Team CSSA Newsletter
CANADIAN SHOOTING SPORTS ASSOCIATION / CANADIAN INSTITUTE FOR LEGISLATIVE ACTION
TEAM CSSA E-NEWS – July 5, 2013
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ATTENTION HIGH RIVER RESIDENTS – ESSENTIAL INFORMATION REQUIRED!
The Canadian Shooting Sports Association (CSSA) sends its best wishes to the residents of High River, Alberta at this difficult time. Some of you will be facing the most dreaded of problem a family can have – the prospect of losing homes and property.
As you are permitted to return to your homes, the CSSA has a special request to those who may have had firearms confiscated by the RCMP in your absence. We need to know your story. We are looking for evidence that indicates the police orchestrated a raiding party to collect your firearms. Your firearms were already in a location locked-down by police who wouldn’t allow you near your own home, let alone would-be thieves.
We need to know if the RCMP cherry-picked homes where guns might have been present. We need to know if they took your guns. We also need to know if you had guns in the house that weren’t removed, and why. How were they stored? Did police break into your home? Can you imagine why they chose your home? If they took firearms, have they been returned? Have you heard of charges being laid in High River as a result of the confiscations?
These are the kinds of things we need to know, along with any other information you think is relevant. We will keep your information confidential if you wish, and will not share your identity without your express permission.
If you are a responsible firearms owner implicated in the High River flood, please contact us. Your predicament presents a rare set of circumstances that could prove what the CSSA has suspected for decades. You could help us prove that the RCMP has a hidden agenda to disarm Canadians.
Please email us as soon as possible at [email protected] or call our Toronto head office toll-free at 1-888-873-4339. Thank you!
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CSSA COMMENTARY: LIBERAL ANTI-GUN SHILL EMBEDDED IN NEWS STORY
The Canadian Press has managed to undermine own credibility and betray the public’s trust in the news agency.
The CSSA is crying foul in the wake of The Canadian Press failing to exhibit proper journalism ethics and standards in a firearms-related news story.
On June 30, news coverage by The Canadian Press described police confiscating firearms from flood victims’ empty homes in High River, Alberta. A former Liberal Party of Canada researcher identified solely as a “criminology professor” was used as a source to criticize the Prime Minister’s Office for questioning the police action. (See story below)
Darryl Davies, identified in the CP story as a Carleton University criminology professor, was quoted, “It’s completely and utterly inappropriate for the PMO to issue operational instructions to the RCMP. Have we arrived at a point in Canada where the PMO can interfere in criminal investigations as well?” Davies was used in a follow-up “news” story after the PMO suggested in a previous story that RCMP should be focusing on duties other than entering residents’ homes and removing their firearms.
Here’s the rub – Davies is an ex-Liberal researcher, anti-hunting activist and was associated with Justice Minister Allan Rock when the national long-gun registry was being drafted. Davies’ bio on the Carleton University web site notes that he has published a number of articles and government reports on a variety of criminal justice issues, including gun control.
For the record, the CSSA is delighted that the Harper government criticized the RCMP’s anti-gun tactical assault on private homes. The PMO has every right to opine publicly when the national police force misbehaves. We say keep up the good work – all Canadians should be pleased that your support our constitutional rights.
Many members of the news media have shown extreme bias in stories involving firearms, but this attempt by The Canadian Press to sway public opinion throws journalism ethics out a high window. Since when does a major Canadian news agency embed a partisan source in a news story without identifying that existing vested interest? The CP story appeared across the country from CTV to the Globe and Mail to the Red Deer Advocate. Responsible gun owners are owed one heck of a lot of apologies for this national exhibition of yellow journalism. And heads should roll.
Both Allan Rock and Darryl Davies have advocated banning all guns except for the police and the military. The Canadian Press should be red-faced for using partisan political sources dressed up in the black robes of academia. How can the public trust its journalists if they target sources who espouse left-wing fantasy as fact?
The CSSA hereby challenges Canada’s schools of journalism to dress down the proponents of this story publicly and unequivocally. Please prove to us that sneaky and underhanded reportage has not become the norm in Canadian journalism. And make it convincing, because gun owners have years of clear evidence that supports the contrary.
It isn’t enough that we had the RCMP in High River breaking into homes to confiscate guns in a town that was completely locked down already. Now we have the media criticizing the PMO for criticizing the police. While we recognize excellent firearms coverage without prejudice in some media scribes, too many reporters seem to think it’s open season on responsible firearms owners.
Must we remind them yet again that gun owners are not the problem? Breaking into homes on flooded streets in an empty town to confiscate guns is not about public safety, it’s about demonizing the good guys all over again.
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HELP SUPPORT THE GREAT WORK THE CSSA DOES TO PROTECT YOUR RIGHTS. DONATE HERE
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IN THE MEDIA
ANTI-GUN DAVIES SAYS PMO OUT OF LINE CRITICIZING COPPERS: Mounties in Alberta announced Sunday that they’ll begin returning some of the guns they seized during searches of evacuated homes in this flood ravaged town.
An RCMP news release says that owners of guns that were seized should call police, and that an officer will call them back to make arrangements to have the weapons picked up. The Mounties said earlier that they took the guns as officers searched homes in High River’s flood zone to look for flood victims, pets and anything that might pose a threat to returning residents. Any guns were removed from homes because they were not properly stored, said Staff Sgt. Brian Jones, who added that no charges are planned.
“There is no indication of that at this point in time. That wasn’t the reason. That wasn’t the intention,” Jones said about the gun seizures. Our focus was on the search and rescue operations.”
The move to take the weapons was condemned by the Prime Minister’s Office, who said the Mounties should focus on more important tasks such as protecting lives and private property. Critics took the PMO to task, saying the Harper government should not be dictating how the Mounties should conduct their operations…
In a statement Friday, the RCMP said officers found that many gun owners had actually laid out their guns in plain view in order to move valuable possessions to higher ground in their homes. Jones said some gun owners in High River were happy to hear that their weapons were safe.
Darryl Davies, a Carleton University criminology professor, considered the condemnation from the Prime Minister’s Office to be highly inappropriate.
“It’s completely and utterly inappropriate for the PMO to issue operational instructions to the RCMP,” Davies said Sunday. “Have we arrived at a point in Canada where the PMO can interfere in criminal investigations as well?”
Davies said he thought it must be embarrassing for the RCMP to be admonished by the PMO in the media, and that it undermines the force’s credibility and impartiality… (The Canadian Press – Globe and Mail – June 30, 2013)
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COLUMNIST CRITICAL OF COPPERS FOR DECEPTION: This past weekend, Canadians witnessed the two sides of the RCMP. First, there was the warrantless seizure of firearms from residents of High River, Alta. After residents had been evacuated from their homes due to last month’s disastrous flooding, Mounties went from house to vacant house forcing open doors and confiscating any firearms they could find. On the other hand, there was the apparent successful thwarting of a terror plot to explode homemade bombs in and around the B.C. legislature on Canada Day. …That’s the good Mounties – the Mounties who always get their man.
Then there are the High River Mounties, the bad Mounties – the ones who are increasingly detached from and even suspicious of the law-abiding citizens they are meant to serve and protect. I have no trouble believing Mounties decided that once High River’s homes were empty that they would go door-to-door and seize any firearms they could find. Further, I am convinced they intended to charge any resident whose firearms were, in the opinion of the RCMP, unsafely stored. Only the hostile reaction of the public and a warning from the Prime Minister’s Office forced the RCMP to back down and claim it was merely trying to safeguard the guns until residents could return to their homes and collect their property from police vaults.
Plenty of High Riverites have reported that upon returning to their homes the only footprints left behind by authorities appear to be those going to closets and other gun hiding places. Some posts on online forums claim Mounties took rifles or shotguns out of locked cases and left the cases behind. One gun owner insists his guns were cable-locked in a wall rack – i.e. safely stored – yet police cut the cable and took the guns.
If officers’ intent was, as they now claim, to safeguard private property – and not simply to punish gun owners – then why would they wreck cases and gun racks to get at the firearms? My guess is they made up the safeguard excuse after they got caught willfully seizing guns. And Mounties’ rhetoric changed after the public got up in arms. At first they were “seizing” firearms that were “unsafely stored.” Since unsafe storage is a criminal offence, they would not rule out charges against owners. Over the weekend, that changed to “taking possession” of the firearms on behalf of owners to ensure their valuable property was not stolen after people were allowed back in town.
Gone, too, was talk of charges. In its place were claims Mounties understood why some guns might not have been locked away. Staff Sgt. Brian Jones imagined many guns were left in the open because fleeing owners had no time to do more than move the firearms to higher ground in their homes. That sounds like nothing more than butt-covering, but at least the Mounties have been compelled to back down. (By Lorne Gunter – Sun News – July 3, 2013)
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RCMP CLAIMS RIPPED-OFF GUN OWNERS ARE GRATEFUL: Mounties have outlined the process for flood evacuees in a flooded southern Alberta town to get their seized firearms back. The Mounties took the guns as officers searched homes in High River’s flood zone to look for flood victims, pets and anything that might pose a threat to returning residents. Some residents were up in arms that police seized their guns, and the office of Prime Minister Harper issued a directive to Mounties demanding the weapons be returned as soon as possible. The RCMP say people must present a Possession Acquisition Licence to get their weapons. If they don’t have that with them, police say they can verify the licence through the Canadian Police Information Centre computer.
Mounties say if people never had the licence, the guns can be securely stored in the police detachment until the person applies for and gets the licence. “Many gun owners whose weapons were secured have expressed appreciation to the RCMP for its assistance is protecting their possessions, some of which were worth tens of thousands of dollars,” the RCMP said in a news release. “Many others have voluntarily chosen to leave their weapons in safe storage at the RCMP where they know they do not have to worry about them while they deal with the more pressing issues of returning their homes to a livable state.” (Winnipeg Free Press — The Canadian Press — July 3, 2013)
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SHOOTING ACTIVITIES
Waterloo County Revolver Association — CDN 1800 Monthly Match Invitation: Saturday, July 27, 2013, The Waterloo County Revolver Association is located at 2278 Snyder’s Road East, Wilmot Township, Ontario. Visit our website: http://wcra.ca for information.
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CDN 1800 match – Harriston Pistol Club — Harriston, Ontario: Aug. 3 and 4 — 6 kms west of Harriston on Hwy 87, turn right onto Fire # 9317 Minto Road 7, (school road) Club is 1 km on the right hand side. Send Entry to : Roy Noone, R. R. # 6 Mount Forest, ON N0G 2L0 or phone: 519-323-3293(evenings) Please consider this as your invitation to the Harriston Pistol Club for our annual match, on August 3rd and 4th 2013.
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THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
The CSSA is the voice of the sport shooter and firearms enthusiast in Canada. Our national membership supports and promotes Canada’s firearms heritage, traditional target shooting competition, modern action shooting sports, hunting, and archery. We support and sponsor competitions and youth programs that promote these Canadian heritage activities.
To join or donate to the CSSA, visit: http://www.cdnshootingsports.org/membership.html