#307. January, 1997.
Bert Chapman, R.I.P.
We are sad to announce the recent passing of Bert Chapman at age 81.
Bert was born in London, England and christened in Romsay Abbey. He passed
away in Toronto, November 7, 1996. He is survived by Ruth, 79, his devoted
wife of many years, and by his son Albert Chapman, 56, and daughter Ruth
Chapman, 54. Bert Chapman was a bricklayer by trade and belonged to Local
2 of the Bricklayers' Union. However, Bert's greatest contributions to
our civilization were to be his defence of law-abiding gun owners, and
the victims of communism. He was one of the founding members of the Ontario
Arms Collectors' Association, established in 1951, and the Golden Mile
Handgun Club. He served for many years as president of both. He was a life
time member of the St. George Society and the National Rifle Association
of America. He later joined the Canadian National Firearms Association.
Whenever the federal government tried to pass oppressive gun control legislation,
Bert was outspoken in representing the interests of gun owners.
Aside from the gun control fight, Bert was often in the forefront fighting
for the preservation of the English language and Angl-Saxon culure. He
was a member of the Monarchist League of Canada and APEC, the Alliance
for the Preservation of Engish in Canada. He was a lifetime member of the
Progressive Conservative Party. He was one of the early members of the
Edmund Burke Society, joining in 1968, when he saw some Burkers counterpicketing
followers of Cesar Chavez during one of their innumerable grape boycotts
of Toronto supermarkets. On his EBS membership application at the time,
he listed then presidential candidate Gov.
George Wallace as the person who came closest to his political ideal,
and said that his major concern was that he was "fed up with a degenerating
society." During the war in Vietnam, he staunchly defended the victims
of communism and participated in many EBS demonstrations against the defeatist
peaceniks. Bert Chapman saw himself as a common man but his contributions
were significant. He spoke on Allan Rock's latest gun confiscation measures
to an Alternative Forum in June, 1994. We shall miss him.
Urmas A. Toming
Update on Gun Control: The Confiscations
& Police Raids Continue
Although the regulations for Justice Minister Rock and Prime Minister
Chretien's anti-gun law are still under Parliamentary review, over-zealous
authorities have now declared open season with a vengeance on gun dealers
and gun owners. In Metro Toronto, several major firearms retailers have
been forced out of business; for example, Hallam Sporting Goods of Markham
and Military Antiques of Scarborough, after being charged with trafficking
in firearms. In both these cases, their owners were alleged to have sold
guns to persons without a permit. The dealer inventories -- worth nearly
a million dollars -- were seized, and now the owners face draconian fines
and/or prison, in addition to the loss of their business and property.
Military Antiques was deliberately set up by an undercover police provocateur,
who, posing as a member of the underworld, offered big bucks for a weapon.
As
usual, police spouted self-serving drivel to justify the enormous cost
of their raids -- they even called in the army -- and to smear lawful gunowners
in general, by creating public hysteria. An ancient bazooka was displayed
as a horrible example at a press conference. It is just a hollow metal
tube, useless without its rocket, and where would anyone get that? With
the same logic, the police should have seized the cannons at Fort York
or outside the Moss Park Armory. Not content with that, as reported in
the Toronto Star (December 12, 1996), a six-month investigation resulted
in the seizure of over 1,500 guns, apparently mostly hunting weapons, in
six cities in Southern Ontario. Charges of conspiracy, trafficking and
illegal possession were laid against peaceful gunowners who were unaware
of Rock's latest tyrannical regulations. This police witch hunt was carried
out by the recently created Provincial Weapons Enforcement Unit, staffed
by RCMP, Canada Customs, OPP and local police from eight metropolitan regions
of Ontario. As police made loud noises about taking guns off the streets,
to whip up hysteria against gun dealers and owners, the real criminals
in Toronto carried on bumping off one another, with guns the police had
somehow overlooked. This truly makes one wonder whether the police budget
is well spent.
What is going on here? Allan Rock's tyrannical Bill C-68 has made it
very difficult, with lots of red tape, to buy any hunting gun. So, dealers
are now stuck with huge inventories of unsold guns. Now, they are vulnerable
to offers from persons without permits or from police provocateurs anxious
to get a promotion and put retailers out of business. As an additional
result, lawful owners now find it increasingly difficult to buy parts,
accessories, or ammunition for their weapons, when dealers go out of business.
Like Chretien, Allan Rock seems to have little regard for truth. In 1994,
(See C-FAR #306), Rock said that registration would not entail confiscation
and would not cost gunowners anything. In February, 1995, he said: "We
should respect hunting ... as contributing to the prosperity of a number
of regions throughout Canada." When Reform MP Garry Breitkreuz, in
November, 1996, asked Rock, who had promised that C-68 would do no harm,
to reassure people who depend on the firearms industry, Rock gave no such
assurance and attacked the MP and the Reform Party for asking the question.
As hunting activity contributed $2.76-billion to the Canadian economy in
1991, Rock's conduct is reprehensible. Breitkreuz later commented: "It's
sad when we liove in a country where even the Minister of Justice doesn't
keep his promises." (Garry Breitkreuz News Release, November 8, 1996)
Now the writing is on the wall for gunowners everywhere as authorities
declare open season on them. In one Metro region, the policewoman who is
local Firearms Registrar takes the view that she doesn't have to issue
permits. The Toronto businessman, who had his $60,000 collection seized
because of lies by a common-law wife, was turned down by a judge when he
applied to get his property back. The Toronto gun owner with an obsolete
WW II rifle lost everything when erroneously charged by a vindictive cop
with having an over-capacity magazine. A collector who went to register
his gun lost it for over a year, while police tried to fire it in fully
automatic mode. In one case, they even manufactured parts so they could
do this, and then declared the gun illegal! This is what is going on, as
the gun confiscators trample the rights of legitimate gun owners.
Any doubt about the government's intention to completely disarm Canadians
can be dispelled by the latest regulations to implement Bill C-68, as outlined
in the Guide to Proposed Firearms Regulations, published by the Justice
Department in November, 1996. (Phone toll-free, 1-800-731-4000 for your
free copy, and be sure to thank Mr. Rock). As the regulations are still
under review, it's not too late to complain to your MP. The provisions
were framed after consulting "key stakeholders"; such as, health
professionals (doctors) and women's organizations. (p.1) Both groups are
irrelevant in view of the extremely low number of deaths from firearms.
In any case, why should women's lib types, who have a built-in prejudice
against men and guns, have any input in this matter? Why should the self-appointed,
self-serving and state-funded Wendy Cukier of the Coalition for Gun Control
have any input either? What do thsse people know about guns? Obviously
Rock and company are out to get the gunowners, regardless of the fact that
you are seven times more likely to die in a car accident than from gunshot
wounds. Only an estimated 450 persons die annually from guns, in a population
of 30-million. This includes police shootings of criminals. Knives kill
far more people in Canada than guns do. As yet, Allan "The Confiscator"
Rock hasn't proposed the licensing or confiscation of knives.
By January 2001, there be will licence fees and registration fees.
For example, a handgun owner will pay a total of $90. To buy a gun or ammunition,
you must have your licence scanned by the retailer, through a machine linked
by computer to the central Registry of Firearms, thanks to Big Brother
Rock! To acquire a gun, a new applicant must provide the name, current
address, and telephone number of every spouse or common-law partner with
whom he/she has lived within the past two years. There is also a 28-day
waiting period to enable police enquiries. (p.4) To believe the bureaucrats,
police have to protect your privacy, (p.9) but how is that possible if
they ask neighbours or ex-wives if you should have a gun?
Additional thrills await the new applicant. He must take a safety course
and pass an exam in the use of firearms and knowledge of the law. All kinds
of irrelevant and even stupid questions on the exam can be used to flunk
applicants at the whim of the bureaucrats. For example, you may be asked
about the muzzle velocity of a magnum handgun, when all you want to do
is buy a shotgun to go duck hunting. In one recent case, the president
of a gun club failed this stupid exam. In aboriginal communities, the intention
(p.8) is to water down the law. This means that the aboriginals will have
special privileges to which most Canadians are not entitled. What can we
expect when Indians confront our army and police with fully automatic weapons,
as they did at Oka, and nothing is done? Now some violent smugglerl on
the reserve, armed with a gun will have more rights than a responsible
gunowner in Toronto, Calgary, or Vancouver, thanks to the spine-rotting
liberalism to which we are becoming accustomed.
To sum up, it is open season on the estimated 7-million lawful gunownerrs
who comprise 25 per cent of our population. They have one chance: to elect
a Reform government which will repeal Bill C-68 before it takes full effect.
It is possible to organize now to defeat Rock, Chretien and the other enemies
of freedom in the next election. Let's declare open season on them and
vote gun banners and centurions of the New World Order out!
John H. Morgan, M.A. (Oxon), MBA
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