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Sent: Tuesday, 22 May, 2001 08:08
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Subject: Cdn-Firearms Digest V3 #781
Cdn-Firearms Digest Tuesday, May 22 2001 Volume 03 : Number 781
In this issue:
10 Handguns stolen from Stoney Creek home
HESTON LEADS HIS PEOPLE
Fake cop call used in pharmacy robberies
Yukon: Prolific grey wolves prescribed birth control
Teenager brought loaded weapon to school
America-- armed and dangerous; The loaded gun is a comfort in the U.S
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Date: Tue, 22 May 2001 08:06:49 -0600
From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" <[e-mail]>
Subject: 10 Handguns stolen from Stoney Creek home
PUBLICATION: The Hamilton Spectator
DATE: 2001.05.22
SECTION: News
PAGE: A02
SOURCE: The Hamilton Spectator
DATELINE: Stoney Creek
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10 Handguns stolen from Stoney Creek home
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Police are seeking the public's help in recovering 10 handguns stolen from a
Stoney Creek home Saturday night.
The weapons, but no ammunition, were inside a <gun> safe stolen along with
cash and jewelry sometime between 5.p.m. and midnight.
Police don't think the thieves were targeting the homeowners' <gun>
collection.
The thieves may not even know they have them, Acting Staff Sergeant Ian
James said yesterday.
"They were all locked up inside the <gun> safe, so unless they've opened it,
they may have no idea what they have."
But police do, and the thought of 10 deadly handguns hitting the streets is
worrying them.
James said the guns included three 9 mm handguns, a .38mm, a .22mm and an
eight-shot Berretta 7.65mm.
The safe also contained four older European handguns bearing the names
Tokarev, Ceska Zbrojovka and Astra Unceta.
Anyone with any information is asked to call east-end detectives at
905-546-2907 or Crime Stoppers at 905-522-TIPS.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 22 May 2001 08:06:57 -0600
From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" <[e-mail]>
Subject: HESTON LEADS HIS PEOPLE
PUBLICATION: The Ottawa Sun
DATE: 2001.05.22
SECTION: Showbiz
PAGE: 29
BYLINE: Ap
DATELINE: Kansas City, Mo.
ILLUSTRATION: Photo of CHARLTON HESTON NRA president
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HESTON LEADS HIS PEOPLE
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Charlton Heston, who has electrified the National Rifle Association with his
rousing speeches, was re-elected to an unprecedented fourth term as NRA
president yesterday.
The 77-year-old actor was chosen by the NRA's 76-member board of directors.
"There really wasn't much discussion" about whether to keep Heston in the
job, said NRA spokesman Bill Powers.
Heston was first elected to head the 4.2-million-member <gun>-rights group
in 1998. Presidents serve one-year terms.
On Saturday, he told NRA members at their annual meeting he had expected his
most recent term to be his last but that he was asked to stay on.
To a roaring crowd, he thrust a Revolutionary War musket above his head
Saturday and said, "I have only five words for you: From my cold, dead
hands."
It was an encore of his performance at last year's convention, when he
issued a challenge to <gun>-control forces.
Powers said Heston, who portrayed Moses in The Ten Commandments, is "a
tremendous resource" for the NRA because of his history of civil rights
involvement, including marching with Rev. Martin Luther King and working for
free speech and <gun> rights.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 22 May 2001 08:07:03 -0600
From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Fake cop call used in pharmacy robberies
PUBLICATION: The Hamilton Spectator
DATE: 2001.05.22
SECTION: News
PAGE: A03
SOURCE: The Hamilton Spectator
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Fake cop call used in pharmacy robberies
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Police are warning pharmacy workers not to believe callers who say they are
undercover officers warning of imminent robberies.
A gunman made that call in Grimsby Saturday just before he forced a
pharmacist to hand over narcotics. The ploy is meant to make victims believe
police are just outside waiting to grab the thief.
They don't call and he gets away cleanly. Just before 10 a.m. on Saturday,
the man phoned the Orchardview Pharmacy, went inside, displayed a weapon and
left with drugs. An off-duty police officer was threatened with the <gun>
when he tried to stop the robber. Forty minutes before, a man with the same
description tried to rob a Shoppers Drug Mart in St. Catharines but was
thwarted by the pharmacist, said police.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 22 May 2001 08:07:10 -0600
From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Yukon: Prolific grey wolves prescribed birth control
PUBLICATION GLOBE AND MAIL
DATE: TUE MAY.22,2001
PAGE: A3 (ILLUS)
BYLINE: ROBERT MATAS
CLASS: National News
EDITION: Metro DATELINE: Vancouver
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Prolific grey wolves prescribed birth control
Instead of shooting them, Yukon is trying
to control their numbers by sterilizing
dominant females, ROBERT MATAS writes
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ROBERT MATAS
VANCOUVER Michelle Oakley flew into the northern wilderness a few months ago
in search of grey wolves. But instead of a <gun>, the Yukon veterinarian was
armed with a needle and the latest idea in birth control. An energetic
protest backed by an international campaign effectively forced the Yukon
government in the mid-1990s to abandon its efforts to control its wolf
population by shooting them.
But the government has not given up its ambition to manage the rhythms of
nature.
Working on the frontiers of science, the northern government is now
experimenting with an innovative program to sterilize dominant females in
wolf packs in the wilderness.
"We don't know if it will work. As far as I know, it has never been tried
with wolves," Dr. Oakley said in an interview from Haines Junction, Yukon.
The Yukon program, based on a new vaccine developed at Nova Scotia's
Dalhousie University, is expected to prevent pregnancies over several years.
"We don't know for how long," she added, "because we haven't done this
before."
Before the arrival of European settlers, the grey wolf could be found across
the continent from the Arctic to Mexico. But by the early 1900s, wolves were
nearly extinct in most of the United States.
Constantly targeted by governments and others who believed they were a
threat to cattle, wolves have been pursued "with more passion and
determination than any other animal in U.S. history," according to the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service. Only a few hundred remained in the United States
when the animal was recognized as an endangered species 30 years ago.
Wolves have done much better in Yukon, where about 4,500 roam. However,
since the 1950s, Yukon has also aggressively poisoned and shot wolves,
mostly in an effort to protect moose and caribou herds.
On average, a wolf eats more than 10 caribou each year. The strongest
advocates of wolf-control programs have been hunters and some Indian bands
who relied on the herds for their subsistence.
The Yukon's last wolf-kill program, which ended in 1997, killed 160 of 200
wolves in southwest Yukon. The program was intended to help revive the
Aishihik caribou herd to 2,500 from 700, and to increase the moose
population in the area to 4,000, from 1,800.
The government initially turned to sterilization techniques as an
alternative for controlling the population of predators. Although expensive,
the program attracted virtually no protest.
Biologists in helicopters shot tranquilizer darts at wolves in the
wilderness. The animals were then taken to a nearby community, where a
veterinarian anesthetized them and performed either a tubal ligation or
vasectomy. After a day to recover, the wolves were released back into the
wilderness.
But even though the program did not stir much controversy, the NDP
government phased out the sterilization program shortly after it started.
However, the Liberal government elected last year reintroduced a wolf
management program this winter. An "experimental wolf fertility control
project" is to be conducted in the Aishihik area until 2003.
Yukon Renewable Resources Minister Dale Eftoda has said that at least six
wolf packs in key moose and caribou areas would be maintained as
"non-productive units." In the Aishihik wilderness, the wolf population is
going to be held at a maximum of 100.
A wolf pack is an extended family unit of five to 10 animals, with a
dominant alpha male and female. Most wolves mate for life, although some do
not. Normally, they mate in January or February and a litter of about five
are born in April or May.
Will the character of the pack change if the dominant female in a pack is
not breeding? Nobody really knows, because so far no behavioural research
has been done to find out.
Dr. Oakley was flown into the wilderness in November to give needles to
three female wolves.
Veterinarians have used the vaccine porcine zona pellucide to prevent
pregnancies for more than 70 species held in zoos. But the vaccine has been
effective for only one year and annual booster shots have been required.
Dr. Oakley said the new vaccine is expected to be effective for longer. The
process, called immunocontraception, means less handling of the animals and
less time, she added. "I've done the surgeries and this is much better," she
said.
NDP critic Gary McRobb, who lives in the Aishihik area, said management of
the wolf population is necessary and that the government's current approach
is "a reasonable alternative" to the wolf-kill program. He intends to push
for the party to review its policy at its spring convention later this
month.
Nevertheless, the program still has its critics. Bob Jickling, who teaches
environmental philosophy at Yukon College, said the program's supporters ask
the wrong questions. The issue is not whether wolves are killing too many
caribou, he said. "The problem is the attitude to wildlife," he said.
Mr. Jickling was active in the protest against the wolf-kill program in the
1990s and has watched in recent years from the sidelines. He said it is
difficult to sort out whether the herds have been depleted by over-hunting
or by natural predators. "I suspect everything contributes to it, and it's
difficult to blame one or the other," he said.
"Sterilization may be less offensive," he added, "but it's the same approach
to management."
Wildlife should not be treated as a commodity and the government should not
be managing wildlife just to provide animals for others to kill, Mr.
Jickling said.
Biologist Paul Paquet, an adjunct professor at the University of Calgary,
said fluctuations in the size of caribou and moose herds may be part of the
routine long-term cycles in wildlife population.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 22 May 2001 08:07:16 -0600
From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Teenager brought loaded weapon to school
PUBLICATION WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
DATE : TUE MAY.22,2001
PAGE : A8
CLASS : City
EDITION :
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Teenager brought loaded weapon to school <Gun>-toting student
gets emotional help
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Mike McIntyre
A desperate cry for help is finally being answered, eight months after a
teenage boy brought a loaded shotgun to his Beausejour high school only to
be disarmed by an alert teacher, his lawyer said. The 16-year-old, who can't
be named under the Young Offender's Act, pleaded guilty earlier this month
to possession of a weapon dangerous to the public peace in connection with
the frightening incident last fall. He will be sentenced in August after
doctors and justice officials complete an assessment of his mental health
and emotional state.
Defence lawyer Mike Waslyn said his client has been through "a comedy of
errors" attempting to get help for his obvious problems. They have only
begun to be corrected since his guilty plea, he said.
"This was done out of frustration and a want for attention. It was a
dramatic way of getting across his point," said Waslyn.
"But we keep being told there is a lack of resources."
An initial psychiatric assessment was completed, but Waslyn said doctors
have unable been to put him on a comprehensive treatment plan.
He said the teen's frustration has only grown since his arrest, as he waited
in limbo for something to happen.
The teen was released on bail following his arrest, but has been living in a
Winnipeg group home, unable to attend any school.
"He's a bright kid, who is very motivated to learn. But you know what he's
been doing every day? He gets up in the morning and goes to the library,
looking on the computer," said Waslyn.
Since his guilty pleas, the teen has been allowed to take his schooling by
correspondence and help appears to be on the horizon, said Waslyn.
Attempts are finally being made to find him a full-time counsellor who can
deal with his needs, he said.
"He wants to get this behind him, and we think we can finally get him some
help now," he said.
The boy caused a major scare last September at Ed Schreyer High School after
making a cryptic comment that he would make an after-hours driver's
education class an event to remember.
According to police, the boy travelled to class on the school bus with his
stepfather's shotgun in a black duffel bag loaded with 42 shells, which he
carried with him the entire day.
When he attended the driver's education class that afternoon, the boy took a
seat he hadn't sat in before, a seat in the front row at the aisle closest
to the door, effectively blocking the exit.
Shortly after class began, the teen opened his black duffle bag, pulled out
the shotgun and stood up.
He was immediately approached by the instructor, Carole Christiansen, who
convinced him to empty the shells from the <gun> and proceed to the school
office without incident.
Christiansen said yesterday her thoughts are with the teen as he tries to
heal.
"I'm glad to see something is finally happening. My heart goes out to him,"
she said.
She never believed the teen was prepared to go on a shooting spree but said
she often wonders what was going through his mind.
"When a student brings a <gun> to school, that's not right. There's got to
be a reason in his mind," she said.
At the time of the incident, the boy's stepfather said he was depressed over
his relationship with his birth dad.
The man said his son was upset with a bogus criminal allegation which had
been made against him by another family member. The charge was dismissed
this week, he said.
Waslyn said the pre-sentence report will hopefully pinpoint all the causes
of the teen's reaction.
"There was obviously some emotional issues here, and things tended to build
up and build up. He was feeling like an outsider," said Waslyn.
[e-mail]
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 22 May 2001 08:07:24 -0600
From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" <[e-mail]>
Subject: America-- armed and dangerous; The loaded gun is a comfort in the U.S
PUBLICATION: The Hamilton Spectator
DATE: 2001.05.19
SECTION: Observer
PAGE: D04
SOURCE: The Los Angeles Times
BYLINE: Stephanie Simon
PHOTO: Photo: David Kennedy, the Los Angeles Times Photo: THE ASSOCIATED
PRESS
DATELINE: Kirkwood; Mo.
ILLUSTRATION: Fritzi and Clarence Martindell, with their dog Mr. Hobbs,
live in quiet Kirkwood, Mo. Yet both own guns.; Jessie Hughes, 8, of
Colorado holds a sign showing the number of children killed by guns in the
U.S. in 1999.
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America-- armed and dangerous; The loaded gun is a comfort in the U.S. It's
jammed between the mattress and the box spring. Or tucked inside a gym bag
on the floor. It's on the night stand, in a dresser, in a briefcase in the
closet. Handy.
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There are more than 30 million loaded, unlocked guns in American homes.
To many, the Justice Department's estimates are incomprehensible. Especially
now, when child after child in town after town has gotten hold of a family
gun and turned it on classmates.
Appalled by the schoolyard carnage, prosecutors around the nation are
pressing charges against gun owners who fail to secure their weapons.
In the last month alone, gun owners in Indianapolis, Philadelphia and St.
Paul, Minn., have been hit with criminal charges for leaving loaded
<firearms> in reach of kids.
A Michigan man who stashed his pistol by his bed is serving up to 15 years
in prison; a Grade 1 student used the gun to kill a classmate. But
prosecutors are up against a fundamental disconnect: Many gun owners do not
think of their <firearms> as dangerous. To the contrary, they consider a
loaded, accessible gun a safety device, like a seat-belt or a smoke
detector.
One family physician in Indianapolis even urges his patients -- those he
deems responsible -- to consider buying <firearms> for protection. To him,
it's a common-sense precaution. Exercise, eat well, own a gun.
"You only need to need it once," says Paul Ferguson, a molecular biologist
in Jackson, Mich. He keeps his semi-automatic in a drawer under his bed.
"My attitude is, it's better to own a handgun and never need it than to wish
you had one," adds Greg Block, a <firearms> instructor in Southern
California who trains up to 1,500 civilians in self-defence each year.
"I don't call myself paranoid," Block says. "I call myself prepared."
Such convictions echo loud across America. One in four U.S. households keeps
a gun for self-defence. The trend is "absolutely up, absolutely," says Bill
Poole of the National Rifle Association. He points to the NRA's new book on
armed self-protection: In its first month on the market, 5,000 copies sold.
Just how often guns are actually used for self-defence is an open -- and
hotly contested -- question.
The federal government estimates there are fewer than 100,000 defensive gun
uses a year.
But Gary Kleck, a criminologist at Florida State University, contends that
guns are mentioned, brandished or fired in self-defence 2.5 million times a
year.
That would mean armed self-defence is up to five times more common than
armed crime. Kleck's research also concludes that victims who put up armed
resistance are less likely to suffer injury or lose property than those who
struggle, yell for help or give in.
"Armed self-protection," he says, "is what works best."
Count Donald and Crystal Witkowski as true believers.
Crystal, 21, was sexually assaulted a few years ago in her college dorm. Her
husband now keeps a handgun under their bed at night, either his Taurus .357
or his .45-calibre Glock.
"The best thing that could happen is that my pistols grow old and rusty and
are never used," he said. "But if I need a gun, I have it."
For her part, Crystal says just knowing the gun's there gives her "a little
Superman boost."
"It would be, what's the word," she says, thinking aloud, "... an out."
There are other ways to protect life and home: a burglar alarm, say, or a
watchdog. There's pepper spray or that old standby, the baseball bat by the
bed. Some gun owners try all of the above. Still, the loaded firearm offers
special reassurance.
It's much more menacing, from much farther away, than a can of Mace on a key
chain. In an otherwise uneven matchup, it's an equalizer. Just the sight of
it could scare away an intruder. Or it could hold him at bay until help
arrives.
In a Gallup poll taken last summer, nearly 60 per cent of gun owners said a
firearm makes a house safer. (Less than 30 per cent of nongun owners
agreed.) Over and over, they insist: Their kids know better than to mess
around with <firearms>. Their guns are hidden so the little ones can't find
them.
Their children have been exposed to guns so often that there's no alluring
mystique to the weapons, no reason to pick one up for fun.
"It hasn't been a problem," say...