PUBLICATION:              Calgary Herald

DATE:                         2004.03.24

EDITION:                    Final

SECTION:                  Comment

PAGE:                         A23

BYLINE:                     David Alford

SOURCE:                   For the Calgary Herald

ILLUSTRATION:             Cartoon: For the Calgary Herald / (See hard copy for illustration).; Photo: David Alford 

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Air farce: Gun registry could take the wind out of recreational target pistols

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Forget about a free vote in Parliament on the future of Canada's gun registry. Forget about a review of the program by the minister responsible. And the $1 billion-plus spent on the gun registry so far? Fuhgedaboudit!

For months now, the Canadian Firearms Centre and the RCMP have been quietly working to expand the scope of the registry to include high-end air pistols. So quietly, in fact, that most Canadians affected by the change are unaware they are breaking the law.

Mark Briggs, a target shooter from Ottawa, says information has been "intentionally withheld from Canada's airgun owners, so there is no way they can reasonably know if they're in compliance with the law. . . . Essentially, it's a black hole."  Why this silence? Because this is a textbook example of political bungling and bureaucratic feather-nesting.

The type of air pistol that the CFC and RCMP want to see added to the registry as a restricted firearm is used by Canada's National Pistol Team, competitors from other countries who are on the International Circuit, and Olympic athletes. Typically, single-shot models cost between $1,500 and $2,000. With names like Steyr, Morini, Feinwerkbau and Pardini, they're so funky-looking one of them appeared in a Star Wars movie.

Yet, despite posing no threat to public safety, law enforcement agencies wish to see them heavily regulated. By reclassifying air pistols into restricted firearms, what was once purchased legitimately -- and remember, this is after Canada Customs permitted them to enter the country as non-firearms -- now requires all the legal tapestry associated with owning a Colt .45 or .357 Magnum.

Ironically, many air pistol enthusiasts, notably minors, purchased air guns precisely to avoid the labyrinthine paperwork associated with owning real firearms. Wayne Salhany, another Ottawa-based target shooter who has worked extensively with the Shooting Federation of Canada on this issue, said the RCMP began reclassifying airguns in July 2003. He considers the change a violation of fundamental justice.

"Our government is engaged in a high-handed and unilateral reclassification of airguns legally imported, purchased and owned by Canadians without . . . informing the current owners. These airguns are still sold and purchased today without registration, even though the RCMP has reclassified them as restricted firearms. Nobody is informing the dealers or purchasers of the (legal) change and nobody is fixing these theoretically criminal transactions."

Salhany and other top-flight target shooters fear they may not be able to bring their air pistols back into Canada after representing their country at international matches. Salhany says nobody outside the RCMP has seen a complete list of re-classified air pistols. And the list keeps changing. All models of air pistols manufactured in any country in the world must be considered one-by-one to determine their legality -- a monumental work in progress. Long before completion, the persons who started this process will be pensioned off.

Finally, here's the real rub for affected Canadians. Canada has an antiquated standard that says such pistols cannot exceed 500 feet per second (152.4 mps) muzzle velocity, and 4.2 foot-pounds (5.7 joules) of muzzle energy. But most newer air pistols surpass that standard.

According to Ed Martin, vice-president of the Shooting Federation of Canada, Ottawa's standing committee on justice and legal affairs has been aware of this looming problem for a decade. Yet, these MPs have ignored expert recommendations to adopt up-to-date standards. In effect, the RCMP, by the stroke of a pen, can create a new class of criminal: the elite Canadian target shooter.  A clearer case of misdirected justice is hard to imagine.

Fortunately, there is a solution.

First, the laws must be changed to adopt a new standard. The European standard, known as CIP, is compatible with competition airguns manufactured in western Europe. They bear a clearly visible manufacturers' stamp, the letter F surrounded by a pentagon, to indicate they were constructed not to not exceed the CIP standard of 7.5 joules of muzzle energy.

The British standard, known as the 6-12 rule, has an even higher energy limit, six foot-pounds for air pistols and 12 foot-pounds for air rifles. Any airgun meeting the European CIP also meets the British standard. Britain has tougher gun laws than Canada, but a higher threshold before an airgun falls under them.

If either the British or European standard were adopted, it would eliminate doubt about the status of an airgun. Nothing could simplify the work of customs and law enforcement agencies more.

In the short term, federal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler should pass an order in council to exempt high-end competition air pistols from reclassification as restricted firearms. There's even a precedent for doing so: Criminal Code regulations exempt international sporting competition handguns, so-called Section 12/6 guns, from prohibited status.

If that approach has worked for competition handguns, then why not for competition airguns, too?

David Alford is a retired senior research officer with the federal Department of Justice. He shoots out of Calgary.