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WebPosted Sun Mar 11 18:50:27 2001
SASKATOON - Vowing to go to jail instead of registering their firearms, gun owners from across Canada gathered in Saskatchewan on the weekend to send a message to Ottawa.
Members of about 30 different groups are demanding the federal government rewrite legislation that took effect at the start of this year. Although the Firearms Act now states that all gun owners should have applied for licences more than two months ago, Ottawa says more than 300,000 people have not filled out the paperwork.
Such mass defiance proves that the law will never work, according to firearms enthusiasts who insist that politicians sit down with them and come up with more relaxed rules.
"I'm a gun owner, and I'm damned tired of the government branding me a social leper for being a gun owner," one man told the meeting.
"I'll go to jail, and they'll fine me and I won't pay a fine," said another man. "They have to let me out sometime."
But Ottawa says the figure 300,000 represents only about 15 per cent of gun owners in Canada, and is confident the minority will eventually comply with the new regulations.
Licences are needed to obtain guns or ammunition, and to use firearms. Canadians are also supposed to have all weapons registered by 2003, according to the new law.
But opponents argue the legislation targets the rights of honest citizens, and wastes taxpayers' money on administration and enforcement, without making the country any safer.
Uploaded: 3/16/2001
Uploaded: 3/16/2001