sent to our own Liberal MP asking for help to get a response from Ignatieff about his opinion on the legislation; still no response from Ignatieff.
It would seem that the attitude of the Chretien days that saw the costly legislation come into effect has continued to rub off on the present Liberal opposition, but, I hasten to hope, not on all Liberal members.
Although Saskatchewan Conservative MP Garry Breitkreuz's bill has been circulated across Canada and to our MP for more than a month, our own MP will not say if he will support the bill that could get rid of the wasteful registry as it's written.
Actually, our MP still claims he has not read the bill. Yet, he copied an e-mail letter addressed to Mr. Ignatieff to me that was from the coalition against firearms and supporting the continuous registry and even furthering the ban on what are now legal firearms. I have to wonder what that means about his decision. Abraham Lincoln said it all: "No guts, no glory!"
I am informed by our Liberal MP that people of the big cities want the legislation to remain as is.
Somehow, I must be adrift, because there are no big cities of one or two million in the Yukon, and the Yukon constituency is the people who elected our MP, not Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and such.
I suggest we should leave Toronto to Bob Rae and Ignatieff. Our MP represents the voices of the Yukon.
The old saying, elected by the people, for the people, and most important, responsible to the people of the Yukon.
Confused politics
Former Liberal leader Stephane Dion rose during Parliament's question period March 5 to ask Prime Minister Stephen Harper why the Canadian government had not interfered with the death sentence for Canadian Ronald Smith. He entered the United States in the 1980s and murdered, execution style, two Americans.
The former Liberal leader wants the U.S. to commute the first-degree murder sentence, then wants the convicted murderer to be returned to Canada.
This is the same Liberal leader who sent me a personal, signed letter stating his party would stick to its conviction on all people in Canada having to register all legal firearms.
To date, there is no record of a criminal registering his firearm he has just killed someone with.
Add to this, the question was presented in a number of letters starting three months ago asking Ignatieff if he still upheld the costly registry.
Even though it has been several weeks since Breitkreuz presented his private member's bill, our MP stated in a letter that he had not read it as of yet and could not give an opinion. Doesn't seem so hard to me - just represent the wishes of the constituents!
Animal rights group firebombs homes of researchers
According to FBI files, an animal rights group has breached the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act.
According to the FBI, the group broke into a home of a researcher from the University of California in Santa Cruz. Earlier, two homes of other university researchers were firebombed.
Four activists have been accused of harassing and intimidating researchers at the university as well as at their homes.
Earlier this year, the FBI swore out warrants of another animal rights group that was raiding mink ranches, releasing thousands of mink into the wild and burning down a $1-million mink ranch food manufacturer and warehouse.
I hasten to point out that although these groups are terrorists in the full name of it, all people speaking out for the humane treatment of domesticated animals are not to be bunched in with terrorists.
Organizations such as the Humane Society Yukon and especially the Mae Bachur Animal Shelter in Whitehorse are not part of these groups.
I would encourage all readers to please sit down and write out a cheque for whatever you can afford and send it today to the shelter. Visit the shelter and you will be convinced they need our help.
Tough financial times will be costly to wildlife
Washington state, like many other states and maybe provinces and territories, has hit hard times, and that has fallen on the shoulders of wildlife.
The state has cut 100 crucial jobs in its fish and wildlife department and may eliminate as many as 170 positions in the fish hatchery and those of enforcement officers, biologists, outdoor educators, and business and financial managers.
Their budget has been cut by $30 million over the next two years.
This in a state that has a heavy forest industry, commercial enterprises closing in on wildlife habitat, its share of poachers, and wildlife diseases, to mention just a few such problems facing wildlife of all kinds.
One has to wonder where the common sense ends and total ignorance begins. It did happen in Ontario, when the Liberal government cut wildlife project money, limited mileage in some cases, and took vehicles away from research people.
Fish and game conservation organizations kicked in thousands of dollars to see projects continued, and members of those organizations supplied the labour force.
Before that happens across Canada, thought might be given to looking at the budgets of elected representatives' travel all over the world that has not accomplished anything concrete, and cancelling limousines and other privileges.
Fishing in Nevada? Go ndow.org
The State of Nevada has the key to attracting fishermen to that state.
Recently, the state built a website that you can connect to by typing in ndow.org
You will see 79 of the most popular waters identified as fishable water maps identifying more than 650 most popular fishing streams, rivers and lakes thoughout Nevada.
What better, and inexpensive, way to promote Nevada? I have already passed it on to the Minister of Tourism as a possible way to promote the Yukon.
Nevada has gone one step further. The state is really promoting fishing, and asks its residents to buy fishing licences and go fishing.
Even Cabela's, the big store and catalogue house, has got into the show. If you buy $200 or more from Cabela's, you can get a $29 resident fishing licence free from that outlet, but only for the state of Nevada
* * *
A previous question: How many calories a day does a deer need to survive?
This is not a simple question, and something all wildlife managers have to consider to keep a herd healthy, and thus "only so many."
A deer needs a basic 1,140 calories per every 100 pounds ( 45.4kg) of body weight at a temperature of 32F (0' C) or higher.
It may surprise many, but a deer's metabolic rate actually drops rather than speeding up when the temperature goes below the freezing point.
Another point that may surprise most is that regardless of whether the deer has ample food, due to their lower metabolic rate, the deer will actually lose 12 to 15 per cent of their body weight when the cold weather sets in.
The fact is that deer do not take as much food in extreme cold. This is part of the management key in wildlife management that managers have to consider: "food plus shelter plus forest habitat for all four seasons."
Once again, it is a complex science that most would get lost in.
Yukon more complex than other parts of the country
Be thankful we have the best-qualified wildlife managers in the Yukon.
The weather plays a role anywhere in North America. Here in the Yukon, the weather plays a major role due to the way the temperature can drop to -40 or lower.
Generally, the drop is slow, and that is a plus for deer anywhere with a winter climate.
I have actually heard people use the excuse "if I was a deer," but the truth is, untrained humans can't think like a deer.
It's like standing in a wall of lures in Canadian Tire and thinking, "If I was a fish, I would go after that lure."
You may smell like a fish (I know a few who do) but you don't think like a fish.
The fact is the lures are there to catch you, and in most cases they do, and my three tackle boxes are a prime example.
The problem in our house is some of my best lures go missing, and Lisa's tackle box with a lock on it is getting heavier.
The inner workings of a deer differ greatly from those of humans, and many of their glands and such are very inactive in extreme cold months.
At the onset of winter, deer find themselves having to make a major adjustment, and feed heavily.
The deer can adjust to a gradual change in the weather, then will settle in and will eat very little, but flowing water is a must.
Should severe temperatures set in, all of a sudden, many deer will not be able to physiologically adjust. Many will die from shock, or, you might say, hypothermia.
The key is with the winter weather setting in gradually and allowing the deer to adjust slowly. Then the temperature can plunge, with little harm to the deer. Wildlife management gets even more complex. The management of habitat is key to wildlife management. For instance, plant protein value will actual drop from 25 to 45 per cent and consequently, the digestibility will also lesson.
Come spring, the deer will be able to digest up to 70 per cent of all fauna consumed. That will drop by 50 per cent as August and September come along, and then only 12 per cent come the winter months.
That all adds up to a lower protein value being utilized. Fortunately, deer have evolved over thousands of years, with the ability to know what browse has the highest food values.
Just because poplar trees (aspen) have a higher food value than cedar, does not mean it is the best food value for the deer.
The aspen takes more energy to turn the aspen into food value, while cedar consumed will change over with little energy use.
Deer will eat the cedar even if abundant popular is present.Years ago, when I noticed this, I did chew on some cedar and made tea of the leaf (needle).
I would advise everyone to not attempt to eat an aspen leaf, as this horrible taste will linger with you for days regardless how may tubes of toothpaste and mouthwash you use.
One thing I will suggest is that if you ever see a yellow birch (in the winter time only; not white birch), chew on the bark of the smallest twigs and you will get a wonderful winter green taste.
This week's question: When does a deer have a heavier (more hair) coat - winter or summer?
* * *
Something to ponder: how important does a person have to be before he or she is considered assassinated instead of just murdered?
* * *
Quote of the week: And now from that short, fat, bald, wonderful character from Arkansas, Don Hanney, that this week, I will dedicate to all the politician friends I have across the country (do I really have any?): "The impression you leave will last a lifetime!"
I'll say, amen to that, brother!
The Whitehorse writer is a member of the Outdoor Writers of Canada. Readers can suggest ideas to him by e-mailing him at:
murraywritesforu@northwestel.net
PUBLICATION: The Whitehorse Star
DATE: 2009.03.13
SECTION: Living
PAGE: 44
COLUMN: Voice of the outdoors
BYLINE: Martin, Murray J.
WORD COUNT: 1999
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------