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The South Saskatchewan Wildlife Association (SSWA) hosted an open house at its shooting range on Home Street East in Wakamow Valley on June 4 — the nation-wide National Range Day — to show people what the sport is all about and what goes into making it safe.
Kyanna Park is a fully licensed firearms owner with her non-restricted and restricted licence. She is also an RCMP-certified firearms safety instructor.
Park is one of several SSWA members and gun owners MooseJawToday.com spoke to on National Range Day to get their perspective on Bill C-21 — the new federal firearms legislation that the Liberal government proposed on May 30 in reaction to the mass murders that regularly take place in the United States.
“Shooting as a hobby and owning firearms has been part of my life since I was three years old,” Park said. “It’s always been something my family has done. It’s provided opportunities for me and my sisters to meet new people, participate in new activities, travel all the world. So, I feel very passionately about it. I think it’s a really positive hobby for a lot of people. It teaches discipline, it teaches sportsmanship. And, yeah, it’s a good source of stress relief.”
The SSWA welcomed many people who wanted to try shooting on June 4. They were required to buy a $20 membership for insurance purposes, then guided through the basics of shooting at a range. Those rules include not touching the firearm until the range safety officer (RSO) verifies everyone on the range, that they’re all wearing eye and ear protection, and they’ve all been through an orientation.
Firearms must always point down range. Any unsafe behaviour or goofing around results in immediate removal. The SSWA had a certified firearms instructor supervising one-on-one with each participant.
“I grew up on a farm, so we were always shooting,” said Leonard Davey, a director and RSO with the SSWA. “I find it a very relaxing sport. … The only regret I have is that the general public doesn’t know the rules, and we get painted with a bad brush.”
What changes will the new legislation make?
Bill C-21 proposes the following measures to strengthen gun control in Canada:
- A national freeze on the sale, purchase, transfer, and importation of handguns. Existing owners would keep their handguns, but cannot transfer them to anyone, meaning that in a generation or two, private ownership of handguns in Canada would be a thing of the past.
- The power to remove firearms licences and confiscate the firearms of those involved in domestic abuse or criminal harassment such as stalking.
- A new “red flag” law requiring individuals considered to be a danger to themselves or others to surrender their firearms to law enforcement. The law would protect red-flagged individuals’ identities.
- New surveillance powers, border security, and increased penalties for gun smuggling and trafficking.
- The permanent altering of long-gun magazines to hold only five rounds. Under current legislation, magazine restrictions are relatively easy to bypass, although such modifications are illegal.
- A ban on “military-simulation” (mil-sim) toys designed to closely resemble illegal weapons.
The government banned about 1,500 types of military-style assault rifles in 2020 following the killings of 22 people in rural Nova Scotia.
“Violent crime involving firearms has devastating impacts on communities across the country,” David Lametti, minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, said when C-21 was tabled. “This bill combines evidence-based policies and tougher Criminal Code penalties, among other measures, to better protect our communities. This includes people who are vulnerable to intimate partner violence and gender-based violence, and those who are at risk of hurting themselves. That is what we promised we would do, and that is what we are doing with this bill.”
Criticism of the proposed legislation
“It’s a very safe, it’s a very regulated sport,” Davey said. He feels that gun culture in Canada is fundamentally different from that in the States, and that punishing legal Canadian gun owners in reaction to mass shootings in another country is the wrong move.
“Everybody in Canada compares the shootings in the States to Canada. And we’re two different entities, and the rules are totally different,” Davey explained.
Differences include state-by-state regulation in the US, compared to federal control of firearms in Canada; unlimited capacity magazines, automatic weapons, concealed carry, and open carry in the States — all illegal in Canada; and intensive restrictions on handgun shooting and ammunition storage in Canada.
To own a handgun in Canada, individuals need a restricted possession and acquisition licence (RPAL), a lifetime background check, and lockable storage — separate from the ammunition. Handguns can only legally be fired at a certified range with a certified RSO. They can only be transported to and from that range — at which individuals must be members — by the most direct route possible, and only after applying for an Authority To Transport (ATT) specific to the route, the firearm, the range, and the individual.
Variances in gun laws
SSWA members don’t necessarily disagree with every aspect of the proposed regulations. Tightening background checks, removing licences from domestic abusers, and limiting long-gun magazine capacities through permanent methods don’t seem unreasonable.
However, they want to be able to continue owning and shooting handguns, and feel existing laws do an adequate job.
“I think people get caught up comparing the way things are here to the United States, and it’s just so different,” Kyanna Park said. “I’ve always felt proud of the way that Canada manages their gun laws already.”
Don Park, SSWA president and a firearms safety instructor for 15 years, doesn’t believe legal gun owners are the problem. He also feels strongly that he should be able to pass his handguns down to Kyanna and his other daughters.
“These are stolen guns, these are guns that have been smuggled,” he said. “No matter what they do to us legal gun owners, the crime keeps going, it doesn’t change. … I’ve jumped through every hoop they’ve given me — and there’s a been a lot of them through the last 30, 40 years. A lot of changes, and I’ve done everything to be legal. And at the end of the day, even though they said I can legally obtain these guns, now they’re saying ‘we’re gonna take them away.’”
