Summer seems to be coming to an end and very quickly! That means we are back welcoming our new probationary shooters to the PRPC. Now I realize that the numbers of new probationary members may dwindle this year due to the draconian Liberal gun laws, but, we still have a fair crop of people who know, or are related to, gun owners who are willing to share their guns with new shooters.
One of the stipulations in becoming a new member is, or course, the purchasing of insurance with our provider, the Canadian Shooting Sports Association, which is one among several out there in the world of Canadian firearms.
Some of us are covered by several insurers, by choice more than necessity, as they advocate heavily on behalf of the shooting sports with government and the public at large which is all well and good.
One of the advantages is the several publications found on-line written by contributors from the various providers which try to keep readers up to date on what is going on with respect to the future of the sport. Some make for interesting reading.
Take for instance a recent article on the Canadian Coalition For Firearm Rights news letter had the following information from a CTV article by Danial Otis, dated September 19, 2024 regarding our Federal Police agency which has the distinct odour of dead fish about it:
“The Royal Canadian Mounted Police has lost 205 firearms since 2020, including more than 120 handguns and at least five fully automatic weapons like machine-guns”…In its response…, the RCMP’s access to information office said it “cannot determine specifically if a firearm was lost by a service member. The RCMP is Canada’s federal police force and employs more than 30,000 people, including more than 19,000 police officers”.
I read this as a healthy helping of plausible denial and institutional amnesia, by an organization that, on any given day, can probably account for the number of pens issued to it’s members. If, on the other hand, this is a case of an organization that does its operational accounting using its collective fingers and toes, then Canada is in deep trouble. Which one is it?
I recount my own experience in this area when during the hectic schedule of recruit training I inadvertently left my personal locker unlocked prior to an inspection by the duty Corporal. This was the locker that contained my issue side arm, which was never stolen, a lowly Smith & Wesson Model 10 which as some of us know is almost impossible to hit anything with on a good day!
The end result was an evening sweeping an abandoned runway on an air base in north-central Alberta in late fall under the watchful eye of a grumpy NCO while my troop mates enjoyed an evening at the local watering hole, complete with brass pole and associated entertainment! Live and learn.
The article goes on to declare: “In 2022, stolen firearms were used in at least eight homicides”. Clearly a scary statistic when compared to the thousands of overdose deaths wrought by the opioid crisis and failed government intervention, no?
The article concludes with the usual fluffy accusation about the horrors of civilian gun ownership which we can and should disagree with considering the lax governmental approach to illegal arms smuggling at our borders.
“With millions of firearms in circulation in Canada, there is bound to be some that are stolen, despite Canada’s safe storage rules,” Brown said. “The RCMP should be held to a very high standard in terms of safeguarding its firearms, but the bigger threat to public safety in Canada is the theft or loss of privately owned firearms.”
No details were given by the RCMP as to the loss of each weapon which, of course, would have a very interesting report attached to each of its files. Yeah, blame it all on “privately owned firearms”. I can hear the giggling at RCMP Headquarters now…