in E News TEAM CSSA E-NEWS – Jan. 20, 2014
TEAM CSSA E-NEWS – Jan. 20, 2014
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COMMENTARY: ANTI-NRA HOLLYWOOD FLICK WILL BE PROPAGANDA 101 LESSON
We couldn’t make this up in our most creative moment – Miramax magnate Harvey Weinstein and Meryl Streep are going to make a movie that will make National Rifle Association members “wish they weren’t alive.”
It may be the scariest film Weinstein ever made, and that’s something in the wake of films like Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown and Django Unchained. His blockbuster NRA hatefest will no doubt be completely factual, right up until the opening credits.
Weinstein is a wealthy, plugged-in Democrat who has raised tons of money for Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. The irony, of course, is that Weinstein has put over-the-top gun violence on every movie screen in the world – for profit. He is his own worst enemy and doesn’t know it. Weinstein claims to hate guns and says no one should be allowed to own one. This movie should open with Meryl Streep trying to put toothpaste back in the tube and then trying to un-ring a bell. Weinstein decries the mass shootings in schools and movie theatres, blissfully unaware that his life’s work may have played a role in them. His hypocrisy is staggering.
The not-so-shy-and-retiring rocker and NRA director Ted Nugent, predicted during the January 16 radio broadcast of Cam & Company that Weinstein is only stoking the pro-gun fire: “I know that God is inspiring the subhuman punk Weinstein to create what is going to be the most powerful promotion tool for the NRA ever, because people are smarter than he acknowledges… (People) will see that Joseph Goebbels and Saul Alinsky is alive in the form of a fat punk named Harvey Weinstein, and as he tries to destroy the NRA it will backfire on him… Harvey Weinstein is on the side of criminals. The NRA is on the side of innocent victims protecting themselves from criminals.”
Weinstein and Streep might actually believe that Hollywood is the solution to firearms violence. But, there is evidence that a century of firearms violence on the silver screen may be at least part of the problem. In a world where movie actors who portray doctors are frequently asked for medical advice by some fans, it’s possible that a few people might emulate a movie that suggests firearms can make a statement. The Weinstein Company has served up a steady diet of violence on which deranged losers can gorge in the real world.
A movie that characterizes firearms rights advocates as monsters may find a small audience among gullible gun-haters. Perhaps they will cast Jim Carrey as the next president of the United States, too. Unfortunately, this film folly will waste considerable resources and talent trying to pillory the good guys who would never use firearms to promote abject violence. The NRA has a vested interest in finding practical ways to avoid mass shootings. Yet the input and knowledge that the NRA has to offer falls on deaf ears within anti-gun circles, where twisted logic dictates that taking guns away from good people will somehow increase public safety.
As our guitar-slinging friend at the NRA duly forewarns, Weinstein, Streep and their ilk are trying to give criminals exactly what they want.
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“Quis costodiet ipsos custodes?”
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COMMENTARY: CSSA HOLDS SHOT SHOW RECEPTION IN LAS VEGAS
The Canadian Shooting Sports Association (CSSA) was delighted to host a reception for Canadian firearms industry reps who attended the Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade Show (SHOT Show) in Las Vegas last week.
The CSSA’s Canadian SHOT Show Reception was a huge success and attracted over 150 people connected with our own Canadian firearms industry, journalists and VIP’s. It was sponsored by the CSSA, Browning Canada, Calibre Magazine, Canada Ammo, Marstar Canada, O’Dell Engineering, PGW Defence Technologies, R. Nicholls (F.N. Sports), Select Shooting Supplies, T.E.C. Trade Ex Canada, Trigger Wholesale, and the Canadian Sporting Arms and Ammunition Association (CSAAA).
The 2014 SHOT Show set attendance records from January 14 to 17 at the Sands Expo & Convention Center. A Sun News crew covered the event that attracted hundreds of Canadian industry professionals who make a living from selling firearms, ammunition, outdoor gear and law enforcement equipment. The 36th SHOT Show attracted a more than 67,000 industry reps from some 100 countries, which is 5,000 more attendees than any previous year. The general public is not invited to the show, as it targets industry buyers seeking inventory for the upcoming year. Put simply, these numbers prove that the industry is on an unprecedented roll.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) based in Newtown, Connecticut owns and manages the SHOT Show. The NSSF says the multi-billion-dollar industry has enjoyed robust sales in recent years and welcomed many newcomers to the shooting sports, many of whom are young, urban-based and female. SHOT Show consists of more than 1,600 exhibiting companies with exhibition space of 635,000 net square feet – that’s 13 acres of product display.
Many firearms experts believe that the increased sales and interest in sport shooting has been juiced by U.S. government threats to invoke gun controls that would serve only to disadvantage responsible gun owners. According to the NSSF, newcomers have identified target shooting and personal and home protection as the top reasons for purchasing their first firearm.
The NSSF also provides educational opportunities for firearms retailers at SHOT Show University and other seminars, and for law enforcement professionals at the Law Enforcement Education Program. The SHOT Show injects more than $73 million into the Las Vegas economy and will be held at the same location next year on January 20-23.
On a humbler size and scale, we hope Canada’s firearms industry reps will join us for the CSAAA INDUSTRY TRADE SHOW this year in Edmonton, Alberta at the River Cree Casino on Feb 14-16. The show is also not open to the general public, and targets shooting sports retailers, distributors and manufacturers from across the country. Details are available by sending an email to [email protected] or calling the CSAAA office at 613-687-4775.
Let’s show Canadian sport shooters that our industry is on a roll, too!
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HELP SUPPORT THE GREAT WORK THE CSSA DOES TO PROTECT YOUR RIGHTS. DONATE HERE
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CSSA CLUB LEVEL INSTRUCTORS – CLUB LEVEL HANDGUN SAFETY AND RANGE SAFETY OFFICER – A FEW OPENINGS STILL AVAILABLE:
Response to the small number of vacancies we had in our instructor training course was so large that we have decided to do it again to try and accommodate the demand for the courses in the southern Ontario area. We will be running the two day course again on February 1 and 2 in our office classroom by Toronto Pearson Airport. As always, space is very limited so sign up for this course as soon as possible to ensure your seat. Please send your requests to [email protected]. The cost of each course is $40, for a total of $80 for the weekend. Class starts at 8:30 am and runs to approximately 4:00 pm.
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WE NEED YOUR HELP AT THE TORONTO SPORTSMAN SHOW: Got some time to donate? Want to have some fun and talk some guns? We need your help to staff the Toronto Sportsman’s Show which runs from February 6-9, 2014, just a few weeks away. If you can spare us some time please contact Mike Duynhoven at [email protected].
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RIGHT EDITION AMMO DRAW AWARDS 11,000 ROUNDS: The Ammo Draw sponsored by the Right Edition hosted by Brian Lovig has a winner. Chris Coleman of Cairo, Illinois was awarded with 11,000 rounds of .22 calibre ammo in a draw made by rock star Ted Nugent at the SHOT Show in Las Vegas. With ammunition scarce and expensive in the U.S. due to escalating demand, the Ammo Draw was popular on both sides of the border. The Right Edition was covering the SHOT Show for future programming. Check out Brian Lovig’s popular Right Edition at http://rightedition.com
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ALBERTA TRAPPERS SHOW COMING IN JULY: The Alberta Trappers Association is proud to hold their 41st. Annual Rendezvous and Outdoorsman Show in Drayton Valley AB on July 18-19, 2014 at the Drayton Valley Omniplex/McKenzie Conference Centre. Vendors and participants can get info by emailing [email protected] or visiting www.albertatrappers.com. Go to http://www.draytonvalley.ca/ for more information on the Drayton Valley. For general information or if you would like to volunteer your time, please contact Linda Hanson at the ATA at 780-349-6626. For sponsorships or competitor information on the *Winter Kidner Ultimate Trappers Competition* please contact Gary Godberson at [email protected] or call 780-514-0494.
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GUN & MILITARIA SHOW: This Sunday Jan 26th to be held at “Woodstock Fairgrounds” 875 Nellis St, Woodstock. From HWY # 401 take HWY #2 west and just five minutes into town and watch for Gun Show & Fairgrounds signs on the right. 7:30 am to 1:00 pm guests $5.00 ladies & accompanied children under 16 free. Lots of free parking, and a good snack bar is available. 180 + tables so plenty to see Buy, Sell & Trade. for more information please call Monica at 905-679-8812 Other upcoming shows can be seen at www.ontariogunshows.com Thank you and have a good day & drive safe.
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PUBLIC SAFETY MINISTER WALKS THE WALK: On Wednesday, Minister of Public Safety Steven Blaney posted to Facebook a picture of himself attending a Canadian Firearms Safety Course. Blaney can now apply for a Possession and Acquisition License (PAL), which will allow him to purchase firearms and ammunition – presuming the high-ranking Cabinet minister passes mandatory security checks. Blaney’s office indicated that the Minister completed both the non-restricted and restricted course, meaning he can apply for a license allowing the purchase of both long-guns and handguns.
Blaney’s director of communications, Jean-Christophe de Le Rue, said Blaney was “pleased” to take the course and “looks forward to many years of participating in this sport that is a part of our Canadian heritage.” De Le Rue would not say whether or not Blaney intends to purchase firearms once licensed. Qualified instructors of the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters (OFAH) administered the course to Blaney and a number of his staff.
Greg Farrant, Manager of Government Affairs and Policy at OFAH, said his organization was happy to provide the course: “Firearms owners in this country are safe and trained. It’s good to have a firsthand experience. We’re very pleased the minister did that. Given the fact that he’s responsible for firearms safety, [Minister Blaney] felt it important that he experience the same course as everyone else,” explained Farrant.
The Minister’s portfolio includes both the Canadian Firearms Program and the RCMP. According to the RCMP, there were 1.9 million individuals legally licensed to own firearms in Canada as of September 2013. De La Rue touted the Conservatives elimination of the much-maligned long-gun registry, noting that they will “always stand up for law-abiding hunters from every region.” He also indicated that further reforms might be on the way, saying they will “continue to take action to reduce needless red tape” for law-abiding firearms owners. Blaney was first elected in January 2006 and is the MP for the Quebec riding of Lévis-Bellechasse, just south of Quebec City. He was named the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness in July 2013. (Sun News – January 17, 2014)
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GUN VIOLENCE COMPARED IN CANADA AND U.S. – BOTH WAY DOWN: An old friend of mine lamented Tuesday night in a Facebook post: “What are we going to do about the gun violence?”
Tuesday had been a violent day in TV Land, with a middle school shooting in New Mexico and a gun homicide in a movie theater in Florida. It was grim. I wanted to respond to my friend and did some research. And I quickly found a study by the respected Pew Center, a not for profit, research organization. What I read confounds the widespread belief that America is degenerating into a modern version of the Gunfight at the OK Corral.
Guess what? Gun murders are not up. They’re down. Way down.
“Gun Homicide Rate Down 49 percent Since 1993 Peak; Public Unaware,” headlined the Pew study, released in May 2013. “Gun homicides, violent gun crime and violent crime overall have fallen since the early 1990s. While there is little agreement as to the cause of these declines, the aging of the population, declining crack cocaine usage and rising incarceration rates may have each contributed,” Pew said.
And yet, 56 percent of us believe such crime has gone up; only 12 percent believe it has gone down.
“Women, non-whites and adults ages 30 and older are the most likely to say that gun crime rates have risen. Women and older adults are among the least likely to be victimized.”
So, the people least likely to be victimized are the ones most likely to believe gun crime is up! The study says gun homicide “was the fifth leading cause of violent death in 2010. The vast majority (84 percent) of gun homicide victims are male, with seven out of 10 are ages 18 to 40. Younger adults account for a disproportionate share of gun homicide victims relative to their share of the population.”
However, while blacks are 13 percent of the population, they are 55 percent of the victims of gun homicide. Hispanics are 17 percent of the victims and 16 percent of the population. Whites are 65 percent of the population but just 25 percent of the victims.
Here are more “bet you didn’t know” facts: “Gun suicides were the fourth leading cause of violent death in 2010 after motor vehicle accidents, unintentional poisoning (including drug overdose) and falls. As gun homicides have fallen, gun suicides now account for six-in-10 gun deaths, compared with about half in the mid-90s.”
Read the study, “Gun Violence in America,” at pewsocialtrends.org. You’ll find that not only is gun homicide down, all violent crime is way down. The study is easy to read and there are lots of charts and graphs. You will learn, for instance, that “In 2010, there were 3.6 gun homicides per 100,000 people, compared with 7 in 1993 … In 2010, the Centers for Disease Control counted 11,078 gun homicide deaths, compared with 18,253 in 1993.”
Gun crime is still too high in the U.S., population 314 million. By contrast, Canada has just half of a homicide death per 100,000 people.
In Canada, population 35 million, “just 158 homicides were committed with a firearm (in 2011,) 13 fewer than the year before and the lowest number of gun-related homicides in almost 50 years,” said a 2012 United Press International report.
While guns accounted for 27 percent of Canada’s 598 homicides in 2011, more victims – 35 percent – were stabbed to death.
Any homicide is one too many, but let’s recognize success when it slaps us in the face. We are getting safer as a society, and that’s a good thing. Now, if we legalize recreational marijuana use, perhaps we can put the tax-gorging criminal justice industrial complex out of business, or at least cut it down to a fifth its size. (By Chuck Sweeny – rrstar.com – 815-987-1366 — [email protected]; @chucksweeny)
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CANADIAN GUN REGISTRY TECH FIRM FIRED BY U.S. GOV’T: Proving once again that if you want something done wrong, and preferably at massive cost overruns, then just leave it to the government, moments ago news broke that the main IT contractor behind the embarrassment that is healthcare.gov – CGI Federal – has been fired.
Who could possibly foresee this? Well, anyone who had actually done some diligence on the clusterf**k that is CGI Federal, and which as WaPo profiled some time ago, “is filled with executives from a company that mishandled at least 20 other government IT projects, including a flawed effort to automate retirement benefits for millions of federal workers, documents and interviews show.” Make that 21.
“A year before CGI Group acquired AMS in 2004, AMS settled a lawsuit brought by the head of the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, which had hired the company to upgrade the agency’s computer system. AMS had gone $60 million over budget and virtually all of the computer code it wrote turned out to be useless, according to a report by a U.S. Senate committee.” Sounds like the perfect people to hire in order to make a complete disaster out of the Obamacare portal – almost as if by design.
But the best news? Obama’s little tryst with CGI Federal cost US taxpayers only $292 million. As Vanity Fair revealed recently, “According to congressional testimony, CGI stands to be paid $292 million for its work on healthcare.gov.” And since the CGI replacement will eventually redo everything from scratch, this is $292 million that Obama may have as well burned.
We jest, but the incest between the Obama administration and CGI will one day be probed. According to recent revelations the ties run deep:
That lack of expertise explains why in building healthcare.gov, the government turned to industry contractors; in particular, to CGI Federal, a subsidiary of CGI Group, a Canadian company. To those uninitiated in the dark art of government contracting, it seems scandalous that CGI, a company most Americans had never heard of, a company that is not located in Silicon Valley (where President Obama has plenty of Internet superstar friends who could have formed a dazzling brain trust to implement his signature legislation) but rather in Montreal, could be chosen as the lead contractor for the administration’s most important initiative. While right-wing news outlets have focused on the possible relationship between Toni Townes-Whitley, senior vice president for civilian-agency programs at CGI Federal, and Michelle Obama, both of whom were 1985 Princeton graduates, CGI’s selection is probably more an example of a dysfunctional system than it is a scandal…
See the rest at http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-01-10/292-million-down-drain-white-house-fires-main-obamacare-it-contractor (By Tyler Durden – zerohedge.com – January 10, 2014)
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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
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CANADIAN SHOOTING SPORTS ASSOCIATION / CANADIAN INSTITUTE FOR LEGISLATIVE ACTION
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