Last Wednesday (26 January 2000), the Canadian National Firearms Association held a meeting in downtown Ottawa, and, as the coloquilism goes, "...I was there."
The meeting showcased the NFA executive, a few Reform MPs, and some kid from the-organization-formerly-known-as the United Alternative, who was not quite skinned alive, but didn't leave unscathed. And excuse my lack of remembering names. It's an old habit of maintaining "plausible deniability" that I never quite got over ;-)
The demographic of the hundred or so present was fourty+, white male, and blue collar, with a few exceptions. A couple of women, a couple of kids, a couple of cops (off duty and pro-NFA), and a guy dressed totally in black with slicked back hair and ponytail, sitting in the back row (incidentally, next to one of the Reform MPs), his black trenchcoat over the chair, sipping a cup of tea. Yours truly. A few younger people were there, but not many. This is a problem the NFA must address. Gotta get the kids, in my opinion.
Dave Tomlinson (NFA Prez) was eloquent and calm as usual, telling us about a few new NFA programs, including the NFA "Lioness Method of Rape Prevention" and "Gunproofing your Child".
The Lioness Method is aimed at women and children from 12 to the grave. It was available as a free handout, and I grabbed one. It was sound, well described, and, written, as Dave was saying at the time to a largely unimpressed audience, "in the Voice of the Instructor." In a nutshell, it's a blow-by-blow (pardon the pun) instructive pamphlet telling women to be lionesses, not lambs, and how, where, and when to strike, as well as how to practice. Very reminiscent of aikido techniques, actually. Very much oriented towards smaller, weaker defendants against larger, stronger attackers. Worth reading, and available on their site.
"The Gunproofing Your Child" pamphlet is also written professionally, and is geared towards teaching the kids by exposure, not by prohibition. It does resemble the methods shared by several on the list as their personal method, and is again, worth reading and available on their site.
Also available were pamphlets on how to deal with guns in your will, how to deal with a police search request and warrant, and a pamphlet on getting started as a firearms sportsman, and all were equally well written and worth reading.
Dave also mentioned that the NFA has packages available, free of charge, for any women's group or other organization that wants them, mailed free from the head office in Alberta.
Now, to be fair, the audience was unimpressed only because that was not why they were there. They were there to find out what was happening in the battle of C-68. The fact that the NFA had these pamphlets written at probably great cost (or could have been, they were that good) and great expense of time will be lost on the majority of the members until their collective anxieties over the current laws have passed.
Dave's Communications Officer, Gary, I think his name was, was good, thought provoking, et cetera, while serving as the defacto MC for the evening, and another of the executive, whom I always think of as the "Ole Cowboy" in his stetson (field officer or some such I think) was lively and entertaining, but calmer than the last time I met him, last year.
The Reform MP (from Calgary West, sitting in the front row) was a youngish buck, but had his shit together, spoke well, and impressed me with his realistic view. And he took copious notes, and made careful, well considered points when the opportunity presented.
The United Alternative (a Reform splinter group, which the other day voted to change it's name to the Canadian Conservative Reform Alternative (Party), already being called "The CRAP" what the hell were they thinking?) sent a young pup who was a "True Believer" as many young acolytes tend to be, and the crowd, perhaps majority being Reform true blue, beat him quite well, verbally. The kid "wanted input" but when he got it, he spouted policy rhetoric, and I got up and got another cup of tea. Basically, he was looking for input to re-write the cCRAp's official statement on gun control, and, as it came out the other day, one of the main ideas "we" came up with WAS used; ie, to replace the word 'firearm' with the word 'weapon' in the statement of how they wanted to "increase penalties for the use of a WEAPON during a violent crime."
In brief, the NFA is over the 120K members hump, and growing fast; probably 20% annually, according to the bean counters. And, atop that, they surveyed the membership, and found almost 33% were politically active, which, when compared to the 3% of average Canadians, is making that 100K even bigger.
They have various governmental groups in court and under investigation, making life pretty miserable for the CFC (Canadian Firarms Center), Canada Customs, and Justice because, as the Prez said, "We are going to follow EXACTLY to the LETTER of the law, and NO FURTHER. And we are going to make sure THEY DO, TOO." And that's where the bureaucrats choke. Because they don't know their collective asses from their elbows as far as the law goes, it seems. And the NFA has it cold.
They explained the horrors of Bill C-68 pretty well, nothing someone who has kept an eye on it didn't already know, but did scare a few present. The big thing is the ability of the Minister in Charge to amend the bill ON HIS OWN, allowing him/her to ban guns/classes of guns/all guns, without parliamentary approval. Nifty little clause, eh? Way to circumvent the democratic vote...
And, upon talking to some of the "insiders" later, including Al Dorans, over a few more cups of tea, once they decided that I wasn't a Justice spy ;-), the insider info is that this new bill has recently topped the ONE BILLION DOLLARS mark, and is running at about 50-80% error according to Price Waterhouse. Sweet, eh?
And, of course, there was the fun story of how Al, at the recent Police Services Meeting (the civilian watchdog of the police) here in Ottawa managed to shred outgoing chief of police and C-68 Supporter Brian "Alan Rock is My God" Ford so badly by catching him in lies and stupidity he was steaming... Woulda gave a nickel to see that one... ;-)
So, the NFA is alive and doing well, fighting the good fight, and becoming heroes by Patton's true definition; you don't become a hero by dying for your [side]; you become a hero by making the other guy die for HIS [side].