A point to remember, guys: history IS important.
Remember back when the FAC first came out? Likely most of you don't. I do: I was running a newspaper at that time. Originally, it was supposed to cost you 10 bucks and it was touted as good for life. Then the thing came out.... at 10 bucks, but with a time limit. And then the "costs" of the thing were going to be "rated" depending upon what you owned or wanted to own. For a while, it was going to be 50 bucks for Restricted (handguns and restricted rifles, which, at that time, was the FAL and the M-1 Carbine) and it was going to be 100 for FA. Ther was talk of adding up all the "costs" and talk of repeating them annually. I worked it out that it would have cost me better than $300 a year for my FAC..... and money was worth 5 times as much then. Converted Autos were not even mentioned, as they now were classed as semi-autos or as straight-pulls or as single-shots, whichever the "de-automaticking process" had rendered the poor things; I originally took care of that part with the Attorney-General of Newfoundland but Trudeau and his lackeys "tightened it up" for us.
Let's face it: we were going to be made into yet another tax base for the clowns in Ottawa to waste and plunder...... or is that plunder and waste..... sometimes I'm not sure. Anyway, an escalating scale WAS in the plans but even the Liberals could see that that just would make them FAR too many enemies. Too bad they realised that so late.
Now as to "qualifications" for getting the FAC. Originally, the "test" had not yet been invented. When it came along, I had to take it. Now, I ALREADY had firearms safety in Scouts, in Cadets, in the Militia AND I held the Shooter's Federation of Canada Firearms Safety Instructor's qualification with a mark of 100+ out of 100 points. As well, I had taken the Newfoundland Government's test. So I was qualified by one system or another with everything from a Cooey Canuck up to and including a .30 Browning, an FAL, Lee-Enfield Number 4 and 7 and, just for good measure, the 76.2mm Master Weapon on a Firefly, which happens to put out 1.98 MILLION ft/lbs ME per shot. I was qualified to hunt, gun on a tank, be a range officer for the Army or coach a team for the Olympics. But I had no pretty pieces of FEDERAL GOVERNMENT APPROVED paper, so I had to take the dreaded test.
I VERY nearly failed that one because I ASSUMED that loading a dummy round (with a bloody great hole drilled through it and no primer) into a rifle with the boltface welded solid, the firing-pin snapped off and a half-inch hole through the receiver ring and the chamber likely should not require first removing the bolt and gazing through the barrel to check for bore obstructions...... which was supposed to be done EVERY time the rifle was loaded. Hey, just TRY shooting a target string.... or a deer..... if you have to remove the bolt between shots!
What I discovered in that "test" had very little to do with safe firearms handling... and a HUGE amount to do with political correctness and sheer INDOCTRINATION, all the while instilling an atmosphere of FEAR and UNCERTAINTY. But that's how the Government of that time wanted us: brainwashed, afraid and unsure which side was even "up".... today. Tomorrow it might change.
You don't have to memorise and quote to the world the 4 Fs or the 5 Ws or the 37 Safe Rules of Handling in order to point a PROVEN EMPTY firearm at a light fixture, EVEN with (shock! shock! terror!) your finger on the trigger.
How ELSE do you learn the actual handling of a firearm...... as opposed to the put-it-in-a-glass-case-and-admire-the-thing-timidly-from-a-distance school of Government-approved practice?????????
The Government course is not the ONLY recipe for safe handling; it is simply the only one which the Government made up in order to raise the cost of firearms ownership. That course was designed by police and politicians and (mostly) by bureaucrats, with help from prominent Antis. Shooters' groups, including the SFC (which is the government-appointed governing body of the shooting sports in Canada and a part of the International Shooting Union), tried to help to design the Government course and were quietly but publicly told to butt out: their assistance was not required and would not be tolerated.
So what some of you guys are quoting is the straight Liberal-approved Party Line..... and you don't even know what has been done to you.... but from the heights of your own "expertise" you are going to criticise everybody else, anyway.
Let's get real, guys.
I will admit here and now that on several occasions during the last 55 years (verily, I weep at this iniquity!) I HAVE actually touched the trigger on a firearm. That this can be relatively safe might be indicated by the fact that my total slaughter toll in this period amounts to a single (wounded) fox and a dozen (cannibalising) gophers. I have also fired thousands of rounds at paper, clay, steel and other targets.... and each time, I have actually touched the trigger.
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