What is your definition of “Freedom”? Where did mine go? I am a foreigner in my own country!
I just had an unexpected trip to my country, Canada, for years I promoted Canada to others and although I am still proud to say I am Canadian, I realize the Canadian “freedom” and the security I felt the Government there gave was more of a smoke and mirror show then I had once believed.
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Of course, after eight years of not seeing my Brother in law who is a great hunter and guide, I felt like we would be comfortable taking guns…
Error, My older sister is about as Anti gun as you can get them! She was in total disbelief that I had a carry permit and that I carried almost every where in PA. Guns Kill, we do not need them, look at us, we live very well with out guns…
That was just day one, and it was just 10 am, we arrived around 7:30 that morning.. I realized, I might be better off talking of other things. So I open Vicky’s laptop, Open PAFOA and look up my favorite threads, Sister is out of the room, I show my BIL Lycanthrope dropping 33 steel plates with his pistol… BIL is impressed, but not overly joyful, like some thing is missing and he can not get it back.
We talk about his hunting camp, his game in the recent past, being a guide, he helped others shoot more then he shot himself, but 44 in the past 33 years is his hit record on deer. Most years he guides 6 to 8 hunters who generally also shoot their deer or my BIL does it for them in cases where the hunter becomes too nervous to shoot himself.
We decide to go to the Hospital; the unexpected trip is actually because my Father is there supposedly in his death bed… I have just driven for over 14 hours, and my sister asks me if I feel good enough to drive or if she prefer we take their truck or maybe my BIL can drive my car… I reach for my keys on my belt to hand them to my BIL and suddenly realize, I do not have my gun on me, not surprising, I can not have it there, but for some odd reason I feel naked.
We get to the hospital, all goes well, surprisingly my father was not expecting me to be there, He reads the news every day, and I suppose he knew how tough getting across the border could be. Again, my dad being a hunter, I figure memories of the past would break the ice.. We talk about his hunting days, a little about this and that; finally I tell him I have a permit in PA and a few guns… What I figured would be a few to the armoire of guns he once owned…
What do you do with so many guns?... Well, I shoot trap, practice home defense, carry for self protection… Dad left Canada for Florida, so he sort of understands it here… No big menacing looks or miss-understandings, just one phrase, I had to sell my gun when I left Florida to come back here… Anyways, he now has a 12 gauge pump, the last gun he owns, most of the other guns went to my BIL or my Brother for hunting… I was too young at the time to inherit anything like that. He suggests that this gun belonged to a dear friend of his, and he just could not part with it, but now, on his death bed he sort of suggests it may need a good home…
Wow, my mind is in over drive, I have not slept in over 30 hours, was I just offered a gun by my father? Wait, can I even get it across the border? But the conversation ends there…
We go back home, rest up and again the next day, back to the hospital..
My older Brother is there with his Daughter, My Brother is pretty quiet, until he reaches a conversation I am having with my niece… She is a 3 year Montreal Urban Community Police officer; I ask what they carry… Glock?
Errm no, they where too large for many woman, we have em er it’s a pistol not a revolver.. P some thing or maybe Smith and berson… or is it Bersa? Maybe a emm PPDay… Dad do you remember my gun? Anyways its small and well big enough but its in its holster all the time, I could recognize it if I saw one…
I suggest a few brands, my Brother heard of most of them, but can not be sure what one it was… See, a few years ago, MUCPD could carry their guns off duty, but not now… Matter of fact, they can not even bring their guns home!
Guns go on the belt at work from the locker, then back to the locker when you leave work unless you are going to a range, at this time it gets clocked by a sergeant, put in a duffle bag, and unlocked at the range by the official there, then once your practice is over it gets locked again, back to the station to the locker…
Talk about a large liberty removed! First, back in the 80s, the revolvers and pistols owned by civilians where either removed or registered, then reduced by making it hard to register them and making laws about transport very difficult, then the same was done with hunters and shotguns and now, even Police who once could carry any time any place are limited to their work hours for carry…
When I mentioned to my niece about the guns I had, she was simply floored that any private citizen could own even one gun, more then one? What madness!
When I told her that in PA she could carry a gun openly unless she was in a car or in Philadelphia even as a non resident with out a permit, she was aghast. How could this be, was it the far, far west?
We talked about methods of carry and I suggested to her that had I been carrying at this time, she could not tell without touching me (frisk) or me showing her, she was not easy to convince. Mind you, she was open to the idea of a citizen being allowed to carry.
We went on to talk about practice and she admitted that by budget cuts, she had not been asked by her department to re-qualify since the first time 3 years ago, so in all, she has shot some 50 rounds out of what ever gun she has… It has never been out of her holster since she had it handed to her some 3 years ago…
I told her that I have spent over 2,000 rounds in the past year or so in my 9mm and probably over 1000 in my .357 and 1000 or more in shotguns (each caliber) her face was all in awe, how can a civilian have more practice then a police officer?
I suggested she practice more, Her dad has a .22 Ruger single six he believes, its been over 30 years since he last looked at it, but because of new laws, he now had to join a club, so they might go practice once in a while…
My mind was wondering, where are all these Liberties I remember having not 10 years ago? How is it, I remember working with the RCMP and not being questioned about my knowledge of firearms or my ability to take them apart, clean them and shoot them?
You know what happened?
They paved Paradise and put up a parking lot!
My family who once hunted, all by age maybe stopped hunting… Dad had a .32 caliber when I was a kid, no one could tell you where it is now… Brother has a revolver .22 .22 magnum, possibly a Ruger, cant quite confirm though, niece carries a gun for work, could not tell you the brand or caliber… the government has made carrying a gun in Canada so taboo, so illegal, even the legal people who work, hunt, protect… can not remember the brands, will not research, are not interested in an art older then the country its self.
The freedom once enjoyed by many of hunting, target practice and or self defense is all gone in Canada. Or at least in my family in Quebec. The family or a soldier, a RCMP officer, all extinguished by the politicians that they elect, Oh my nephews have guns, at least one does, maybe two, but they are hidden far in the bowels of their homes not to be mentioned. The pride of being a hunter, a shooter or even a free man with guns is all gone, it is now Taboo, and we will cover it all up…
I am a stranger in my own country, a foreigner in a province I once loved… Go figure, I see it all happening here so well now. I see how it happened, how it is happening here, and how it will soon be too late if people do not wake up…
We all ask for a sign… Here is your Sign.
http://www.fight4truth.com/GunSteamRoller.jpg
All I can say at this point is, For my Canadian Friends, family, and acquaintances..
Read http://www.rkba.ca you once had Rights, you still have them, but You have forgotten them...
For My American Friends and Acquaintances... Learn from others mistakes, and please do not repeat them, there is no feeling like coming home to feel like an intruder and a foregner.
