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COMMENTARY - MANDATORY DRUG TESTING FOR POLICE IS A GREAT IDEA
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau won the last election, in part, due to his promise to legalize marijuana in Canada. That he smoked pot as a sitting Member of Parliament didn’t bother him, and he says it shouldn’t bother Canadians either. But Trudeau’s push to legalize weed for the average Canadian raises an interesting point.
Do we want the judgment of our police officers impaired while on the job? Absolutely not!
We already have too many cases where individual police have exercised poor judgment when deploying force – both lethal and potentially lethal varieties. The death of Robert Dziekanski at the hands of four RCMP officers in Vancouver is the highest profile case in recent memory, but the Sammy Yatim case in Toronto also springs to mind. And these were cases where the cops were supposedly in full control of their faculties.
How do we ensure that the men and women sworn to protect us, our police, aren’t high on the job? It’s a reasonable question given these men and women carry firearms, tasers and other forms of “behaviour modification tools” to ensure citizens are compliant.
One Canadian believes we must have mandatory drug testing for police. As
Mathieu Gaudette explains on his Change.org petition to have police drug testing made mandatory, oil patch workers have mandatory testing for drug and alcohol use due to potential dangers in the workplace. Gaudette correctly points out that oil patch workers don’t carry guns or other devices designed to “ensure compliant behaviour” from others.
Since police officers do carry lethal weapons and are ready to deploy them at a moment’s notice, it is imperative that the judgment of those officers is not impaired. The way to ensure this is by introducing mandatory drug testing.
It simply makes sense.
We at the CSSA heartily endorse this measure but have only one request for the Prime Minister. Well, two requests actually. First, we respectfully ask that Prime Minister Trudeau implement a pilot program for police drug testing. Second, we respectfully ask that he start that pilot program with the staff at the RCMP’s
Specialized Firearms Support Services (SFSS). That's the real name of the RCMP’s Firearms Lab.
Our reasoning is simple and obvious.
Last week, the SFSS decreed – out of the blue – that all magazines designed for the innocuous Ruger 10/22 rifle which hold more than 10 rounds of .22 long rifle ammunition, are now “prohibited devices”.
Unlike the little Ruger, this is no small thing. A conviction for the possession of a prohibited device carries a
maximum penalty of 10 years in prison! That’s a pretty harsh sentence for anyone who, like thousands of CSSA members, has lawfully owned +10-round Ruger 10/22 magazines for over 30 years.
The RCMP’s rationale for this decree? The magazines for the 10/22 rifle also fit the Ruger .22 Charger pistol and, therefore, they must be banned. However, the CSSA believes the RCMP’s judgment is impaired because of the rationale used to justify its decision.
The RCMP claims that “10/22 platform magazines are designed and/or manufactured for both rifles and handguns.” This claim is patently and verifiably false.
How can a magazine designed for the Ruger 10/22 rifle – decades before Ruger's Charger pistol came into being in 2007 – possibly be “designed for handguns”?
The RATIONAL answer is obvious. The magazine was NOT designed for handguns. However, rational doesn’t appear to be a common commodity at the SFSS, hence our request to the Prime Minister to begin drug testing there – effective immediately.
When the RCMP decides with the stroke of its bureaucratic pen to arbitrarily turn hundreds of thousands of Canadians into criminals facing a potential 10 years in prison, we have to believe that the SFSS crew must be high on mind-altering substances or worse, simply crazy.
The following is transcribed directly from a recorded conversation with the RCMP Firearms Centre:
Question: Were .22 long rifle magazines originally designed for rifles?
Answer: No. A .22 long rifle calibre magazine designed for Ruger 10/22 platform rifles are also inherently designed for the handgun, for which magazines are prohibited.
The first thought that springs to mind is to question the use of the words 10/22 “platform”. This is a set-up to go after other firearm magazines by declaring different firearms to be the same because they were based on a similar “platform”. It seems that the SFSS lab techs never get tired of stoking the fires of animosity. By establishing this premise: “although certain firearms are different, any commonality makes them the same,” it is guaranteed to lead to more prohibitions.
The insertion of the word “inherently” is also problematic. Like being pregnant, a magazine either is or is not designed for a specific firearm. That a magazine fits into another firearm that it was never designed for – as is the case with the Ruger Charger pistol (and the bolt-action Ruger 77/22 rifle, the SR-22 auto-loading rifle and the Ruger 96/22 lever action) – is incidental and should not send someone to prison for 10 years.
Since the magazines were developed decades before the pistol was, it is very apparent that these other firearms were designed for the 10/22 magazine – not the magazine being designed for these firearms.
The Charger pistol was built on the 10/22 rifle frame. If you took the stock and barrel off a Charger pistol, you could conceivably attach them to any Ruger 10/22 rifle.
Does that unlikely possibility magically transform all Ruger 10/22 rifles into pistols and change their classification from non-restricted to restricted?
Of course not. That would be absurd. Just as absurd is the RCMP’s whim to classify over ONE MILLION Ruger 10/22 magazines (imported over 30 plus years) with a capacity greater than 10 rounds as prohibited devices, thereby subjecting hundreds of thousands of Canadians to a potential 10-year prison sentence.
If the folks making that decision were in the grips of “reefer madness”, we at the CSSA want to know. We hope a literal definition of “sober” second thought might be applied to this decision. Hundreds of thousands of Canadians are being seriously wronged by the RCMP’s refusal to obey the same laws demanded of us law-abiding gun owners.
The law says magazines are adjudicated based upon the firearm for which they were designed.
The SFSS needs to quit torquing the law to suit their personal interpretations. The staff there is simply making fools of themselves.
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WHAT YOU CAN DO
Hang in there! We are currently examining several options with our sister organizations and members of the industry, and we will need your participation. An announcement of our actions will come within the next few days.
Meanwhile, write a letter (paper is best, but email works) expressing your outrage to the Prime Minister of Canada, The Rt. Hon. Justin Trudeau; to the Public Safety Minister, the Hon. Ralph Goodale; and, of course, to your own federal Member of Parliament.
Please don’t waste time with petitions. Direct communication is the only sure fire route.
Express (politely) how you feel about another unwarranted attack on our community by the seemingly incompetent SFSS firearms’ lab, and request that steps be taken to reverse this attempt to turn hundreds of thousands of Canadians into instant criminals.
You can find the contact information for MPs and Minsters here:
http://www.parl.gc.ca/Parliamentarians/en/members
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Munich attack: Calls in Germany for tighter gun laws
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By the BBC | Europe Section | July 24, 2016
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Senior German politicians have called for stricter controls on the sale of guns in response to the shooting attack in Munich on Friday.
Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said everything possible should be done to limit access to deadly weapons.
David Sonboly, 18, shot dead nine people before killing himself. He had a Glock pistol and more than 300 bullets.
Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, who visited the scene of the shootings, said he planned to review gun laws.
Vigils are continuing in Munich to commemorate the victims, seven of whom were teenagers. Three were from Kosovo, three from Turkey and one from Greece.
A further 27 people were injured, 10 of them critically, as a result of the attack at the city's Olympia shopping centre, the biggest in the state of Bavaria.
Munich's police chief has called on media to respect the privacy of those affected by the attack on Monday, when schools reopen.
"For many school pupils, tomorrow will be a difficult day," said Hubertus Andrae in a tweeted statement (in German). "In some classrooms, one seat will be left empty. This is particularly hard for classmates, families and teachers."
'Strict control'
"We must continue to do all we can to limit and strictly control access to deadly weapons," Mr Gabriel, who leads the junior party in the governing coalition, the centre-left Social Democrats, told the Funke Mediengruppe news group.
He said the authorities were investigating how Sonboly, a German-Iranian dual national, had gained access to a weapon despite signs of significant psychological problems.
"Gun control is an important issue," he said.
Gun law in Germany
Germany has some of the strictest firearms controls in the world, according to a report by the US Library of Congress, and others.
Legislation was tightened still further after school shootings in Erfurt in 2002, when 16 people were killed, and Winnenden in 2009, which left 16 people dead.
Buyers younger than 25 must undergo a psychiatric evaluation before being able to acquire firearms.
Fully automatic weapons are banned outright, while semi-automatic firearms are banned for anything other than hunting or competitive shooting.
Despite the controls, the country has one of the world's highest rates of gun ownership, coming fourth behind the US, Switzerland and Finland in 2013, according to Spiegel magazine.
Mr de Maiziere, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats, told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper in a separate interview that he planned to review gun laws and seek improvements where needed.
It was critical to understand how the gunman had gained access to the pistol used, he said.
In another move, Bavaria's state interior minister, Joachim Herrmann, called for allowing the use of the army in future emergencies, such as terrorist attacks.
"We are not living in the times of the Weimar Republic," he told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper, referring to the period before Adolf Hitler took power in Germany. "We have an absolutely stable democracy."
'I bought a gun'
Police who searched Sonboly's room found evidence that he had been obsessed with gun rampages.
They noted that his attack occurred on 22 July, the fifth anniversary of Anders Behring Breivik's mass murder in Norway.
Sonboly, who also used the name Ali, had reportedly used Facebook to lure his victims to a McDonald's fast food restaurant at the mall, where he was filmed by a witness opening fire on people trying to flee.
He also shot at a man, Thomas Salbey, who remonstrated with him from the balcony of his flat, hurling a beer bottle at him.
According to Mr Salbey, Sonboly told him he had "bought a gun".
Police do not yet know how the weapon was acquired but say he had no permit for it and the serial number was obliterated.
No motive has yet been established for the attack but police have ruled out any connection to recent Islamist militant attacks in Germany and France.
The killer possessed a US book on mass killings, Why Kids Kill: Inside the Minds of School Shooters, by Peter Langman.
Speaking to the Associated Press news agency, Langman said: "Younger shooters in particular, meaning adolescents into their 20s, often research other shooters and find a role model.
"That is not something you see with the older shooters."
The author stressed that his book had been written to "keep people safe, to teach people what to look for to prevent such attacks".
Anders Behring Breivik
Breivik murdered 77 people in Norway on 22 July 2011, killing eight with a bomb in the capital Oslo before shooting dead 69 at a summer camp for young centre-left political activists on the island of Utoeya.
Now 37, he is held in solitary confinement in Norway after being sentenced to 21 years in 2012. He recently won an appeal against the tough regime of his incarceration.
He harboured radical right-wing views and said his attack was aimed at stopping Muslim immigration to Europe.
See the story: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36877388
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Open Carry at the RNC: Exactly as Expected. No Problems
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By Dean Weingarten | Ammoland.com | July 23, 2016
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Arizona – -(Ammoland.com)- Open carry in Cleveland Ohio at the Republican National Convention has been hyped by those that want to disarm the population. A scam petition was created to open carry inside the convention floor. It was run by a “progressive” to create problems for Second Amendment supporters. It did not last for long or fool many. The Quicken Loans location is a private concern.
Then the head of the Cleveland Police Patrolman’s Association published a hysterical rant about how the Constitution need not apply. He wanted the citizenry disarmed. From cnn.com:
“We are sending a letter to Gov. Kasich requesting assistance from him. He could very easily do some kind of executive order or something — I don’t care if it’s constitutional or not at this point,” Stephen Loomis, president of Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association, told CNN. “They can fight about it after the RNC or they can lift it after the RNC, but I want him to absolutely outlaw open-carry in Cuyahoga County until this RNC is over.”
Governor Kasich showed much more class and understanding of limited government, the separation of powers and Constitutionally protected rights. He said no, he did not have the power to do so.
Senator Sherrod Brown (D) Ohio, thought the Governor could do something! At least when he was talking to the Police Union. From cleveland.com:
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Sen. Sherrod Brown has joined the call for Gov. John Kasich to suspend Ohio’s open carry law during the Republican National Convention this week.
“I would hope that the governor would listen to the police union and suspend conceal and open carry in Ohio, in Cleveland, during this convention,” Brown said in an appearance in Cincinnati, as reported by BuzzFeed.
Open Carriers showed up, just as they promised. They did not bother anyone, they caused no trouble. They simply exercised their Constitutional rights. From qz.com:
Standing with their legs wide apart, their holstered guns on their hips or thighs, a handful of Donald Trump supporters decided to assert their Second Amendment rights at the America First rally in Cleveland’s riverside Settlers Landing Park on July 18, the first day of the Republican National Convention–just like they promised they would before the event.
Clayton Allen, 21, walked right up to the 8-foot fence surrounding the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.
He drove from Kentucky and he stood out from the crowd because he had a handgun strapped to his hip.
“I open-carry all the time,” Allen said. “The Republican convention would not be the exception.”
Open carriers at the RNC worked out exactly as Second Amendment supporters predicted. No problems. No one shot. Not one open carrier arrested. Governor Mary Fallin from Oklahoma reitterated what Governor Kasich had stated earlier. From cnn.com:
Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, who will attend and speak at the RNC, backed Kasich during an appearance Monday on CNN’s “New Day.”
“The governor just can’t automatically just do away with open carry,” she said. “There’s a constitution, there’s statutes, there’s laws and he has to obey those. … I take the police union’s concerns very seriously. But the governor doesn’t have, according to him, the executive power to do that.”
The Governors probably had to say that they took the Police Union President’s concerns seriously. I suppose it it the political thing to do. But there really were no concerns that deserved serious consideration. Open carry has been legal in Ohio since it was a state. It has never been a problem. It has been done in 90% of the states without a problem. Open carriers are far more law abiding than the general population. They are just people who are serious about standing up for their rights.
Near the end of the Convention, the Police Chief, who did not make a big deal about open carry, was questioned. From fox8.com:
As for the issue of Ohio’s open-carry law, the chief said that it really hadn’t been an issue at all. “Nobody’s been arrested or has challenged the things we asked them to do,” he said.
That was what was expected by people who understand the reality of open carry in the United States. That was what happened. And that is the way that it should be. The Constitution means things. Rights are not to be done away with by executive orders. Ordered liberty supports and protects civilization, it does not threaten it.
The are many things for police to be worried about in today’s society. Open carry is not a serious concern.
©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
About Dean Weingarten;
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of constitutional carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and recently retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
See the story: http://www.ammoland.com/2016/07/open-carry-rnc-exactly-expected-no-problems/
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CANADA IN THE ROUGH FOR JULY 30, 2016
YUKON MOUNTAIN MONARCHS
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Keith chases giant mountain caribou in the remote Yukon wilderness. The
encounters with moose and northern lights are epic, as they ride through the mountains by horseback. The rugged terrain and stunning landscape makes for an amazing adventure.
See the trailer:
http://www.canadaintherough.com/yukon-mountain-monarchs/
Canada in the Rough
can be found on OLN, WILD TV, and CHEX. For a full schedule, visit:
http://www.canadaintherough.com/schedules/
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Terror fears trigger Swiss run on guns
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By National - Switzerland's News in English | July 25, 2016
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There has been a marked increase in applications for gun licences in Switzerland, a development police attribute to growing insecurity.
The SonntagsBlick newspaper reported new statistics showing the number of applications increased by 17 percent last year over the previous year.
The statistics from all 26 cantons showed that there were 29,146 applications for gun ownership made in 2015.
All cantons with the exception of Jura in the northwest reported an increase. In most cases there was a double-digit jump in requests.
Demand was highest in Obwalden (plus 49 percent), Lucerne (plus 34 percent) and Zug (33 percent).
And the trend looks set to continue this year. Figures provided by the cantons of St Gallen and Basel Country showed gun sales there were up 30 percent already this year, the paper said.
The increase in gun ownership is not down to people who shoot for a hobby, according to SonntagsBlick, as the number of those belonging to gun clubs has remained constant or even fallen in recent years.
There also appears to be no connection with army weapons. It has been the case for six years that anyone wanting to hold onto an army-issue gun following the end of their military service has needed a licence.
Police sources told the paper the likely reason for the boom in applications was the rise in fears over terrorism.
The 2016 security report by the Centre for Security Studies of the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich backed this up, according to the paper.
The report found growing pessimism about the global political situation with 87 percent of the view that more needed to be done to fight terrorism.
To own a gun in Switzerland you must file an application with the police, be over 18 and be able to prove you do not pose a danger to yourself or others.
Gun owners additionally need a licence to carry their weapon, and that requires passing a test.
See the story: http://www.thelocal.ch/20160725/terror-fears-trigger-swiss-run-on-guns
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Letters: Guns not the problem in recent violence
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By Ronald K. Usner | Letter to the Editor | The Advocate | July 22, 2016
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Regarding “AR-style firearm owners defend gun,” kudos to The Advocate for printing the correct information about firearms, particularly the much maligned AR-15. Finally, a media report on firearms which was accurate and thought provoking, not fear-mongering.
If firearms are such a hazard to our country, then we should have a true and accurate debate in the public arena, and if enough voters are truly opposed to Americans owning guns, we should call a constitutional convention. Then, if the necessary two-thirds of the states agree to amend or repeal the second amendment, we could take that proper action. Instead the Democratic Party insists on constantly demonizing guns and those who own and use them. Many members of both houses of Congress are woefully ignorant of the facts concerning the types and operation of firearms, yet they propose to regulate them.
We should recall that the Second Ammendment to the U.S. Constitution says that “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed” Webster’s dictionary defines “infringe” as “to break or violate, or to encroach on.” Therefore, one could argue that virtually any laws regulating the ownership and/or use of firearms is unconstitutional.
Guns are not the problem – the criminal misuse of guns is the problem. And criminals are people who commit crimes, that is, they ignore laws, so additional gun laws will solve nothing.
There is no such thing as “gun violence”. Guns are not violent, they are inanimate tools. There is violence committed by people and sometimes these people use guns.
Ronald K. Usner
Retired Mortgage Banker
Slidell, LA
See the letter: http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/letters/article_6de9cb26-4ed5-11e6-8b40-43ad11f5d303.html
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California to require serial numbers for home-made guns
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By the Associated Press | East Bay Times California | July 23, 2016
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SACRAMENTO -- California Gov. Jerry Brown has signed legislation requiring hobbyists who assemble homemade guns to apply for a serial number and submit to a background check.
The legislation signed Friday is aimed at cracking down on untraceable firearms known as "ghost guns."
By 2019, people who own or create homemade firearms will have to apply for a serial number from the California Department of Justice and permanently affix it to the weapon.
AB857 by Assemblyman Jim Cooper of Elk Grove joins six other gun-control measures that the Democratic governor signed earlier in the month. Those included bills requiring people to turn in high-capacity magazines and background checks for ammunition sales.
See the story: http://www.eastbaytimes.com/california/ci_30161133/california-require-serial-numbers-homemade-guns
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