Newbie’s Viewpoint I

Firearms – A newbie’s outlook on firearms ownership.

Wow. That is all I can say about the current state of affairs and the hard work that members of the CSSA as well as other organizations have delivered in our attempts to inform the populace. I have not been a member of the CSSA long; just under a year at the time of writing this. In fact it wasn’t until I attended the SHOT Show in Florida in January of 2007 and met Tony, Larry and Jim at a quick get together for members of CGN (a firearms forum name CanadianGunNutz). It was by talking to them and seeing the camaraderie, commitment and passion towards keeping our sport and hobby alive that I decided to join the CSSA. It has only been just under 12 months but in the long run I can only hope that it is just the beginning.

Speaking of beginnings, I was a Generation-X child, whose parents had immigrated to Canada decades prior. So as a first generation Canadian with an Engineer and a Nurse as parents, I grew up and learned all about warfare and the technological innovations generated during the World War II. It wasn’t that it was drilled into me by my parents as they rarely talked about their youth and what it was like growing up in the early 1940’s. It was more to do with the era in retrospect.Vietnam and other conflicts in the world kept resurrecting books and movies. Progressed through my teenage years I found the technical excellence and innovation of military engineering to be fascinating. Yet I was an urbanite, my only exposure to firearms would be during the last year of secondary education when I found out there was a rifle club on school grounds. So back in the late eighties my only exposure to firearms was a dozen or so evenings in an underground range facility on school grounds with a .22LR single shot Cooey. That would be my last exposure until much later, after my collegiate and university schooling, when I moved to the Kitchener-Waterloo area. An old friend from school became my roommate and together we decided that we would get our firearms licenses, hunter safety courses together so that we could go hunting which had always been something I wanted to do. That was back in 1999, before I had any idea of the huge changes that the laws and history of “gun control” in Canada had undergone.

My very first firearm is actually a misnomer… I bought four. I paid more back then in the registration fees for two of them than the actual cost of the firearms. An old butchered Lee Enfield, along with a single shot Cooey shotgun, and a fine European bolt action .22, as well as a new Lakefield Mark I single shot rifle. I was started and hooked. I finally joined a club back in 2004 so that I could shoot my firearms whenever I wanted instead of waiting for the appropriate hunting season. Remember that I was a city-dweller who had limited rural connections and resources; read non-existent. It was there where I was introduced into handguns and “black” rifles. My first visit to the restricted range happened to be during a multi-gun match run by the local IDPA-sytle group. Here were a bunch of individuals who used firearms in an action game setting and were having a good time while being fully safety conscious. Intrigued I watched almost every match that occurred for nearly a year before finally getting my first handgun and in turn my first restricted firearm. I have since bought and sold several firearms, including that first Enfield, and my only regret is that I didn’t get into firearms a few years earlier. You see, not so secretly, I am jealous of people who have 12(x) status. I find the challenge of trying to hit a target at 20m a great experience from using a friend’s derringer; a firearm which I can not own due to idiotic regulations. What makes these regulations so stupid in my opinion? People with evil intent in their hearts and minds are not going to worry about filling out paperwork and following the law in order to fulfill their intent.

It wasn’t until just in the last two years that I decided to become more active in the realm of firearms. I joined up with several members at our club and other local clubs to resurrect that IDPA style action shooting discipline that introduced me to that aspect of shooting sports. I found CGN, which helped me learn even more about firearms and reloading, as well as realize that there were a great number of Canadians who felt the same to me. Several hundred letters to papers and exposure to direct political figures has made me step up to the plate and do my best for all firearms owners across Canada. So I joined the CSSA, joined my local CPC riding, and hopefully my wonderful wife and children will continue to understand and allow me to devote a portion of my time to my favorite past time. I may not know everything there is about politics, policies, and firearms, but I’m not afraid to ask and get the answers. As members of the CSSA, we can help make all shooting sports thrive and grow and remain available for future generations to come.