Gun Owners' Resource

Firebombs left 'no choice,' homeowner tells gun trial

Ontario homeowner Ian Thomson has been suffering abuse at the hands of Niagara Crown Attorney Tyler Shuster, amongst others, for a year and a half.

by Adrian Humphreys
National Post

WELLAND — Ian Thomson was jolted awake at 6: 37 a.m. by the sound of explosions; outside his secluded farmhouse, three masked men were hurling fire bombs at his house while one bellowed: "Are you ready to die?"

Mr. Thomson was not.

A former firearms instructor, he instead called out a warning, took one of his several pistols, marched outside in his underwear and fired one shot into the ground and two into the trees in the direction of the men, who scurried away.

He then called 911 and waited more than 10 minutes for police while using a garden hose to douse flames lapping up his front veranda, his .38calibre snub-nose stuffed into his sagging underwear.

The officers did not bring him salvation, however. Mr. Thomson was soon arrested and charged with four gun offenses.

On Monday, after becoming the focus of a national debate over the right of Canadians to defend themselves and the government's attitude toward gun ownership, Mr. Thomson finally had his date in court.

What to do if the RCMP Calls You on the Phone About Your Firearms License

by Christopher di Armani

It has come to my attention that the RCMP may or may not be phoning people who have firearms licenses expiring within the next 12 months.  I’ve heard of at least one individual who says they have been contacted on the telephone by someone claiming to be from the RCMP and that person demanded all kinds of personal information from them.

NOTE You are under NO OBLIGATION to answer personal questions from an unidentified voice on the telephone!

See: http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=699862 [registration required, but worth it  -Ed.]

I have no way of confirming whether or not this story is true, but here are the steps that every firearm owner should follow if they receive a telephone call from anyone claiming to be from the RCMP or any other branch of law enforcement.

How many gun crimes are committed by registered owners? No one knows.

by Lorne Gunter
National Post

Last month, the RCMP and Statistics Canada were forced to admit that they don’t keep statistics relating to the number of violent gun crimes in Canada that are committed by licenced gun owners using registered guns.

“Please note,” Statistics Canada wrote in response to an access to information request filed by the National Firearms Association, “that the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) survey does not collect information on licensing of either guns or gun owners related to the incidents of violent crime reported by police.” Nor does StatsCan’s annual homicide survey “collect information on the registration status of the firearm used to commit a homicide.”

This raises the question: Why did it take so long for the government to begin ridding Canada of the horribly expensive, unjustifiably intrusive federal gun registry? If no one in Ottawa had any systematic way of tracking whether or not Canadians suspected of committing a violent gun crime were licensed to own a gun and had registered the gun being used, then they had no way of knowing whether registration and licensing were having a positive impact on crime.