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Editor's "Reflection" published in Liberty, March 1999, p. 8

Your Weapons Please
by
Pierre Lemieux

The latest Canadian firearm control legislation came into force on December 1, 1998. One of the interesting – probably intended but still unnoticed – side effects of the gun registration provisions is that individuals who will, as required by law, register even only one hunting weapon will "need to advise their Chief Firearms Officer (CFO) of any address change within 30 days of the change."

In Québec alone, 450 000 hunters, or close to 10% of the adult population, will be required to notify the police when they move. In this Province, it is the Sûreté du Québec (provincial police) who will enforce these new federal controls. Their big "Chief Firearms Officer" wrote to tens of thousands of Quebecers holding the old firearms acquisition authorizations (called "Firerams Acquisition Certificates" in Newspeak) to inform them of this new act of tyranny.

I personally replied to his letter, expressing my satisfaction that, at last, the people will be put in their proper place. Now that criminals will be as disarmed and submissive as honest citizens, I added, we will certainly be able to disarm the police.

In support of "my" Chief Firearms Officer’s propaganda and to reassure him that history was on his side, I also quoted him the famous 1785 Virginia law: "No slaves shall keep any arms whatever, nor pass, unless with written orders from his master or employer, or in his company, with arms from one place to another." (A Bill Concerning Slaves, reprinted in Alfred Fried, Ed., The Essential Jefferson, Collier, 1963, p. 140)

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Liberty Magazine, © Copyright 1999, Liberty Foundation