pt three years This Week March 7, 1990. Page M15 Rony eh LD & TOP STORY Continued from Page 14 The figures from south of the border indicate that when guns are readily available, they are used. The numbers make a lie of the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) assertion that “ouns don’t kill people, people kill people.” “Qur major con- cern is accidental shooting deaths. 4 ago in Victoria we had a three-year old child acciden- tally shot by her sister with a .303 rifle. It’s tragedies such as this that have to be ad- dressed through gun control legisla- tion,” said Richardson. Domestic disputes, especially those involving drugs or alcohol, in homes where firearms are kept, is also dyna- here’s something about guns that bring out the emotions in people. Some recoil in hor- ror at the thought of them. They view them merely as evil imple- ments of destruction. To others, guns ean be a work of art - a marvel of engineering to be appreciated. Guns are tools that have changed the world. They are to be studied, collected, cherished and used in a sport that is rapidly gaining world-wide populani- Colin James fits into the latter cate- gory. He’s one of the most avid collec- tors of firearms in the region. He uy» studies them, shoots them and even makes a living from them - you'll find him behind the counter at a popular local sporting good shop most days. Colin James is not his real name - he Tnite. “The knowledge of the firearm in the residence can result in homicide or serious injury. It’s the same with teen suicides. The NRA proponents would argue the individual would probably commit suicide whether or not there was a firearm available. The fact is that the person who is in a depressed state is aware of that fire- arm and has access to it.” Richardson ad- mits that the new gun legislation have stopped Marc Lepine from committing the slaughter that he carried out in Montreal. “Individuals such as Marc Lepine have a mission. They will carry out that mission and undertake whatever be competitive if you do. Combat shooting is done at the North Saanich Rod and Gun Club, the Victoria Fish and Game Club and also at the Juan de Fuca Rod and Gun Club. “Some of the legitimate target shooters - people who shoot small bore firearms - don’t look on it as being a proper sport. They think it’s glorifying warfare. That really, in my opinion is a very silly way of looking at it. That's like saying football is glorifying bat- tle, which it is. I mean, you're pitting a team against a team, and the idea is to pound the other guy into the ground.” James points out that since combat shooting has started as a sport, there have been no fatalities or serious injuries. would not likely - means is required to complete that mission. It was the same with the incident in the Quebec Legislature — the Lorti incident.” Marc Lepine used a 30-cartridge clip in the Sturm Ruger semi-automatic weapon that created mayhem in the school in Montreal. Richardson agrees with the politician who asked why a 30-shot clip was available for non- military use. “After all, you don’t need that for hunting purposes. That's not very sporting to take a semi-automatic ri- fle in the bush for hunting deer.” For those who don’t understand the difference between a conventional, semi, automatic weapon and an auto- matic weapon, it basically comes ball game. The paint ball game is glorifying warfare. Everyone goes out ~ there and shoots paint balls at each other, wears themselves to a frazzle and has a hoot. Anywhere you have a sport where you can get out there and vent frustrations in an extremely safe manner - why not?” James says he loves guns but he doesn’t subscribe to the National Rifle Association’s often-touted maxim that guns don’t kill people, people do. “That’s true but of course, that argument has gone in a thousand different directions since it was-first made. Of course, the counter reply to that is ‘if there were no guns then people couldn’t use guns to kill peo- ple’. That’s true, theyd have to use knives or baseball bats.” “There are Many instances where down to the way the cartridges are maneuvered into the chamber of a firearm. An automatic weapon will fire in rapid succession with one squeeze of the trigger. A semi-automatic re- quires one squeeze for each shot. A conventional fire- arm requires a squeeze of the trig- ger than a manual reload to lever a shell into the chamber. Fully automatic weapons are totally prohibited in Cana- da. However, gun collectors who had possession of a fully automatic weapon that was rendered inoperable prior to 1978, are permit- ted to retain those weapons. A particularly nasty weapon often Continued on Page 16 “Gun laws penalize honest citizens” related.” He said it’s much the same in the case of auto-related injuries and de- aths. A large number involve alcohol or drugs. James says it’s natural for people to take a hard-line stance on gun con- trol. He says it can be equated to the union-employer relationship where “if you give an inch they'll take a mile.” He’s afraid that Canadians are be- coming much too restrictive. “You say , OK it’s alright, we can say no more sub-machine gums and the next thing they say no more hand- guns either then the next thing you know it’s like in England where they say no more semi-automatic rifles, then what’s next. The next thing you know, you're like Japan which says you cannot personally own a firearm. consented to an interview with This Week on the condi- tion that he remain anony- mous. After all, gun collec- tors’ homes become targets for thieves and other crimi- nals. Most serious gun collec- tors take extensive security precautions to guard against break-ins or thefts, said James. The last thing he wants is for some petty crook ~ to get his hands on part of his collection. Some collectors never take their weapons out of their home while others enjoy the pleasures of collecting and using their guns. James likes using his guns F- combat shooting is one of F his favorite ways to make |. .— See a S ~< use his firearms. It’s a rela- tively new sport that resem- bles in many ways, the courses FBI agents are put through. “Tt’s generally a course of fire that’s set up based on a number aspects - speed, accuracy and the ability to think under stress - the stress of the situation being that you are trying to shoot accurately and with a given time. It’s a very active sport and one that is very enjoyable.” It’s also an expensive sport. If you want to become proficient at it, you'd better be prepared to shoot 200 to 300 rounds a week. To be competitive, you'll need above average equipment - two pistols at between $1,200 to $2,000 each. “Fven if youre a reloader and you're practising seriously to the tune of 250 to 500 rounds a week to be really competitive, you're looking at a cost of $40 to $50 per week, not including your reloading time.” “You should be prepared to invest a fair amount of money. It’s like any sport - you don’t go in to auto racing with your old Ford. You’re not going to SEMI AUTOMATIC FIREARMS such as the Sturm Ruger 223 ca available is you have a firearms aquisition certificate (FAC) “Compare that with football, which every season has how many dozen accidents and how many fatalities? Nobody in their right mind would ever want to watch football because it's a very dangerous sport.” Combat shooting, on the other hand is very safe. James points out. “In fact, one of the big premises around combat shooting is that safety is number one. Anyone who ever comes to a combat shoot and does something unsafe is kicked out imme- diately. They can be barred from the club. They can be barred from compe- tition altogether. We just don’t want anyone in the shooting sports acting in an unsafe manner.” To those who are critical of combat shooting, James says “So what?” “The sport has proven to be incredi- bly safe. So where’s the harm. If a guy can go out and vent his frustration shooting up a lot of paper and doesn’t flip out and do it any other way - get them all out there. It’s like the paint I'd have to admit if a person, in the heat of passion, didn’t have a firearm, they might not kill the person. They might just beat them to a pulp. Even- tually they will get killed. The situa- tion, unless it’s diffused somehow, will still happen.” “Pye known a lot of police on a lot of different police forces. They all agree that domestic disputes are one of the biggest problems. They say “We go to six or eight domestics before some- body dies. We generally say it’s not whether but when. Unless the couple is broken up, something is going to happen.’ It’s unfortunate that a lot of the times there’s a firearm handy. It’s also unfortunate that a lot of the time - there’s a baseball bat, knives, lamps, chairs.” James says it’s the “anti-gunners” that like to put so much emphasis on the fact that a firearm was used as a weapon. “I’m more inclined to say that 85 per cent of those incidents are alcohol |. and the Mini 30 are widely If you want to join a club, the rifle stays in the club and it can’t be removed. There’s no private possession of fire- arms except by police. “People say ‘ook at Japan, they have no firearm de- aths’. That’s true but they have one of the highest sui- cide rates in the world. They also have a multi-million dollar organization down in the States that has char- tered trips for Japanese businessmen to fly over to the United States to shoot sub-machines. They fill up the plane every time.” “They've taken the guns away from the private peo- ple in the country but they certainly haven’t stopped the criminals in Japan from owning them. The criminal doesn’t pay any attention to that law anyway. The busi- nessman has a lot to lose but the criminal . . . the last thing he’s worried about when he shoots a bunch of people in a bank is that he’s got an illegal gun. “The criminal is really beyond the law from that point of view. When you're flying in from Bolivia with a few hundred pounds of cocaine is your big concern that you've got a couple of illegal machine guns? Hard- ly. The criminal simply doesn’t care.” “T don’t know of any big collector who is willing to jeopardize his time and investment by doing soinething stupid. “The guy who doesn’t care is the criminal and he’s going to buy a gun which was stolen.” James disagrees with the proposed legislation to increase the cost of FACs to $100 from $10 each. He said the move will “help kill the gun business.” “Tt think it’s an assinine idea. Once again, they’re going to penalize hon- est citizens.”