Category: Shooting Sports

Contrary to what the gun-grabbers will tell you, going out to the range and spending a day eating through a box or twelve of ammo is actually relaxing, enjoyable, and downright fun. And sometimes, part of that fun is introducing someone to the sport who’s never tried it before. So, with that in mind, my buddy and I, along with his girlfriend, hit the range the other weekend. Neither one of them had fired anything before. Ever. Malcolm had shot a pellet gun when he was a kid, but Bonnie hadn’t even done that.

That’s right: me, two noobs, one beat-up old Cooey, half a brick of .22, and an afternoon to kill. Three people with a deadly weapon and over 200 rounds of ammunition. And guess what? Nobody got shot, nobody got robbed, no drug deals went bad, no liberals exploded (bit of a pity, that one), nobody hopped into a bell tower… nothing. We even left that place cleaner than when we found it. Bonnie got a little sunburnt, though.

Did ya hear that, mister so-called “Mayor of The Arsehole Of The Universe?” People went to a shooting range and NOTHING BAD HAPPENED!

And yup, it was fun! (BTW: It wasn’t my camera, so I have no bloody idea what was up with the date display function…) (more…)

Wish I had time to elaborate on this….

SASKATCHEWAN RCMP OFFICER
I find that I have to deprogram every cadet that I train when it comes to CFRO checks and their reliability in regards to officer safety.

It does not matter if a gun is registered, if someone is bent on crime they will use a registered or non-registered gun. If no gun is available, they will use something else.

The gun registry places police officers’ lives at risk. The gun registry offers a false sense of security. The gun registry is making criminals out of otherwise law-abiding citizens. The gun registry is eating up resources that the RCMP and every other municipal or first nation force desperately need.

Saying that the guns are the problem in this society is like saying pens are the cause of spelling errors, or that cars are the cause of drunk driving, or like saying fast food restaurants are the cause of obesity.

CALGARY POLICE ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT AL KOENIG
Calgary Police Association president Al Koenig is skeptical of the Alberta government’s plan to have people willingly hand over unregistered guns. “To presume that gangsters will hand over their guns, somebody is living in wonderland,” Koenig said.

RETIRED TORONTO POLICE SGT MICHAEL MAYS
Your statement that it is used 5,000 times a day by police is misleading. A check of the registry is done automatically every time an officer is dispatched to an address, wanted or not. From its inception, I was advised not to depend on it to make decisions. It is outdated, inaccurate and completely unreliable. To make a decision at a call based on registry information would be foolish at best and deadly at worst.

SERGEANT BOB COTTINGHAM
Not once, however, during my career do I recall using the gun registry to solve a major crime. Simply put, the vast majority of criminals use firearms which don’t come close to being included in this bureaucratic jumble of information. Letter-writer Wendy Cukier may also be disappointed to know that I observed that most front-line officers have little faith in the gun registry, and see it as another bloated and failed attempt by the former government to appease its constituents.

CPL. MARTIN GAUDET
In dangerous situations, city police preferred to rely on their own information rather than call the registry office in Miramichi. Cpl. Martin Gaudet said officers responding to a potentially dangerous situation always assume there’s a firearm involved. “We don’t check with the registry during a gun-related incident,” he said.

CALGARY POLICE ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT
“Wiping the slate clean and not making responsible gun owners into criminals is a good start,” said association president Al Koenig.

A.B.J. (BEN) BEATTY: 23-YEAR VETERAN OF THE ONTARIO PROVINCIAL POLICE
I have however been involved in the investigation of countless offences such as robbery, where handguns were the weapon of choice and I must point out Sir, that the firearms registry did not assist in solving one, nor obviously in deterring one. The reasons that the firearms registry is so highly ineffectual are, I believe obvious, but basically it affects the wrong people, law abiding citizens and not criminals.

LEN GRINNELL, RETIRED RCMP STAFF-SARGEANT
I have grave concerns about the reliance on the registry for data which could result in death or injury of a police officer.

My experience has told me that the greatest hazard to police officers is complacence and I found it prudent to continually remind my staff of that fact. Relying on a flawed system for officer safety will eventually lead to a tragedy. It is unfortunate that the CACP did not take the time to consider the consequences of their position and the safety of the men and women they represent.

GILBERT YARD, RETIRED RCMP SUPERINTENDENT
I am appalled at just how much has been spent to date on the firearms registration process. But perhaps even more disturbing is the misplaced focus on legal firearms.

During my 37 years of policing I carried a handgun as a tool of my profession. I was also exposed to a wide cross-section of collectors and target shooters who used, stored and transported their weapons in a legal and responsible manner. They are not the problem. The misdirection of time, effort and funding is unforgivable. I believe that Canadians are much too astute to believe that either Bill C-68 or the proposed handgun legislation is anything other than a waste of time, effort and money. Wasting public funds that could really make a difference in acute justice issues, in my view, borders on criminal activity.

ERIC W. FERGUSON, Retired Chief of Police and RCMP Officer
I was 75 years of age on Dec. 31, 2005. Part of my life’s story was serving 24 years with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and four years as Police Chief for the City of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. For the past six or seven years I have stood by and watched the Liberal Government of Canada mishandle gun control and in the process not save one life, but encouraging criminals to commit more offences and yes, help to turn good honest Canadians into criminals. Now Prime Minister your plan to banish all handguns is real “dumb”.

DENIS COTE, PRESIDENT OF THE QUEBEC MUNICIPAL POLICE FEDERATION:
“How come if you have a ban, you’re not allowed to possess a firearm for 10 years, how come you can allow it for the hunting season?” asked Denis Cote, president of the Quebec municipal police federation. “If you’re a threat for everybody, make sure you’re a threat for all 12 months in a year.”

LEO TONEGUZZI, RETIRED CHIEF OF POLICE:
Mr. Martin, your government promised that the foolhardy gun registration laws you initiated would end the high amount of violence throughout Canada. That plan failed and now to get votes in the greater G.T.A. area you propose an entire ban on all handguns.

Name n/a
“I met with an RCMP officer this week who was told by his superiors to stop sending requests to the gun registry before attending domestic disputes because he ‘was putting his life in danger’. The RCMP officer was told the usual ‘no guns’ response to his query ‘creates a false sense of security’. The young officer was also told that if he ever criticized the gun registry publicly his career would be over,”

AL KOENIG, PRESIDENT OF THE CALGARY POLICE ASSOCIATION:
“The ironic thing is after spending $2-billion-plus trying to register them, the best the government can come up with is to outright ban them — it doesn’t solve the problem,” he said.

JOHN GAYDER, SERVING POLICE OFFICER IN ONTARIO
The registry is great at telling me what LAW ABIDING people duly registered their guns. These were never the people I needed to worry about. I don’t trust the registry because it will never be able to tell me what I need to know about the riskier anti social [expletive deleted] I may potentially be pulling over at 3am. Criminals and kooks DON’T REGISTER their guns.

MURRAY GRISMER, SERVING POLICE OFFICER IN SASKATCHEWAN
As a police officer with 19 years experience, the last thing I am willing to stake my life on is the information contained in the Firearm Registry. Not only is the information unverified and inaccurate, it has little to do with where a firearm is possibly stored or located. Of greater value is the licensing of owners for this at the very least is an indicator of who may potentially have a firearm in their possession; and yet I would still be a fool to risk my life on negative hit to a query of this information. As a police officer who represented the Saskatchewan Association of Police Officers in opposition to the Firearm Registry, I have spoken with police from across Canada who see little or no value in the Registry. Many have gone so far as to question the rational or motive of the Canadian Professional Police association’s continued endorsement of it.

Name n/a
When they went to process my registration for the new firearm they were told that the one I traded in was never registered. Another waste of taxpayers’ money. As a police officer that just confirmed my faith in the current gun registry system and that the current government is doing nothing to protect our members and the general public.

There’s a lot more here.

Bigass hat tip.

Here we go again.

In the frantic scramble to prove once again that socialists just won’t quit until they’re at the top of some heap or other — even if the heap in question is just being plain old bag-of-hammers stoopid — Arsehole Of The Universe Ubersocialist David Miller is still hopping on the Banned Wagon and is now screeching for a ban on handguns and all shooting ranges in TO. 🙄

Yup, that’s right; ol’ Davey never gets tired of scraping the bottom of the barrel of failed ideas. Look for him to ban farting in elevators next. Here’s a few tidbits, with arrangement and commentary by yours truly, of course:

Mayor David Miller announced a plan today that would make all handguns illegal in Toronto, a series of measures that will effectively shut down gun ranges and make it all but impossible to manufacture, assemble or store firearms within city limits.

“I want a safe city,” the mayor told reporters. “The truth is, guns are too easily available and if you talk to some kids in some neighbourhoods they tell you they want a gun to protect themselves.’’ [Well, Dave, maybe if the scumbags that they want protection from were locked up, the idea of carrying a gun might never occur to these kids. Ever think of that??]

Among the recommendations is one calling on council to pass a zoning bylaw to restrict the use of firearms anywhere in the city, including firing ranges and gun clubs.

The report also calls for an end to all recreational shooting on city property, “specifically, shooting ranges at the Don Montgomery Community Recreation Centre (former Mid-Scarborough Community Centre) and Union Station.” [Because everyone knows that shooting ranges are where all the gangbangers hang out.]

“After John O’Keefe’s tragic killing I don’t think there’s any defence for sport shooters any more,” he said. “It’s a hobby that creates danger to others … Guns are stolen routinely from so-called legal owners.” [One legally owned handgun. So, naturally, we’ll blame the other 999,999 legally owned handguns that weren’t used in any crimes. Makes perfect sense, if you’re a socialist.]

“Do we as a society value safety or do we value a hobby that creates danger? And nobody can deny that that hobby directly results in people being shot to death on the streets of Toronto.” [Way to go with the “now that you’ve stopped beating your wife” question, Dave.]

Mr. Whitmore said the mayor is posturing to look as though he is addressing gun violence, but is doing nothing to stop the real source of illegal guns in Toronto.

“This is about the mayor’s need to be seen doing something about gun violence,” he said. “But he’s off on a complete tangent … the vast majority of guns being used by criminals in this city are coming from the United States. They certainly aren’t coming from legitimate, law-abiding gun owners.”

But in the meantime, Mr. Miller said the city must act. “If we want a truly gun-free city we can’t just ask the federal government to ban the ownership of hand guns … We have to do what’s in our power.”

Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, Don Valley East, scoffed at the mayor’s handgun plan. “Big deal,” he said. “The people that are using the guns are not going into stores and purchasing them. It helps marginally but in terms of reducing handguns I’m not sure it will do very much.” [That’s because it won’t do anything.]

In one six-week period in the summer of 2005, burglars reportedly made off with 84 firearms from Toronto area homes, according to a Toronto police survey. It includes 42 pistols stolen from the Coburg area. In October, 2005, a cache of 17 handguns was stolen from a Toronto lawyer’s office. [Is anybody else wondering just how thieves knew where to find those nice, big collections? Did they maybe check one of those ammo sales records that Bob Rae thought were such a great idea?]

Global News also reported that Chris Bentley will suggest all imported guns be marked with the date they arrived in Canada, the name of the person or company who imported them and the place they were made. [Of course, more registry shit. That’s JUST what we need.]

Not everybody’s drinking the Koolaid. But is that really a surprise? I mean, come on, now. Even in a place like Toronto, it’s hard to get everybody to be as stupid as Miller…

Inspector Tony Cooper, of the Ontario Provincial Police, said there has only been one instance of a member of an Ontario shooting club using his handgun in a homicide.

“I hear about a lot of shootings in Toronto, but I haven’t heard of any using target pistols,” said Insp. Cooper, the deputy chief firearms officer with the provincial weapons enforcement centre. “And only one by a member of a shooting club.”

You can bet your ass that I’m not near done with this one. More when I have more time to work with (I’m off to buy some ammo)…

Well, I guess we can just file this one under “Well, DUH!” and move on from there, eh? Anybody who comes here regularly (and has two brain cells to rub together) already knows damned well just what I think about the Farmer Bob Varmint Gun Registryâ„¢. Specifically: we don’t have a gun control problem in this country, we have an asshole control problem. Locking up criminals reduces crime; hassling the shit out of farmers and duck hunters doesn’t. End of argument.

About twice a month or so (more often when I put up a post like this one), I get the usual, snarky email from some anti-gun Froot Loop, accusing me of everything from pro-Americanism a’ la the Second Amendment to plotting the assassination of all things cute and fuzzy. These little tirades invariably end with the assertions that I’m a) the lone voice in the wilderness with whom no one else agrees, and b) crazy as a shithouse rat.

Nice folks, huh? The problem — for them, anyway — is that I’m neither wrong, nor nuts, nor alone. And even the MSM is starting to agree. Laura Czekaj had a bit of an interesting writeup in the Ottawa Sun today, telling us that “Many flout firearms registry laws say experts“:

In neighbourhoods across the city, people are flouting the law by storing unregistered firearms in opposition of the federal gun registry.

No! Impossible! Not in Ottawa!! 😯

It’s impossible to tell how many people have opted not to register their guns with the Canadian Firearms Registry, but police and members of the firearms community get the sense that there are many gun owners who subscribe to this passive form of resistance against the controversial registry.

Impossible? No, it isn’t. As a matter of fact, I can tell you myself: it’s about four out of five long gun owners!

“On the whole, we do have records and people have registered firearms, but there are always firearms out there that we are not going to know about, registered or not registered,” said Sgt. Anthony Costantini of the Ottawa police guns and gangs unit.

Um… weren’t we told that having the registry would mean cops would know? About the registered ones, at least? 😕 The Grits didn’t lie to us, did they??

It becomes a concern if police are called to a residence and are confronted with someone carrying a gun, which officers didn’t previously know was in the house.

“But until you are confronted with that, you will never know,” said Costantini. “It’s like walking into a situation where you don’t know what’s behind the door.”

Um, guys? According to the cops that I know, EVERY call is like that: you don’t know what’s on the other side of the door. That’s where that whole “hope for the best but prepare for the worst” thing comes in handy…

It was that exact situation that played out in a Woodroffe Ave. home on Wednesday when Gatineau officers executed a court order to retrieve 14 registered firearms from Siva Yogi Shanmugadhasan, 48, and discovered additional guns that were not properly registered. Ottawa police were called and the weapons were seized.

Shanmugadhasan is facing several weapons-related charges, in addition to being the subject of a domestic dispute investigation that led Gatineau police to his door.

The weapons seized from the house included AK-47 and AR-15 assault rifles and an array of inoperable guns, such as a grenade launcher and handguns.

Ah, yes, the obligatory references to the top favourites of the anti-gun hit parade. Nothing scares the bejeezus outta the city folk like a reference to “AK-47 and AR-15 assault rifles.” And hey, how can you have an article about guns without trotting out the Domestic Violence Boogeyman®? You can’t, right?

We’ll cut Laura some slack here. After all, she’s writing for an Ottawa newspaper. There’s just a few little problems with this little bit of slight-of-hand…

Lie#1: the AR-15 is an assault rifle. No, it’s not. The M-16 (which is also based on Eugene Stoner’s design) is an assault rifle but the AR-15 isn’t. Yes, the ’15 looks like a scary piece of hardware, but the anti-gun crowd, and the MSM in general, rely heavily on the fact that most of the general public haven’t got the foggiest idea of what an “assault rifle” actually is. Don’t believe me? Alright then, smartass, take a look at the picture on the right (click on it for a better look) and tell me: which one is the “assault rifle?”

Go ahead, take your time; I’ll wait. I’ve got the time.

Okay, think you’ve got it yet? Which one did you choose? The top one? The bottom one? That’s what I thought. Would you like to know the answer? The answer is that neither one is an assault rifle. Nope, not either one; neither one. All those are are just a couple of little ol’ .22s. Sure, they’re all gussied up to look all big and bad, but they’re still only a couple of .22s, just the same.

Lie#2: there are no Kalashnikovs in Canada. This is also bunk. There’s one (Chinese made, I think it is) sitting in the display case of my local gun shop. I think they want about $800 for it, or somewhere in that area… Try actually walking into a gun shop sometime and taking a look around.

Lie#3: there is a quantifiable connection between guns and domestic violence. Sheer and utter bullshit that has grown more and more popular in Canada ever since we experienced our first incident of Islamist terrorism in Montreal. Even if there is a gun in the house, when some woman-beating sack of maggot shit decides to kill his wife, he usually grabs whatever’s closest at hand at that moment: a knife, a blunt object, a cord, his fists… Yes, it’s vile, but it has nothing to do with guns.

COURT APPEARANCE

Shanmugadhasan will appear in court later this week to answer to the charges.

Speaking in general, George Perrin, a member of the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters, said there are many gun owners across Canada who have decided not to register their firearms either as a sign of defiance, or because they’re collectors who have guns that are now prohibited under federal laws.

“There is a fair number of people who have not registered and have refused to register because of the stupidity of it (the registry),” said Perrin.

The Canadian Firearms Registry contains data related to licensed firearms owners and to the registration of all firearms in Canada.

Can we kill that damned waste of money yet? We could have used the cash to build some new prisons…

Okay, most folks that come here already know that I’m a firm supporter of firearm owners’ rights. No, I’m not a “gun nut” — well, okay, maybe just a little — but I’m one of those guys that enjoys a little relaxing time on the range and unlike the urbanite “eek!” crowd, I believe that the best way to deal with firearms is not to stick your head in the sand and hope Big Nannyâ„¢ will make it go away, but rather through proper education. This means taking the time to teach your kids — realistically, not hysterically 🙄 — just what guns are capable of and how to properly deal with them; especially proper gun safety. Which is one of the reasons I got my boy a little something for his graduation this spring (if his marks are good enough, that is; we’ll wait and see). Nothing fancy, mind you, but a nice little Cooey model 75 for a starter…

If anybody out there is thinking about a first rifle for a young boy (or a young girl, for that matter), this is just the kind of thing that you should be looking for. It’s just a .22, so it’s not too much gun for a kid. Single-shot, bolt-action means that the rifle needs to be reseated in the shoulder and carefully re-aimed every time you want to fire and the manual cocking after the round is chambered (my favourite feature on this weapon) provides a little extra insurance against the kind of carelessness that, let’s face it, kids can be susceptible to sometimes. You just can’t be too careful.

Buuuuttt…. That being said, every now and then it’s just plain fun to crank away at some serious, kick-ass, testosterone-induced, don’t-screw-with-this-bad-boy firepower. 😉 And it sometimes really bites my dingleberries that the Yanks are the ones that get to have all the fun in that department.

Some of you might remember R. Lee Ermy as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman from the movie, Full Metal Jacket, or any one of his numerous other “cranky drill instructor from hell” roles. But hey, even the big bad Gunny needs a little relaxation every now and then, right? So how do you figure he does it? Well, the answer was to be found, of course, on YouTube. Seems he likes to go to Knob Creek, KY about twice a year… 😆

A little warning, though: this is a pretty big vid, so it might take some time to load…