noes Paina This Week March ; ~ TOP STORY n the wake of the Montreal massacre in December, when Marc Lepine took the lives of 13 women at the Ecole Polytechnic, there have been calls for tighter gun controls. Canada already has gun regulations which are among the tightest in the world but the issue of firearms is an emotional one — each time an incident occurs, the anti-gun lobby agitates for even more stringent regulations and invariably, some poli- ticians take up the cause. John Manley, Member of Parlia- ment for Ottawa South: recently in- troduced Bill C- 273, an act to amend the Crimi- nal Code pertain- ing to gun control. The bill has alrea- dy received first reading in the House of Com- mons. _ Manley has can- vassed all members of the Canadian Chiefs of Police and has received over- whelming support for his new legisla- tion. Superinten- dent Doug Richard- son of the Victoria Police is a member of the group which supports the bill. The new legisla- tion would make several significant changes to present gun control laws. One of the big changes would require that a separ- ate firearms acquisition certificate (FAC) be obtained for each weapon purchased. The cost of an FAC would jump from $10 to $100. At present, a ‘FAC would permit the holder to pur- chase any number of firearms. To obtain an FAC, evidence would have to be provided to a firearms registrar, that the owner has the facilities for the safe storage of the firearm. The applicant would have to complete a recognized course on fire- arms safety and a test. The age for acquiring a FAC would increase from 16 to 18. Richardson said the move will dis- courage people from purchasing large _ numbers of firearms “especially Sat- urday night specials.” “You don’t purchase a Saturday night special to add to your gun collection — we don’t really see any need for purchasing such a weapon.” “I think this is a very responsible piece of legislation. I’m very hopeful that it will be passed.” Just how does a person prove they have a proper facility for the safe storage of firearms? That's difficult to say, right off, says Richardson, but it will probably mean that a firearms ~~ Ss ~~ ARMED ~ AND DANGEROUS registrar will be required to visit the applicant’s residence. “My opinion is that this will pass, especially in light of the Montreal massacre and some noteworthy inci- dents in the U.S. such as at Stockton, California.” While the new legislation may in fact restrict the acquisition of weap- ons, Richardson concedes that it will do little to prevent criminals or would-be criminals from acquiring . firearms. While the figures do not indicate there has been a large in- crease in the use of weapons in the commission of a crime in the Greater Victoria area, there is evidence that criminal types are acquiring a greater array of powerful firearms. Last month, searches of the residences of suspected drug dealers in Ladysmith and Nanaimo turned up an unregis- tered M1 semi-automatic rifle and an unregistered handgun in addition to a large quantity of cocaine, marijuana and cash. Three months ago, a joint investiga- tion by Victoria Police and the Nanai- mo and Montreal RCMP resulted in the seizure of $3 million worth of cocaine and a large cache of weapons, including rocket launchers and ma- chine guns. In many cases, the heavy artillery is SATURDAY NIGHT SPECIALS such as the ones pictured here are a big concern to police officers such as Superintendent Doug Richardson, left, of the Victoria Police. Photos and stories by TONY KANT kept to fend off ripoffs from other drug dealers, said Richardson. The large sums of money involved make it tempting for drug dealers to seek each other out as targets. “People involved in the drug indus- try at the upper echelon are dealing with huge amounts of drugs and huge amounts of cash. For example, one of our officers stopped a known drug FRONT PAGE: Gun collecting is a legitimate hobby and the shooting sports are growing in popularity but businesses that make money from firearms are facing tighter regulations. It'll cost gun enthusiasts an extra $100 in the future for the paperwork necessary to buy sidearms such as the Smith and Wesson 38 calibre double action revolver. (Photo props courtesy of Robinson Sporting Goods) dealer — a biker — and he had $350,000 cash in the trunk of his car and was unable to satisfactorily ex- plain why he had that cash. That illustrates the amounts of money we're talking about — sometimes it’s into the millions. We had a case in Sidney, for instance, that resulted in the seizure of a couple of million dollars worth of drugs. “When you're dealing with this type of greed, you know there’s no honor : _ among thieves. People tend to rip each other off when they’re dealing with this amount of drugs. There have been some notable cases when fire- arms have been used to actually commit armed rob- beries from other drug dealers.” In most cases, the weapons used in those types of cases have been either stolen or obtained 1l- legally — usually purchased on the black market. Buying an unre- gistered firearm is no problem — there are places in down- town Victoria where is a person puts the word out that he’s looking for a gun, he could get one. “There are a couple of bars in town where you could make it known you're in the market and if the weapon is not available, it could be made available. They're a hot item.” While police officers aren’t neces- sarily the intended target for the weapons owned by drug dealers, the more weapons there are on the street, the likelihood of them being used against an officer increases — espe- cially if the officer is wearing plain- clothes and doesn’t look at all like a police officer. There have been countless cases, especially in the U.S. where police officers have been shot and killed when someone has mistaken them for the perpetrator of a crime. “In places like Detroit, there’s so much crime and so many homicides that people tend to arm themselves for protection, In many cases, if there’s a burglary and police are in- vestigating, they are mistaken for the perpetrator and they're shot. That happens all to frequently in the U.S. “Tn Canada, when the police re- spond to a burglary, chances are theyll park down the block from the residence and try to sneak up and catch the perpetrator in the act. In Detroit, they'll stop right in front of Continued on Page 14