in Right Edition Calgary Gun Show
Calgary Gun Show
Dealers at this year’s Calgary Gun Show say that stricter rules on trigger locks go too far.
The province is starting to enforce a trigger-lock law designed to make handling and transporting guns safer. The law has been in place for 15 years but hasn’t been enforced until now. Dealers say that the precaution is unnecessary.
“We don’t look at them as a very safe device,” says Hank Holm, president of the Alberta Arms and Cartridge Collectors’ Association. “If you put these mechanical key trigger locks onto an action rifle, the action can still be operated, it can still be loaded and if you jerk on the trigger lock, you can fire the gun.”
Until this year, vendors have been using strong plastic ties, a system they say has worked without incident for more than 50 years.
“Before we used zip ties,” says Steve Gallupe. “It prevents the trigger from being depressed or the action from being opened. No issues.”
Since many vendors at this year’s gun show didn’t have time to get the chains and locks needed under the law, it’s not clear what fines — if any — they might face from officials.
“After 15 years of no action, all of a sudden the [Chief Firearm Officer] decided he should act upon it,” says Holm. “He did this maybe a month before the show and we didn’t have a chance to be prepared.”
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/gun-dealers-not-trigger-happy-1.1308378
Time to shoot down provincial gun cops’ ability to harass law-aibiding owners
The subversive attacks on law-abiding gun owners by provincial Chief Firearms Officers show why it was a mistake for the federal government to stop just with the dismantling of the long-gun registry. The Harper Tories should have carried through with their original promise to repeal the whole of the contentious 1995 law, Bill C-68, not just the useless, expensive, intrusive registry.
The CFOs, as the top provincial gun cops are known, now appear to be using the remnants of C-68 — licensing, storage, gun-show permits, etc. — to harass legitimate gun owners in a manner similar to what the registry provided. It is not too hard to imagine the CFOs hope they can make complying with their edicts and regulations complicated and aggravating enough that existing sport shooters, collectors and hunters will be encouraged to give up their hobbies and a new generation of potential gun owners will be discouraged from taking up firearms pastimes.
Take the example of the Calgary Gun Show, going on this weekend. The show is 51 years old and the largest gun show in the country. It has never had a single safety incident or accident in its history.
It’s not a surprise that the Calgary show has a pristine safety record. Registered gun owners as a class have a far lower crime rate and far higher gun-safety rate than the public as a whole. These are folks who know and respect guns, and understand how to use and display them safely.
To the extent this country has a problem with gun crime, it is not the fault of law-abiding gun owners. Try drug dealers and gang members.