|
GUN LAW
Feb 16, 2005 1:28:08 GMT -5
Post by MALCOLM XERXES™ on Feb 16, 2005 1:28:08 GMT -5
This article demonstrates how wrong about firearms ownership people can be.
MX
PUBLICATION: The Daily News (Halifax) DATE: 2005.02.13 SECTION: Your Cover Story PAGE: YOU4 BYLINE: Furlong, Melanie ILLUSTRATION: IN THE CROSSHAIRS: Roslyn d**e takes aim with her Ruger rifle.
Girls with guns
My .22-calibre Ruger rifle is smoking. I've just peppered a human-shaped paper target with all 10 bullets of the rifle's magazine. I put two in the head and all the rest in the chest area. Frankly, I'm a little surprised because it's the first time I've ever shot a rifle, and I'm not too bad.
I've also discovered that like many right-handed women, I shoot left. I learned all this while attending a shooting competition held at the Musquodoboit Valley Rifle and Revolver Club.
Lavina Eliot, a qualified range officer who is part of a committee that runs the club, took me aside to teach me how to shoot both the Ruger and a .22-calibre Smith & Wesson pistol. "Many women are natural shots," says Eliot, a soft-spoken Englishwoman. "It's really a sport where women can excel over men."
Angela Oickle was disappointed she didn't hit any of her clays in skeet shooting this day, but her eight-year-old daughter, Krista, reminds her, "You beat Daddy last time!"
Krista is one of several children taking part in a shooting competition as well. Oickle says she comes to the club with her father almost every weekend and is getting to be quite a good shot. "It's just a sport for us," says Oickle. "I would never consider hunting and I discourage my husband from hunting."
Waverley's Kim Baxter has been shooting for years and is also competing with her 18-year-old daughter, Jamie. "I think shooting is an awesome family activity," she says. "My daughter is a phenomenal shot, too."
When Baxter hears I am going to shoot for the very first time she assures me I'll love it. "You don't have to compete against others, just yourself. If I can do better than the last time, I'm happy."
Lori Morton is also a shooting enthusiast, but slightly more competitive. She has been shooting since she was 11 in Newfoundland and has been a member of the Musquodoboit Valley club for the last four years.
Her husband is also a member. Morton says they unknowingly bought each other .22 rifles as gifts last Christmas. "We like to come out for the day and practise our target shooting. All that matters is that I beat him," she says with a laugh.
As Eliot leads me into the pistol range, I feel hopeful I can hit the target. Eliot first toys with the combination trigger lock on the gun, something every handgun in Canada should have.
Accident-free
Then she teaches me how to safely handle the pistol, load the magazine with bullets, insert the casing and hold the gun properly.
The safety rules are posted in every part of the club and the Eliot is happy to report that in the entire 17 years of the club's existence, there has never been an accident.
When the .22 Smith & Wesson is ready to fire, I try to look through the foresight and rearsight and take aim.
This gun is very light and semi-automatic, which means you just pull the trigger.
I shot two rounds at four targets and then we walked out to see them.
Well, I didn't hit any bull's eyes, but I did hit at least two of the targets a few times. Later, we try the .22 Ruger rifle.
This gun is much heavier and more difficult to handle.
It is also semi-automatic and has a scope, which makes it much easier to aim at the target.
As I said before, I nailed my target and am feeling quite pleased with myself.
Upon arrival at the gun club, I flinched at the crack of every gunshot.
But I was certainly not the most nervous guest the club has had.
People who have a problem with guns are exactly the sort of people they want to work with.
"Guns don't kill people, people kill people," says Eliot.
She tells the story of a young woman who was adamant that her father get rid of his rifles.
"I told her, 'Come out and try shooting and if you still don't like it, I will talk to him and help him sell his rifles,'" says Eliot.
The woman was so terrified by the sound of gunshots at the club, she hid, crying, in the storeroom.
"She was hysterical," recalls Eliot. "I had to talk her through it with a constant babble, and after she shot once, she felt completely differently."
She hit 10 out of 10 and turned out to be a natural shot.
"That woman has since gone through my husband's entire armoury," says Eliot, even shooting his most powerful .375 Holland and Holland Express rifle.
Whether you try shooting because you're interested in learning more about the sport or you just want to cross off "shoot gun" from your "Things to do before I turn 40" list, they say you'll never forget your first time.
Melanie Furlong is a freelance writer. She lives in Lower Sackville.
TAKE YOUR SHOT
If you want to try shooting: Call Peter or Lavina Eliot to set up an appointment for instruction at (902) 758-1104. The range is open to any age. A day of instruction costs $2 per person; you pay for your own ammunition. Ammo for 50 rounds for a .22-calibre rifle costs just $2.50.
If you want to join the club: Club membership costs $80 for the first year and $60 thereafter.
How to get there: Take Exit 8 at Elmsdale off Highway 102. Turn right and go about 25 kilometres to Middle Musquodoboit. Go straight at the flashing amber and turn left at the T-junction onto Glenmore Road. The Musquodoboit Valley Rifle and Revolver Club is 1, 000 Glenmore Rd., four kilometres down the road.
|
|
|
Post by MALCOLM XERXES™ on Mar 4, 2005 0:09:49 GMT -5
www.gopusa.com/news/2005/march/0302_gun_momp.shtml'Poster Mom' for Gun Control Arrested on Gun Charges By Susan Jones CNSNews.com Morning Editor March 2, 2005 (CNSNews.com) -- The president of the Springfield, Ill., chapter of the Million Mom March faces charges of having drugs and an illegal handgun in her home. Press reports said the gun's serial number had been scratched off. Annette Stevens became a gun control activist after her son was shot to death several years ago. She told a newspaper the gun belonged to her late son, and when she found it, she didn't know what to do with it, so she put it in a drawer. Police reportedly found the gun and illegal drugs while executing a search warrant at Stevens' home in connection with a spate of drive-by shootings in the area. Stevens insists the search was illegal. Second Amendment groups were quick to note the irony of a gun control activist being arrested on gun charges. The Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA) called it a classic case of "liberal elitists" who "cannot walk their own talk." "I find it incredible that someone representing an organization that pushes legislation that only punishes law-abiding gun owners would possess such an illegal weapon," said Richard Pearson, ISRA's executive director. "Surely she must be familiar with US gun laws and those in Illinois, considering the position she holds. Does she think the law does not apply to her due to anti-gun affiliation? It's the height of hypocrisy!" Press reports said Stevens did not have the ID card required of Illinois firearms owners. The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms called it ironic that "this poster mom for gun control" has admitted keeping an illegally altered handgun in her home while she's campaigned to deprive other citizens of their firearms. "If Stevens is so convinced guns don't belong in society, then why didn't she immediately turn that gun over to the police when she found it more than two years ago?" asked CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. "Why did she keep it? What's wrong with this picture? Ms. Stevens is about to learn that supporting gun control is like keeping a vicious dog. They sometimes bite the hands that feed them." "In the kind of Draconian anti-gun society Stevens and her cohorts are trying to create," Gottlieb continued, "it wouldn't matter if she were innocent as she claims. Under the laws her group supports, gun owners are essentially considered guilty until they prove themselves otherwise." CCRKBA said gun laws supported by activists such as Stevens do nothing to prevent crime - but go a long way in eroding the rights of law-abiding citizens. Copyright © 1998-2005 CNSNews.com - Cybercast News Service I'm still laughing about this!
|
|
|
Post by ladytass2001 on Mar 4, 2005 1:10:34 GMT -5
That is sooooo Funny-ROFLMAO-ohmygoodness-just goes to show you Do as I say not as I do-LOL-
|
|
|
Post by MALCOLM XERXES™ on Mar 4, 2005 2:28:38 GMT -5
That is sooooo Funny-ROFLMAO-ohmygoodness-just goes to show you Do as I say not as I do-LOL- “Yup!”
|
|
|
Post by MALCOLM XERXES™ on Mar 7, 2005 3:39:00 GMT -5
MON. MARCH 7/2005/03:42 E.S.T.
I received the following essay from an outraged, law-abiding Canadian citizen.
MX
It started with a criminal, a woman hater named mark Lepine (Gamil Gharbi), then it got kicked up the political chain of command to Alan Rock who said only Police and Militrary should have guns, and also uttered that self defence in canada with a firearm was a non starter". Then came jeran (goofball...i mean golfball) Chretien who espoused how wonderful such a registry would be. It was further pushed and enforced by Anne Mc lellan who believes that charter rights dont apply to canadians citizens.
Now four coppers have been murdered by a lunatic (not unlike Marc Lepine), and still she defends the gun registry as "saving lives".
One need look no further than Toronto to see just how stupid Annes comments are and how irrelevant she has become in this matter. It is her power of office that keeps this registry going and going. She has no scientific proof that it is working or that there ever was a problem to begin with.
Police access the firearms database thousands of times a day. CLEARLY it was of no value or use to the four dear RCMP
What we do have to clearly show that it is not working, is the mounting body count.
How many more canadians will have to die to satisfy Anne Mc Lellan, paul Martin, and other Liberals. How many more canadian children will lose their parents to the criminal element who are clearly causing these problems.
How many more people will be torn assunder from the grief of losing a loved one to criminal violence .
At some poinjt there will be a clear backlash against these same politicians who shove these laws and perpetuate them all "for the common good, and the culture of safety"
At some point soon, these same politicans will be held to account for these deaths, as citizens decide that enough is enough. The criminals are what they are, and invariably they dont change, but the politicians who have left every Canadian citizen defenceless , so that they can grandstand to a vocal minority, may very well find themselves being challenged by those who have lost their mothers, farthers, sisters, sons etc.
The government tells us it is for our own good that they brought in their firearms laws. History has proven again and again and now again still that criminals do not pay attention to such stupid and unenforceable laws.
FOUR DEAD RCMP>>>>>>> are you getting this Anne, what about you Mr Dithers..you hearing this too!. You both should be dragged off to court where you would have to answer the pointy questions truthfully for the public to hear, rather than in the contemptuous, sidestepping smarmy manner you answer them in parliament.
Canadians have always had the right to keep arms and bear them, our government has always said no we have not had that right. let the Liberals take the step of extuinguishing the magna carta, the BNA and other facts of law, and then bear the consequences of eliminating all Canadians rights. Then again, some of us like being in a socialist system
Canadians have been converted from hard working indivdualists, to professional government slaves and victims. It is onyl fear that keeps canadians from taking physical action against our rulers, and when fear governs the citizenry of any country, it cannot be a democracy anymore.
Welcome to KANADA
|
|
|
GUN LAW
Mar 7, 2005 11:21:25 GMT -5
Post by ladytass2001 on Mar 7, 2005 11:21:25 GMT -5
I would say their are some very valid points too what the anonymous citizen has written, The first being that a gun registry doesn't do anything for the police,yeah they can track down gun's that are registered but how many people are going to use a registered,unaltered gun to commit a crime? None, at least none that aren't stolen. Why don't they have statistic's to keep track of gun's that are used in crime's? Or do they actually have those statistics and simply choose to keep them secret because they do not back up the registry theory?
|
|
|
GUN LAW
Mar 7, 2005 23:36:14 GMT -5
Post by MALCOLM XERXES™ on Mar 7, 2005 23:36:14 GMT -5
I would say their are some very valid points too what the anonymous citizen has written, The first being that a gun registry doesn't do anything for the police,yeah they can track down gun's that are registered but how many people are going to use a registered,unaltered gun to commit a crime? None, at least none that aren't stolen. Why don't they have statistic's to keep track of gun's that are used in crime's? Or do they actually have those statistics and simply choose to keep them secret because they do not back up the registry theory? MON. MARCH 7/2005/23:39 E.S.T.
LADYTASS,
What I find objectionable about “gun registry” legislation is the presumption of criminal intent on the part of the private citizen by the registrar & its enforcers: it's both degrading & insulting, & calculated to affect non-gun owners @ the level of their paranoid fears, like any good piece of propaganda.
If the people being victimised by criminals had been allowed to defend themselves from the armed, unregistered criminals in kind, the police would have an easier time locating the stolen weaponry, since it would be amidst a spreading pool of the offenders' blood.
|
|
|
GUN LAW
Apr 2, 2005 15:29:14 GMT -5
Post by MALCOLM XERXES™ on Apr 2, 2005 15:29:14 GMT -5
This story is exemplary of what MR. SPIDER ROBINSON refers to as "a self-correcting problem".
"The weed of crime bears bitter fruit. THE SHADOWTM knows!"
PUBLICATION: The Daily Telegraph DATE: 2005.03.31 PAGE: 00 SECTION: News BYLINE: Nigel Bunyan
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----
Gangster, 19, `killed himself by accident' with key fob gun
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----
A TEENAGE gangster has become the first victim of a craze for miniature ``designer'' guns disguised as key fobs.
Fabian Flowers, 19, a member of Manchester's Longsight Crew, is believed to have shot himself in the head while trying to test the weapon's apparently faulty firing mechanism.
Friends who were with him immediately fled the lap-dancing club where the test firing took place.
The tiny gun -- just over 4ins long and with a barrel extending a mere 1+ ins -- has never been recovered.
Dozens of similar weapons have been smuggled into Britain from Bulgaria in the past 18 months. They are sold initially as novelty flare guns but then modified by criminals to fire twin .25 bullets.
The weapons, which change hands for several hundred pounds, are notoriously unstable and lack accuracy. However, at point-blank range they are lethal.
Early users were attracted to key fob guns because rivals did not recognise them as firearms, and many criminals regard them as fashion accessories.
The gun is cocked by pulling part of the key ring. Two buttons on the sides of the box-shaped fob are pressed to fire it, while a third opens it for reloading.
So far police have recovered 16 of the guns. All but two had been in the hands of Manchester drug gangs.
Last November police in the city issued a warning about their increasing popularity and made clear that any criminal caught with a key fob gun would face a minimum five-year prison sentence.
It is thought that at the time of Flowers's death he and his predominantly young gang were involved in a turf war with more established criminals.
On Feb 23 last year a group of youths, including some members of the Longsight Crew, were at the High Society club in Stockport.
At some point in the evening Flowers went to the lavatory with some of his friends. Police sources suggest someone had recently borrowed the key fob gun and was returning it.
An inquest yesterday heard that Flowers's final words to his friends were: ``I'm going to put it to the test -- watch.''
One friend said: ``He put it to his head and I heard a bang. I got the impression that he thought the safety catch was on and it was perfectly safe.''
The gangster died from a single wound to the head. Police initially suspected he had been the victim of a gangland killing but became convinced that he had died at his own hand.
Flowers's family have rejected the police view of his death and maintain that he was indeed murdered.
After John Pollard, the South Manchester coroner, recorded an open verdict, Flowers's mother, Jackie Fetherston, repeated her assertion that his death was not an accident. ``My son wouldn't put a gun to his head,'' she said.
|
|
|
GUN LAW
Apr 2, 2005 17:41:32 GMT -5
Post by ladytass2001 on Apr 2, 2005 17:41:32 GMT -5
Well there you go, Criminal's with illegal gun's, I feel sorry for the young man's family but you can't blame some one else when they did it too themselves.
|
|
|
GUN LAW
Apr 4, 2005 11:55:56 GMT -5
Post by MALCOLM XERXES™ on Apr 4, 2005 11:55:56 GMT -5
Well there you go, Criminal's with illegal gun's, I feel sorry for the young man's family but you can't blame some one else when they did it too themselves. I couldn't help but wonder whether that same level of parental denial is what led her son to such a bad end in the first place.
|
|
|
GUN LAW
Apr 4, 2005 13:07:23 GMT -5
Post by ladytass2001 on Apr 4, 2005 13:07:23 GMT -5
Either that or Parental Apathy, it seems that lately there is a trend of parents to say it's not my fault they turned into bad kid's or it's not there fault they turned out this way they were just hanging with the wrong people. The way I feel about it is that if you know your kid is hanging out with the wrong people than it is your duty to stop them anyway you can. Especially before they get old enough to make the really wrong choices, if it isn't your fault who's is it? You raised them, you taught them,you are the one who let them get away with everything, so who you gonna blame for that?
|
|
|
GUN LAW
Apr 4, 2005 22:49:35 GMT -5
Post by MALCOLM XERXES™ on Apr 4, 2005 22:49:35 GMT -5
Either that or Parental Apathy, it seems that lately there is a trend of parents to say it's not my fault they turned into bad kid's or it's not there fault they turned out this way they were just hanging with the wrong people. The way I feel about it is that if you know your kid is hanging out with the wrong people than it is your duty to stop them anyway you can. Especially before they get old enough to make the really wrong choices, if it isn't your fault who's is it? You raised them, you taught them,you are the one who let them get away with everything, so who you gonna blame for that? LADYTASS,
Receive 100 bonus marks & go to The Top of The ClassTM!
|
|
|
GUN LAW
May 29, 2005 11:22:02 GMT -5
Post by MALCOLM XERXES™ on May 29, 2005 11:22:02 GMT -5
PUBLICATION: The Chronicle-Herald DATE: 2005.05.27 SECTION: Metro PAGE: A1 SOURCE: Crime Reporter BYLINE: Dan Arsenault
Cops crash rehearsal, arrest actors as gun leads to bad scene
An actor rehearsing to play a cop in the Trailer Park Boys movie came face to face with the real thing after a major mix-up in Halifax on Wednesday night.
Police rushed to 2155 Monastery Lane after someone looking through a ground-floor apartment window saw a man with a gun at about 9:10 p.m.
An officer responding to the call also saw the gun and police evacuated about 15 neighbouring apartments in the three-storey building. Police prevented people from using the building's rear exit and kept shoppers in the nearby Quinpool Centre from using the parking lot nearby.
The two men in the apartment, Ryan Cook, 24, and Michael Fox, 22, were completely unaware of what was happening.
Mr. Cook, a graduating film student doing a placement with the Trailer Park Boys producers, said he was helping his roommate, a filmmaker and sometime actor, prepare for a Thursday audition for a cop's role in the film. He said the two twice went through a brief scene, which at one point had Mr. Fox holding a pellet gun.
About two hours later, he said, some friends started sending him text messages after hearing on the TV news that police were responding to an armed man in their building.
Mr. Cook started heading to the lobby to check things out but didn't get far.
"I opened the door about six inches, and then I just heard the screams: 'Close the door, police!' "
He shut the door and about a minute later, his phone rang. It was the police instructing him and Mr. Fox to walk out and give themselves up.
"It was quite scary," Mr. Cook said. "I came out with my hands up. They had rifles and they had vests on."
The two were arrested, handcuffed and put in a police car. The other tenants were soon allowed back in the building.
Sitting in the police car, Mr. Cook figured out that their rehearsals had caused the panic. He told police they had made a big mistake.
Despite that, the men were taken in for questioning while officers got a search warrant to enter the apartment.
Halifax Regional Police spokesman Const. Mark Hobeck said officers had to handle the gun report the way they did.
"At that point we didn't really know what they were doing in there." Police executed the search warrant at about 3:15 a.m. and found the gun and some scripts, which backed up the pair's story.
At about 4 a.m., police released the two men without laying charges. "It was a cold walk," Mr. Cook said.
Getting home, they found their apartment a mess, with boxes and other things all over the floor.
Neither man slept a wink that night and Mr. Fox was unable to make his audition Thursday. He is unsure if he'll get another chance.
Mr. Cook said they are bothered that a woman making one phone call to police led to such a big issue.
"We're not upset and we're not angry . . . but we are concerned and just a bit alarmed that something so small and trivial as two guys sitting in their living room rehearsing lines for an audition could turn into this."
Mr. Cook said police didn't make any attempt to contact them until he stepped outside his apartment door.
Mike Clattenburg, who created the cult TV show that features such crazy characters as googlie-eyed Bubbles, dim-witted dope fiend Ricky, shirtless, pot-bellied Randy and his alcoholic, gay, role-playing lover Jim Lahey, didn't find the situation one bit funny.
"I don't think it's a laughing matter," said Mr. Clattenburg, who writes and directs the TV series and is also directing the movie due for release next spring.
He praised police for the fact nobody got hurt in what first appeared to be a serious matter.
Another resident of the apartment building, Marilyn Abbott, 21, was working at the nearby Shoppers Drug Mart in Quinpool Centre when police warned employees and customers at about 10:15 p.m. not to walk through the parking lot.
She thinks the mix-up happened innocently enough.
"If I saw a gun, my first reaction would probably be to call the police, too. I can understand how it happened in Halifax, I mean we're not used to seeing crime."
The events scared another resident, Tina Soucy, 21. She said she counted at least 12 police vehicles and thinks the matter shouldn't have gone as far as it did.
"I think people should actually make sure it's a real gun before calling 911." Asked how she'd do that, she laughed and admitted she didn't know.
|
|
|
GUN LAW
May 29, 2005 22:46:35 GMT -5
Post by ladytass2001 on May 29, 2005 22:46:35 GMT -5
It saddens me to realize how something like this can happen, I guess living where I do we take for granted that people have gun's in their home's.........and kid's have play gun's and pellet gun's are not a big thing. Why wouldn't the police have contacted the men before it got that far? the first thing they should have done is set up a moderator.....it would have cleared things up alot faster....Those men could have been shot because of a pellet gun---That makes me mad
|
|
|
Post by MALCOLM XERXES™ on Jun 1, 2005 8:35:15 GMT -5
It saddens me to realize how something like this can happen, I guess living where I do we take for granted that people have gun's in their home's.........and kid's have play gun's and pellet gun's are not a big thing.<SNIP> "Don't get me started...!"
|
|