Airsoft Canada - Replica guns should be licensed: safety council

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Replica guns should be licensed: safety council

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/stor...earms-act.html

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Replica guns should be licensed: safety council

Replica guns should be licensed and registered just like the real thing, say safety advocates and police. In recent years, police officers across the country have shot and killed several people holding guns that later turned out to be replicas.

The Canada Safety Council has approached police to push for gun replicas to be regulated under the federal Firearms Act, said council president Emile Thérien. That would require them to be licensed and registered.

The Ottawa Police Services Board supports that proposal and is asking its provincial and federal counterparts to lobby for the changes.

Acting Staff Sgt. Mark Patterson of the Ottawa police guns and gangs unit said it's often difficult for police officers to tell a real gun from a replica during threatening situations like armed robberies.

"You don't have that luxury, for lack of better term, to see what firearm is being used being by the suspect," he said.

Last March, Ottawa police shot to death a bank robbery suspect who pointed a gun at officers and threatened to shoot. The man's gun later proved to be a replica, but Ontario's Special Investigation Unit cleared Ottawa police of wrongdoing, saying the man's behaviour would cause a "reasonable" person to think the gun was real.

Patterson said replica pellet guns are also a risk because their pellets can travel fast enough to cause serious injury, especially to people's eyes.

Replica guns are extremely common in Ottawa and about 40 per cent of handguns seized by police last year were replicas, Patterson said.

Thérien said replica pellet guns are advertised by many mass merchandisers in their catalogues around Christmas. "So they're easy to buy."

In Ontario, the only restriction he knows of is that you must be 18 to purchase one.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/stor...#ixzz0gNVdDwYP

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Replica guns and fatalities

In the past four years, police officers have shot and killed a number of people holding guns that later proved to be replicas. Among the incidents were the following:

Jan. 16, 2010, Edmonton: Bernadette Auger, 48, was fatally shot by police at an Edmonton apartment while holding an air-gun replica of a Sig Sauer handgun and failing to respond to police commands.
March 6, 2009, Ottawa: Bank robbery suspect Paul Jeffrey, 27, was shot and killed by police after pointing a replica pistol at police and threatening to shoot.
Oct. 13, 2006, Burnaby, B.C.: Daniel Antony King, 37, was shot to death by police after getting out of a car holding a replica gun following a car chase.
Just a month ago, Edmonton police shot to death a woman brandishing a replica handgun.

cool....so they won't shoot someone holding a replica in the street because it is registered to them...yeah, that will make a difference lol

That's just great. Let's slather on another layer of bureaucracy at the CFC. No thanks.

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Originally Posted by SINN (Post 1170908)

cool....so they won't shoot someone holding a replica in the street because it is registered to them...yeah, that will make a difference lol

Will I need an ATT to transport my registered airsoft gun to the LZ? To the local gun doc? Will I have to pin my mags to 5 bb's?

Read the comments posted by readers... Once again Canadian Journalism at its best. This is a non starter from the beginning.

Well criminals register their real guns right?
So it stands to reason that if they also register their replicas, the world will be a safer place!

/heavy, heavy sarcasm

Hey Fine...

I will register my Replicas RIGHT NOW!!! but on the flip side CBSA has to allow me to bring them in then since I am registering them

Like in the UK

if you have a License (pay a fee) you can buy the metal and black guns
if you just want to plink and such then you get buy the Green and blue colored plastic guns

so sure let me register as an owner of Replica firearms then I can bring in whatever I want... right from the USA or Hong Kong etc...

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How exactly does a fake gun differ from a *registered* fake gun? How does that keep the cop from shooting someone?

"Alright, O'Malley, you keep an eye on him while I check this database to see if he has any fake guns registered. Hmmm...nope. Alright then, let's shoot him."

I thought the point of registering guns was for the investigation that happens after a crime, not simply because something looks like a gun. Make way for the "Hair Dryer Registry", the "Stick I Found On the Ground In The Shape Of A Gun Registry" and "Little Kids Finger Gun Registry".

I'll post this up from this morning, interview on CFRA with Ottawa Police Chief Vern White, first half is about increasing numbers of home invasions, but the second half is a discussion regarding replica guns, etc.

http://www.cfra.com/chum_audio/Vern_White_Feb23.mp3

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Originally Posted by CDN_Stalker (Post 1170957)

I have no sound here at work...Whats the Gist of it?

Basic Canadian law: Replica Firearm =/= Firearm

There is no point in licencing Replica Firearm. The law in place already forbids people from acquiring new ones. It'd be like licensing people to own cocaine.

To require a licence for airguns sounds like it would promote responsibility, however, the end result would be a massive increase in the number of paper criminals even beyond what C-68 caused. The police spends even more time going after licence violations and even less time going after guns that shoot real bullets in the hands of real criminals than they already do.

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Originally Posted by ex (Post 1170958)

I have no sound here at work...Whats the Gist of it?

He explains how realistic the replicas are, how air and pellet guns don't look like real guns, same with paintball guns, but replicas are becoming a real concern due to....... blah, blah, blah, same as above, police mistaking a replica for a real gun and shooting someone (which I don't blame the police, if one is dumb enough to pretend a replica gun is a real gun by pointing it at police, one deserves to get shot.)

Don't you have headphones?

Simply, No.

I can agree to licensing a person for the right to own and granted permission to acquire and possess under an agreement that does not include me giving up my civil, human, tort or property rights as does our currently flawed gun legislation.

Licensing individual replicas? Abso-fucking-loutely not, we're already trying to get rid of one boondoggle registry, what create another one. There is absolutely no link between registering a replica and police shooting someone with one. And, to boot, the only person who got hurt was the asshat trying to use a replica in that manner. I would think police would be happy, even in hindsight, that their officers were not at risk because a replica was used. Who CARES if you shoot them. If you have police officers who can't handle having shot someone under those conditions, then they should seek employment that is less emotionally taxing. Being an emergency worker that deals with the stress of human death, my message is SUCK IT UP BUTTERCUP.

hahaha.... this made my day....

@T-Hell

you got a good point there my friend.....

The simple idea here is that another thick layer of bureaucracy will make the replicas that are currently available more difficult to get.

They won't be checking a registry if you're seen running down the street AEG in hand but this would mean places like novelty stores selling junk springers would come under the umbrella and they'd simply decide it was too much trouble to continue selling them. Ditto for Canadian Tire and their black pellet pistols.

I can not see them suddenly opening the door to imports of what we consider airsoft just because they could now tax and license them.

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Originally Posted by The Saint (Post 1170961)

There is no point in licencing Replica Firearm. The law in place already forbids people from acquiring new ones. It'd be like licensing people to own cocaine.

And it just goes to show how ill-informed this police chief is that he doesn't understand exactly what you just said. Police Chief's shouldn't be engaging in this kind of discourse, I am sorry, he is a civil servant charged with upholding the laws that exist on the books, not being a politician and suggesting new ones. If I was the mayor or a city counsellor, I'd have him in my office explaining to me what he though he was doing on public radio making such idiotic statements, especially ones that run counter to the legislation and legal framework he is charged with upholding. Its blatent incompetance.

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Originally Posted by Article

Patterson said replica pellet guns are also a risk because their pellets can travel fast enough to cause serious injury, especially to people's eyes.

So what. I can throw a rock to the same effect. If someone uses a pellet gun with that intention and does hurt someone, you can charge them under the firearms act and charge them with assault causing bodily harm. Its already covered in the criminal code.

I am all for social discourse, but in my line of work, Chiefs, both police, fire and paramedic, are administrative positions designed to interact between a municipal council and a department charged with duties under a particular Act of Parliment. A Chief (in my opinion) has no business using his position to put forth a political agenda, and further to that should be disciplined for doing that. If I was his boss, I would have his ass. The political and legislative branches make these decisions and seek advice at the appropriate times and places for police opinion on a matter. His entire interview was inappropriate as are MANY police chiefs accross Canada who have politicized themselves and politicians and legislators should be reigning them in and they are not. There are things happening in this country under the label of freedom of speech that simply should not be happening, especially with civil servants such as these.

In the case of the police, they are a paramilitary organization with a chain of command, ultimately answering to a civilian political and legislative body. They are a functional branch, and as such, are there to follow and uphold the laws and acts given to them. In this case the phrase "When I want your opinion I will give it to you." unabashedly applies.