Posted on 03/21/2002 9:15:42 AM PST by 45Auto
A man who successfully registered his soldering gun as a firearm says he did so to point out the absurdity of the federal gun registry program.
But Brian Buckley's act of civil disobedience may create more problems than he bargained for. Government officials aren't happy and, according to the Criminal Code, he could go to jail for up to five years. Buckley, who has a possession-only firearms licence, said he got a form to register his guns in the mail around Christmas time.
By law, all firearms must be registered by Jan. 1, 2003.
However, Canadians have not been quick to comply and that forced Ottawa to waive registration fees last October in an attempt to get more guns listed.
Buckley, who is an autobody shop owner, said he is opposed to the new gun laws and calls the registration process a waste of time and money.
So he decided to play with the system.
"I just filled it in," he said. "I put my Black & Decker heat gun and my Weller soldering gun on there, didn't stamp it, and sent it back in."
He listed the "guns" as a non-restricted firearm, the same as most shotguns or hunting rifles. In the spot asking for the gun's make, he filled out Black & Decker/Weller. In the spot for type, he put heat gun/soldering gun.
When the registration card came back a few weeks later, Buckley couldn't believe his eyes.
"It never once occurred to me that it would be taken seriously and that I would get a certificate and be issued a registration number," Buckley said. "It never crossed my mind that they are that incompetent there."
David Austin, a spokesman for the Canadian Firearms Centre, was not laughing when he heard about the protest.
Austin said what Buckley did was provide false information to procure a registration and that is against the law.
He may have filled out the application with the correct information about the tools, but neither are firearms and that in itself is a violation.
"It's a serious matter," Austin said. "If he looks at it very carefully, he will see there is a requirement to provide accurate information on a registration form for a firearm."
Austin said that when non-restricted gun registrations come in, they are not verified by a real person right away. The forms are scanned into the national data base of guns and certificates are sent out as soon as possible to avoid a backlog.
Each registration is verified by someone eventually, Austin said, and Buckley's would have been caught.
"You've got to understand that millions of these things are coming in at one time and it will take a while to go back," Austin said. "But we will go back."
If convicted of providing false information to get a gun registration certificate, an individual faces anything from a $2,000 fine and six months in jail to five years behind bars.
Austin said officials at the gun registry contacted him Wednesday to begin an investigation, but not much was said.
"The question is for what purpose do you do this?" Austin said. "It's just going to end up costing the taxpayers more money while we straighten it out."
Inky Mark, member of Parliament, for Dauphin-Swan River supports Buckley and put out a media release about the licence.
"I would say he's made his point," Mark said. "He's shown how the system doesn't function."
Mark said registering a soldering gun may not be a security risk, but it certainly is a mark against a system designed to protect Canadians.
"The whole premise of registration is safety," Mark said. "If the premise is safety, then there should be little room for error."
Planning massive civil disobedience to protest the stupid gun law (C-68, which calls for total registration of ALL firearms)
This is why they're screwing with him. He made them pay the postage! LOL!
Immediately go and register all water guns, hot glue guns, staple guns, nail guns, BB guns, etc. And don't forget those nasty rubber band guns. Give this guy some support. What a crock.
"It's just going to end up costing the taxpayers more money while we straighten it out."
Yeah, right. Like jailing this guy for pointing out the system is stupid is not revenge, after all it will only cost about $30,000 a year to jail this guy, vs. 5 seconds of a bean counters time that reads this application and chucks it into the reject bin.
The more powerful you let liberals become the longer their fangs grow.
Yeah...right......sure.....another bureaucrat is caught!
Sadly, we can no longer consider Canada a part of the free world.
Canadians need to publicize this kind of nonsense at every opportunity. Then they need to use the publicity to elect new representatives with the sense to abolish these draconian laws.
"Dear Mr Buckley: the following unrestricted firearms were not found listed in our database:
Weller 100-watt
Black & Decker heat
Please arrange to meet with a Certified Firearms Inspector within the next 6 months to verify model and s/n. You may transport the firearms to the centre while unloaded, disassembled, welded and/or cut so as to be inoperable, stored in a locked steel case and embedded in quick setting concrete in the locked trunk of your vehicle, while displaying a bright orange "WARNING-FIREARMS ON BOARD" sign attached to the rear of the vehicle. Have a nice day.
Canadian Firearms Centre
Incompetence Division
Bureau of Bloated Programmes
LOL! And all this time I thought Clarity was a Lawyer!
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