Drizzt
Member
A farewell to arms
Store destroying guns due to cost of registration
By DOUG BEAZLEY, EDMONTON SUN
Can't sell 'em. Might as well smash 'em.
An Edmonton gun seller is taking a unique approach to coping with the high cost of Canada's troubled gun registry - by liquidating its lower-priced stock under the heel of a 12-ton industrial metal press.
"Thanks to the cost of registration, we can't make money on these guns," MilArm spokesman Gordon McGowan said yesterday, shortly after destroying more than 800 of the shop's long guns.
"So we took an inventory, and decided to destroy the guns that we couldn't sell at a profit."
Most of the guns MilArm opted to crush are older-model long guns manufactured before serial numbers became industry standard.
Without serial numbers the guns are a lot harder to register - and they can't be sold unless they're registered.
"With the $25 registration fee and the hours my staff have to spend on the phone with the registry people, the time the seller is stuck hanging around the store - it's just not cost-effective," said McGowan.
Most of the guns destroyed were less-expensive or used models, being sold for roughly $50 apiece.
Some of the guns destroyed might be considered high-quality pieces by gun fanciers. Cooey .22 rifles, for instance, did not have serial numbers.
"The process of getting a registration sticker for guns without serial numbers is incredibly time-consuming," said McGowan.
"We had a gun here that had no serial numbers, we were waiting on registration for seven or eight months. The feds wanted me to take photos of it and send it to a police crime lab for official identification. I just don't have time to waste on that."
Since the registry was introduced, many gun owners have chosen to destroy, deactivate, dismantle or bury their long guns rather than accept registration.
The removal of all those guns from Canadian homes amounts to government confiscation by proxy, said Alberta anti-registry activist George Duffy.
"When I took part in government hearings on the registry years ago, the people who were lobbying for it said they were willing to accept firearms ownership, but they wanted to reduce the number of guns in Canada," he said.
"And that's what's happening. We have fewer guns, and we're losing our hunting culture because nobody's teaching it to the kids.
"If I have two Cooey .22s and I get the registration sticker for one, I can put that sticker on either one of my guns because they don't have an identifying number of their own. Does that make any sense?"
No one from the Canadian Firearms Centre could be reached.
http://www.canoe.ca/EdmontonNews/es.es-01-22-0013.html
Store destroying guns due to cost of registration
By DOUG BEAZLEY, EDMONTON SUN
Can't sell 'em. Might as well smash 'em.
An Edmonton gun seller is taking a unique approach to coping with the high cost of Canada's troubled gun registry - by liquidating its lower-priced stock under the heel of a 12-ton industrial metal press.
"Thanks to the cost of registration, we can't make money on these guns," MilArm spokesman Gordon McGowan said yesterday, shortly after destroying more than 800 of the shop's long guns.
"So we took an inventory, and decided to destroy the guns that we couldn't sell at a profit."
Most of the guns MilArm opted to crush are older-model long guns manufactured before serial numbers became industry standard.
Without serial numbers the guns are a lot harder to register - and they can't be sold unless they're registered.
"With the $25 registration fee and the hours my staff have to spend on the phone with the registry people, the time the seller is stuck hanging around the store - it's just not cost-effective," said McGowan.
Most of the guns destroyed were less-expensive or used models, being sold for roughly $50 apiece.
Some of the guns destroyed might be considered high-quality pieces by gun fanciers. Cooey .22 rifles, for instance, did not have serial numbers.
"The process of getting a registration sticker for guns without serial numbers is incredibly time-consuming," said McGowan.
"We had a gun here that had no serial numbers, we were waiting on registration for seven or eight months. The feds wanted me to take photos of it and send it to a police crime lab for official identification. I just don't have time to waste on that."
Since the registry was introduced, many gun owners have chosen to destroy, deactivate, dismantle or bury their long guns rather than accept registration.
The removal of all those guns from Canadian homes amounts to government confiscation by proxy, said Alberta anti-registry activist George Duffy.
"When I took part in government hearings on the registry years ago, the people who were lobbying for it said they were willing to accept firearms ownership, but they wanted to reduce the number of guns in Canada," he said.
"And that's what's happening. We have fewer guns, and we're losing our hunting culture because nobody's teaching it to the kids.
"If I have two Cooey .22s and I get the registration sticker for one, I can put that sticker on either one of my guns because they don't have an identifying number of their own. Does that make any sense?"
No one from the Canadian Firearms Centre could be reached.
http://www.canoe.ca/EdmontonNews/es.es-01-22-0013.html
