Minister urges teenagers to take up shooting to improve behaviour
The Sunday Telegraph (UK)
News; 6
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/05/27/nshoot27.xml
May 27, 2007
Byline: Jonathan Wynne Jones
* Caborn backs moves to 'demystify firearms' as anti gun lobby accuses Government of U turn
ANTI GUN CAMPAIGNERS have accused the Government of making a U turn on firearms after a minister urged teenagers to take up shooting to improve their behaviour.
Richard Caborn, the sports minister, has backed a drive by shooting groups to increase participation in the sport among children as young as 12. He believes that the sport helps young people to become more responsible and disciplined, and vowed that significant funds would be made available to help boost participation.
Handguns were banned in Britain in 1996 following the Dunblane massacre, in which 16 children and their teacher were killed at a primary school. Previously, the Government has taken steps to crack down on shooting by increasing the age limit for buying air weapons, as well as banning handguns.
After five gun murders in February in London alone, Tony Blair warned that 17 year olds could face mandatory five year sentences for possessing illegal guns.
"We want to boost the number of people taking part in shooting sports, particularly among young adults,'' Mr Caborn told The Sunday Telegraph. "We are investing pounds 600 million in developing medal winners for 2012 and shooting will benefit greatly from that.'' Schools have been encouraged to increase the involvement of young people in shooting sports and Mr Caborn welcomed the first National Shooting Week, which begins this weekend, as a way to raise levels of participation.
He has already upset the anti gun lobby by supporting moves to relax the ban on handguns in the hope of boosting Britain's chances of winning pistol shooting medals at the 2012 London Olympics. Lending his support to the week long campaign has raised its fears further. However, a Labour Party document, for which he wrote the foreword, argues that there is a need to work with shooting organisations to develop ways "to demystify firearms''.
The party has published a Charter for Shooting, which it released after promising in the 2005 general election to ensure that country sports would be protected.
In the charter, it says that Labour is fully supportive of shooting organisations. "Government ministers have noted the benefits of introducing young people to the sport in terms of developing habits of safety, self discipline and responsibility,'' it says.
However, Gill Marshall Andrews, the chairman of the Gun Control Network, said that she was alarmed by Mr Caborn's backing for National Shooting Week, which aims to introduce people to shooting for the first time and improve people's understanding of guns. "The Government should be ashamed of itself for putting its energies into encouraging people to take up shooting when we should be ensuring that there are fewer and fewer guns available,'' she said. "By backing this initiative they're sending out the wrong message.''
Mrs Marshall Andrews accused the Government of helping to make guns seem acceptable and of creating a society in which they will become prevalent.
Since 1997, firearms crimes have risen from 12,410 to 21,521 in 2005/06 (an increase of 73 per cent), including incidents involving handguns, which have nearly doubled in this period, from 2,636 to 4,671, despite their being banned.
However, according to David Penn, the secretary of the British Shooting Sports Council, an umbrella body for shooting groups, there is no correlation between gun crime and the level of gun ownership.
"To own a gun, people have to go through rigorous checks,'' he said. "People who argue that these guns are falling into the wrong hands don't understand the real statistics.''
(C) 2007 Telegraph Group Limited, London
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Panel loaded with gun buffs: Make up of advisory group suggests Tories out of step with urban attitude on weapons
The Toronto Star (Canada)
News; A21
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/218332
May 28, 2007
Byline: Susan Delacourt
OTTAWA The Conservative government's firearms advisory committee, appointed and operating in virtual secrecy, is made up almost entirely of pro gun advocates opposed to the firearms registry.
Its dozen members include a man who argued that more guns in the hands of students would have helped in the recent Virginia Tech massacre, in which 32 people were killed, and another shooting aficionado who described a weapon used in last September's Dawson College killings in Montreal as "fun."
The committee's pro gun tilt lends to the perception that Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government is out of step with urban concerns on firearms violence especially in Toronto. Jordan Manners, 15, was killed last week in a school shooting, days after philanthropist Glen Davis was gunned down.
Over the Easter weekend, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day quietly extended a long gun amnesty program to allow those firearms owners yet more time to register their weapons pleasing registry opponents but angering those fighting for tougher laws.
In background research obtained and confirmed by the Star, members of the Conservatives' committee have shown themselves to be vocal proponents of gun use.
"If even 1 per cent of the students and staff at Virginia Tech had been allowed to exercise their right to self defence, then this tragedy would have been stopped in its very beginning and dozens of lives would have been saved," Dr. Mike Ackermann, a Nova Scotia physician, wrote in a letter to the Ottawa Sun in April. "There are never any mass killings at shooting ranges; only at schools and other so called 'gun free zones.'"
Gary Mauser, a Simon Fraser University professor renowned for his work opposing gun laws, wrote an opinion piece in the Vancouver Sun in February: "Firearm laws divert scarce resources from alternative approaches that might actually improve public safety."
The Public Safety Minister's office recruited the panel members but did not, as has been the practice in previous governments, issue any public announcement about the appointments. Nor does it seem to have included any panel members with expertise on suicide or sociological factors behind gun crime, as previous governments have attempted to do.
The only apparent acknowledgment of the committee's membership was found in a letter by MP Garry Breitkreuz (Yorkton Melville) to constituents in which he pointed to the makeup of the panel as evidence of the Tories' intent to be more gun friendly.
"In October, the minister's new firearms advisory committee met in Ottawa for the first time. The difference between the Liberal government and the Conservative government is obvious by the people that make up the committee," Breitkreuz wrote in the letter dated Dec. 15, 2006. He named Ackermann, Mauser and 10 other members:
Tony Bernardo, Canadian Institute of Legislative Action.
Linda Thom, Olympic gold medallist in pistol shooting.
Alain Cossette, Quebec Wildlife Federation.
Greg Farrant, Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters.
Linda Baggaley, firearms expert and dealer from Alberta.
Stephen Torino, Quebec firearms expert and dealer.
Louis D'amour, New Brunswick firearms expert.
Gerry Gamble, Sporting Clubs of Niagara.
Robert Head, former RCMP assistant commissioner.
John Gayder, Niagara police.
Murray Grismer, Saskatoon police.
Mauser, reached by the Star, said panel members do have disagreements, though he did not want to elaborate on their discussions or advice they've given Day after their meetings, which he said occur every few months. Panel members are not paid but travel expenses are covered.
"I can't tell you what that advice is ... and I certainly can't tell you whether they followed it or not," Mauser said in a phone interview.
At least some committee members have ties to the National Rifle Association in the U.S.
NRA president Sharon Froman spoke at an annual gathering of the Canadian Shooting Sports Association last November, for instance, noting her admiration for Torino.
Torino was also on the committee when Liberals were in power. At that time though, as when the panel was set up by former prime minister Kim Campbell, there was more of a balance between pro gun and anti gun advocates.
"Steve was one of the beacons of hope in a room full of enemies determined to eradicate your gun rights," Froman told the conference as she described working with Torino at a United Nations meeting on limiting the spread of firearms.
Froman praised Bernardo in that same speech, recalling work they have done together on the international stage. Bernardo appeared in a Canadian Press story, discussing the type of weapon used by Kimveer Gill in the Dawson College shooting.
"It's very accurate. The firearm is just one of those firearms that's just a lot of fun to spend a day at the range with."
Inquiries to Breitkreuz and the Public Safety department were referred to Day's office, but Day was travelling and his officials responded with only general information.
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Day tries to quell gun storm; Pro gun advocates are 'a few voices in a large crowd,' he says, but critics concerned minister has cited them
The Toronto Star (Canada)
News; A14
http://www.thestar.com/article/218682
May 29, 2007
Byline: Susan Delacourt
OTTAWA Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day is playing down the influence of his own firearms advisory panel, saying that the staunch group of pro gun advocates represents merely a few voices in a large, 500 member crowd he consults about government policies on guns.
But at Dawson College in Montreal, scene of a fatal school shooting last fall, a spokesperson for a gun control group said Day has been urging people to read the views of at least one of his advisory committee members as a rebuttal to calls for stricter gun laws.
Brian Rahilly of the Dawson College Committee for Gun Control said he's upset that Day would be looking for advice on firearms policy from Gary Mauser, a Simon Fraser University professor who argues against strict gun laws.
Mauser is one of a dozen people on Day's firearms advisory committee, a panel almost entirely composed of strong proponents of gun use and ownership.
But Rahilly was even more distressed when Day cited Mauser's work as a reply to Dawson College's concerns about gun control in the wake of the Sept. 13, 2006 shooting that killed one student and wounded 19 others.
In a letter sent to the college shortly after he visited the school several months ago, Day attached some research from Mauser and urged that it be read.
"I was very disturbed to see that the minister who is supposedly responsible for public security would be quoting the name of such an individual in this fashion," Rahilly said. "Gary Mauser is very vocal in his support for the carrying of concealed weapons by citizenry. "
Mauser's arguments in favour of concealed weapons are contained in a 2002 paper he wrote for the Fraser Institute, titled "More Guns, Less Crime."
The Star took a detailed look at the membership of Day's firearms advisory committee, appointed and operating in secrecy for nearly a year now, and found that almost all members are opposed to the federal gun registry.
It has bypassed two large national police organizations that are in favour of the registry and found lone officers who have been vocally opposed to the program.
The program was instituted about 10 years ago by the previous Liberal government.
It's not clear whether this panel had any influence on Day's decision this month to extend an amnesty for long gun owners to register their weapons.
Yesterday in the Commons, the public safety minister was minimizing their clout.
When Liberal MP Sue Barnes asked Day to be more open about the membership and views of his panel, he replied: "Is she asking that we put the names out of all the 500 different organizations and individuals with whom we consult?
"We could do that. It is not an issue; we have nothing to hide."
Barnes described the firearms panel as a "secret society" and called it "the latest salvo in the Conservative plan to eviscerate gun control laws."
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