OneClearVoice!!! *UPDATE*

Campaign #5 - Abdication of Democracy

With C-71 the Liberal government will remove the ability for itself to overrule an RCMP classification. They insist all the RCMP need do is follow the Firearms Act and classification will work as it should. But history has shown us that time and again the RCMP make mistakes. We also know that the definitions for the prohibited class in the Firearms Act are particularly open to interpretation (Mossberg Blaze-47 for example). Let the government know that abdicating this slice of democracy is unacceptable and we will hold them accountable for the classifcation decisions of the RCMP regardless.

The long weekend is nearly upon us. Let's fill their un-staffed inboxes all weekend long until we clog them!
 
Mr. Maguire has gotten back to me as well

"Hi Ty,

Thank you for sharing your email to the Prime Minister. I completely agree with everything you said. I know Westman firearms owners will stand up against this legislation and be vocal in opposing it.

Make no mistake, the Liberals are once again playing politics by bringing in new legislation that will do nothing to keep guns out of criminal’s hands. All this legislation does is impact responsible firearms owners. Rest assured our Conservative team will never support legislation that targets law-abiding firearms owners and treats them like criminals.

Within this legislation, the Liberals are proposing a federal registrar to keep records on law-abiding firearms owners. Registrars keep registries. This is nothing more than a backdoor attempt to bring back the wasteful and ineffective long-gun registry.

This legislation does nothing to address violence in urban and rural communities, and introduces a wasteful and ineffective firearms registry. Unfortunately, this legislation has no new measures to combat gang violence and escalating crime rates in our rural communities

Liberals cannot be trusted when it comes to firearms legislation because they fail to tackle criminals who use guns to commit violent crime, while treating law-abiding firearms owners as criminals.

I will ensure that your voice is heard in Parliament and I will stand up for our law abiding firearms owners.

Best wishes,

Larry

PS: Please tell everyone you know to email the Prime Minister and CC my email. We need as many folks from Westman to write in and to tell the Liberals how offside this legislation is."
 
More B.S

"Martin.Shields@parl.gc.ca
Attachments10:28 AM (29 minutes ago)
to me
Dear Mr,

Thank you for your email on Bill C-71.

Please find attached a response from MP Martin Shields.

Please let me know if my office can be of further assistance.



Best,




Rachel Cook

Member`s Assistant

Office of Martin Shields, MP

Bow River

546 Confederation Building

Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6

O: 613-992-0761 | F: 613-992-0768

www.martinshieldsbowriver.c"
 
MP reply:

Dear

Thank you for your important email, I appreciate you sharing your concerns with me.

I believe that no law-abiding firearm owner should be criminalized because of bad legislation or poor administrative practices. That is why I supported my conservative colleague MP Bob Zimmer’s legislation, Bill C-346, An Act to amend the Firearms Act. This act would have amended the Firearms Act to eliminate the expiry of firearms licenses, with a mandatory provision that the licence holder update his or her relevant information every 10 years. Under this legislation firearm owners would not be treated like criminals if they were late in renewing their licenses. This is similar to how vehicle licenses are handled.

New legislation from the Liberal government will negatively impact law-abiding firearms owners, while doing little to deter violent gun crime. Bill C-71 proposes to create a new gun registry that will be maintained by gun stores for 20 years after each firearm purchase. The legislation also proposes supporting the Government of Quebec’s efforts to revive the wasteful billion dollar boondoggle. Furthermore restrictions on ATT’s and forcing gun stores to apply for a reference number from a government registrar will significantly hurt businesses.

While the Prime Minister continues to spout falsehoods about firearms sales not being tracked or requiring a license, Conservatives will stand up for the truth. Those law-abiding firearms owners are not the problem, violent gangs and criminals are the problem. This legislation does little to prevent violent criminals from continuing to access restricted and prohibited firearms.

As such, I will oppose Bill C-71 because it targets law abiding firearms owners and does little to nothing to deal with the problem of gangs and gun violence in Canada.

Yours Truly,


MP Dane Lloyd
Sturgeon River - Parkland
 
I sent the following email to my liberal MP in Moncton:

Dear Ms. Petitpas Taylor,


I am deeply concerned by the newly proposed bill C-71.


During the recent "Guns and Gangs" summit, both the RCMP and Minister Goodale failed to provide any concrete evidence that any amount of gun control in Canada is working. Data strongly suggests that legally owned firearms are rarely involved in crimes.

Our Liberal federal government had assured Canadians that the intention was not to target law-abiding gun owners, but rather those who would use firearms to induce violence and commit crimes. Bill C-71 is entirely contrary to this statement.

Gang violence and the smuggling of firearms into Canada for their use is unarguably the real public safety issue in Canada. Statistics show that the large majority of violent gun crimes/fatalities are gang related. However bill C-71 does not attempt to address in any way illegally trafficked firearms and their use on the street, and instead targets once again law-abiding gun owners.

The prohibition of the CZ 858 and Swiss Arms semi-automatic rifles is vindictive, unfair, and makes no practical sense. These specific firearms have been owned by over 10000 canadians for years and there is no data to suggest any misuse or risk to public safety.

Bill C-71's wording also suggests further unwarranted firearm bans and prohibitions. Moving the Canadian firearm classification to the RCMP instead of elected government is a recipe for abuse, as RCMP management has already demonstrated against Canadian citizen firearm ownership either by action or creative re-interpretation of firearms law. To allow firearm reclassification by the RCMP without repercussions or recourse by legal gun owners is one of my biggest concerns of bill C-71, as it allows the RCMP the ability to reclassify any number of firearms at any point and deprive Canadian citizens from legally purchased firearms obtained with our hard earned money.

Bill C-71 makes the sale or transfer of non-restricted firearms contingent on obtaining a reference number from the CFO. This will complicate the process inordinately. In addition, this is essentially a back door registry over time, which legal gun owners consider a breach of our Liberal federal government's promise not to start another gun registry. The last registry was hugely cost prohibitive and no data demonstrates there was any benefit.

Canadian firearms law is complex enough and does not need to be further convoluted by bill C-71. Canadians would be better served by stronger efforts to get illegally owned firearms off the streets, out of the hands of criminals, which was the original promise by the Liberal government. Legal gun owners rightfully feel aggrieved by what appears to be another backdoor attempt to limit our ability to participate in our chosen passion and sport.

Ultimately, what Minister Goodale seems to be missing or ignoring is the proven fact that criminals ignore laws. C-71 will only serve to further burden legal gun owners, with no effect on public safety.

Ms. Petitpas Taylor, I ask for your views on bill C-71 and your help to defend the rights of legal gun owners.


Sincerely,
 
compass said:
I sent the following email to my liberal MP in Moncton:

Dear Ms. Petitpas Taylor,


I am deeply concerned by the newly proposed bill C-71.


During the recent "Guns and Gangs" summit, both the RCMP and Minister Goodale failed to provide any concrete evidence that any amount of gun control in Canada is working. Data strongly suggests that legally owned firearms are rarely involved in crimes.

Our Liberal federal government had assured Canadians that the intention was not to target law-abiding gun owners, but rather those who would use firearms to induce violence and commit crimes. Bill C-71 is entirely contrary to this statement.

Gang violence and the smuggling of firearms into Canada for their use is unarguably the real public safety issue in Canada. Statistics show that the large majority of violent gun crimes/fatalities are gang related. However bill C-71 does not attempt to address in any way illegally trafficked firearms and their use on the street, and instead targets once again law-abiding gun owners.

The prohibition of the CZ 858 and Swiss Arms semi-automatic rifles is vindictive, unfair, and makes no practical sense. These specific firearms have been owned by over 10000 canadians for years and there is no data to suggest any misuse or risk to public safety.

Bill C-71's wording also suggests further unwarranted firearm bans and prohibitions. Moving the Canadian firearm classification to the RCMP instead of elected government is a recipe for abuse, as RCMP management has already demonstrated against Canadian citizen firearm ownership either by action or creative re-interpretation of firearms law. To allow firearm reclassification by the RCMP without repercussions or recourse by legal gun owners is one of my biggest concerns of bill C-71, as it allows the RCMP the ability to reclassify any number of firearms at any point and deprive Canadian citizens from legally purchased firearms obtained with our hard earned money.

Bill C-71 makes the sale or transfer of non-restricted firearms contingent on obtaining a reference number from the CFO. This will complicate the process inordinately. In addition, this is essentially a back door registry over time, which legal gun owners consider a breach of our Liberal federal government's promise not to start another gun registry. The last registry was hugely cost prohibitive and no data demonstrates there was any benefit.

Canadian firearms law is complex enough and does not need to be further convoluted by bill C-71. Canadians would be better served by stronger efforts to get illegally owned firearms off the streets, out of the hands of criminals, which was the original promise by the Liberal government. Legal gun owners rightfully feel aggrieved by what appears to be another backdoor attempt to limit our ability to participate in our chosen passion and sport.

Ultimately, what Minister Goodale seems to be missing or ignoring is the proven fact that criminals ignore laws. C-71 will only serve to further burden legal gun owners, with no effect on public safety.

Ms. Petitpas Taylor, I ask for your views on bill C-71 and your help to defend the rights of legal gun owners.


Sincerely,
Click to expand...


This is her response:

Dear ###x,

Following up on your inquiry of last week, on Tuesday, March 20, the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, the Honourable Ralph Goodale, introduced a new bill aimed at curbing a steady increase in gun violence that has been observed in this country over the past five years.



In 2016 there were 223 firearm-related homicides in Canada, 44 more than the year before. That represents a 23% increase, and the highest rate since 2005. In 2016, shootings were the most common method of committing murder in this country, exceeding stabbings for the first time since 2012 (38 per cent versus 30 per cent). The pattern is clear, and worrying. Illegal handguns and assault weapons are a threat to public safety and we need to get them off our streets.


And so, following on our commitment from the 2015 election campaign, these proposed measures are simply the next step that our government is taking to strengthen our existing gun laws in a common-sense, focused and effective way in order to keep our communities safe. Effectively, we’re finding ways to prioritize public safety and effective police work while also respecting law-abiding firearms owners.


To be clear, we are not bringing back, nor will we ever bring back, the federal long-gun registry.

Our proposed measures are merely focused on the safer transport of handguns, and on keeping military-style assault weapons off our streets.



The new legislation proposes to:
Enhance background checks on those seeking to acquire firearms – looking at the full life history of a person, including any history of mental illness associated with violence, not just over the last five years.
Require that whenever a non-restricted firearm is transferred, the buyer must actually produce his/her licence, and the vendor must verify that it is valid.
Ensure the impartial, professional, accurate and consistent classification of firearms by restoring a system in which Parliament defines the classes and then experts in the RCMP make the technical determination about the class into which a particular firearm falls into, without political influence.
Except between a residence and an approved shooting range, require specific transportation authorizations to be obtained whenever restricted and prohibited guns (mostly handguns and assault weapons) are moved through the community.
5. Standardize record-keeping of sales by firearms retailers, already a common “best-practice” in the industry. This information would be accessible to police officers (not governments) on reasonable grounds and with judicial authorization.
This legislation will complement prior steps to create a more balanced and representative Canadian Firearms Advisory Committee; to strengthen infrastructure and technology at the border to better interdict gun smuggling, to withdraw from manufacturers/importers the authority to determine in certain circumstances their own firearms classification, and support provinces, territories, municipalities, communities and law enforcement in local initiatives to combat illegal gangs and gun crime.

I hope that this helps to answer some of your questions and concerns, however should you have any other questions, please feel free to reach out at any time.

Warm regards,

Ginette





The Honourable/l’honorable

Ginette Petitpas Taylor, P.C./c.p.

Member of Parliament/députée

Moncton-Riverview-Dieppe

Constituency Office/Bureau de circonscription

272 rue St. George St., Suite 110

Moncton, NB E1C 1W6

Tel/Tél: (506) 851-3310 Fax/Téléc.: (506) 851-3273







PENSEZ AVANT D'IMPRIMER P THINK BEFORE PRINTING
 
compass said:
This is her response:

Dear ###x,

Following up on your inquiry of last week, on Tuesday, March 20, the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, the Honourable Ralph Goodale, introduced a new bill aimed at curbing a steady increase in gun violence that has been observed in this country over the past five years.



In 2016 there were 223 firearm-related homicides in Canada, 44 more than the year before. That represents a 23% increase, and the highest rate since 2005. In 2016, shootings were the most common method of committing murder in this country, exceeding stabbings for the first time since 2012 (38 per cent versus 30 per cent). The pattern is clear, and worrying. Illegal handguns and assault weapons are a threat to public safety and we need to get them off our streets.


And so, following on our commitment from the 2015 election campaign, these proposed measures are simply the next step that our government is taking to strengthen our existing gun laws in a common-sense, focused and effective way in order to keep our communities safe. Effectively, we’re finding ways to prioritize public safety and effective police work while also respecting law-abiding firearms owners.


To be clear, we are not bringing back, nor will we ever bring back, the federal long-gun registry.

Our proposed measures are merely focused on the safer transport of handguns, and on keeping military-style assault weapons off our streets.



The new legislation proposes to:
Enhance background checks on those seeking to acquire firearms – looking at the full life history of a person, including any history of mental illness associated with violence, not just over the last five years.
Require that whenever a non-restricted firearm is transferred, the buyer must actually produce his/her licence, and the vendor must verify that it is valid.
Ensure the impartial, professional, accurate and consistent classification of firearms by restoring a system in which Parliament defines the classes and then experts in the RCMP make the technical determination about the class into which a particular firearm falls into, without political influence.
Except between a residence and an approved shooting range, require specific transportation authorizations to be obtained whenever restricted and prohibited guns (mostly handguns and assault weapons) are moved through the community.
5. Standardize record-keeping of sales by firearms retailers, already a common “best-practice” in the industry. This information would be accessible to police officers (not governments) on reasonable grounds and with judicial authorization.
This legislation will complement prior steps to create a more balanced and representative Canadian Firearms Advisory Committee; to strengthen infrastructure and technology at the border to better interdict gun smuggling, to withdraw from manufacturers/importers the authority to determine in certain circumstances their own firearms classification, and support provinces, territories, municipalities, communities and law enforcement in local initiatives to combat illegal gangs and gun crime.

I hope that this helps to answer some of your questions and concerns, however should you have any other questions, please feel free to reach out at any time.

Warm regards,

Ginette





The Honourable/l’honorable

Ginette Petitpas Taylor, P.C./c.p.

Member of Parliament/députée

Moncton-Riverview-Dieppe

Constituency Office/Bureau de circonscription

272 rue St. George St., Suite 110

Moncton, NB E1C 1W6

Tel/Tél: (506) 851-3310 Fax/Téléc.: (506) 851-3273







PENSEZ AVANT D'IMPRIMER P THINK BEFORE PRINTING
Click to expand...



Aaaand, I responded last night:

Dear Ginette,

Thank you for taking the time to respond to my inquiry.

I can't say that your response helped alleviate any of my concerns regarding bill C-71. You state that this new bill is aimed at curbing an increase in gun violence in Canada, that there was a 23% increase of firearm-related homicides in 2016, and that shootings became the most common method to commit murder. I agree with you that this pattern is worrying. I am not disputing that.

I was pleased to see our federal government funding initiatives at our borders to help curb gun smuggling. I was also pleased to see significant funding in law enforcement for local initiatives to curb gang activity and gun crime. That is a step in the right direction. I believe that more of the same funding and initiatives are necessary to reduce the influx of illegal firearms smuggled into our country and to reduce gang and gun criminal activity.

What I am disputing is what bill C-71 attempts to do to rectify illegal firearm violence. I have already pointed out that Minister Goodale failed to provide any concrete evidence that any amount of gun control in Canada is working, and that legally owned firearms are rarely involved in crimes.

I agree that illegal guns are a threat to public safety. Please note that legal handguns are already tightly controlled. For clarification regarding assault rifles, the definition of an assault rifle is having the capability of fully automatic firing, that when you depress the trigger, bullets will continue to fire as long as you hold back the trigger. Assault rifles are already prohibited and illegal in Canada. **No legal gun owner owns an assault rifle in Canada.**

Semi-automatic rifles, which fire once for every trigger pull, are legally available to Canadians either with the non-restricted or restricted classification. Some semi-automatic rifles may look like military-style assault rifles, but do not have those capabilities. You can't put a BMW body on a Ford Focus and call it a BMW.

Your response did not address my concern of handing over the firearm classification responsibility to the RCMP. I have a lot of respect for the officers who are on the streets, however RCMP management have demonstrated an aversion to canadian citizens owning firearms. They have demonstrated that they are not impartial on this subject, and have made some creative interpretations of the law to suit their purposes. To hand over firearm classification powers entirely to the RCMP is an open invitation for punitive measures against legal gun-owners through unwarranted firearms restricted re-classification and prohibitions, with no actual gains to public safety.

Legal gun owners fully support our federal government taking action to reduce firearm-related violence. The point I am making with this correspondence is that the focus of bill C-71 is entirely in the wrong direction. Initiatives against curbing drugs and gangs are where you will help public safety, not adding administrative burdens on legal gun-owners that already follow the law.

Statistics show that the overwhelming majority of firearms-related violence is either related to gangs or drugs, both of which are illegal activities often related to each other. Furthermore, as I stated, criminals do not follow canadian firearm laws, so bill C-71 does nothing to address the stated purpose of this bill, which is curbing gun violence in Canada.

Ginette, with all due respect, it is obvious that you had this response prepared in advance. If you take a moment to reflect on the points I have made above, I am interested in what you really think about this new gun legislation considering that criminals do not follow gun laws, and the futility of piling on new legislation to stop criminals who ignore it.

Please feel free to address me as ###xx in your response.

Thank you for your time.

######
 
Just sent out #5 and forwarded it to friends who will do the same. A police state is a subject about which I'm particularly passionate. I can definitely foresee spending some time over this weekend drafting a particularly vitriolic tirade directed particularly to the principle players in this game of deceit and manipulation. I have nothing but disgust and contempt for this current collection of idiots.
 
Response from my MP received today:

Dear Collin,

Thank you for your email regarding Bill C-71, An Act to amend certain Acts and Regulations in relation to firearms.

A number of years ago when bureaucrats, without the knowledge or approval of the Minister of Public Safety, reclassified the Swiss Arms and CZ 858 rifles our previous Conservative govemment took action. We introduced and passed the Common Sense Firearms Licensing Act.

Among the changes the Act brought about was it gave elected politicians the final say on classification decisions protecting all law-abiding firearms owners from retroactive and unpredictable decisions. I was proud to stand up for firearms owners and support these changes as I was to vote to end the wasteful and ineffective gun registry.

Bill C-71 would appear to be the Liberal govemment's attempt to repeal the common sense changes our previous Conservative govemment brought about. I share your concerns that the record keeping provisions of this bill are nothing more than a back door attempt to bring back the wasteful and ineffective long-gun registry. Conservatives will adamantly oppose any attempt by the Liberals to create a new long-gun registry.

I believe in sensible firearms policies that respect law-abiding farmers, hunters, and sport shooters while helping keep our communities safe. When it comes to firearms legislation Liberals can't be trusted because they ignore the problem of criminal behavior and treat lawabiding firearms owners as criminals.

Once again, thank you for sharing your concems on this matter. If you have any questions or further comments, please feel free to contact me.

Mark Strahl, MP
Chilliwack-Hope
 
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