THE PRACTICAL FIREARMS CONTROL SYSTEM
Firearms, motorcycles and old fighter planes are dangerous
equipment, if used by malicious, incompetent, or untrained
people. Many people have such equipment--for recreational
purposes. Others are afraid of anyone who has such equipment.
A dangerous equipment control system can deny legal unsupervised
access to the equipment to a person who should not have it. It
cannot deny illegal access, or prevent misuse of the equipment.
Analyzing the successful methods used to deal with problems where
dangerous equipment is in common use, this paper applies them to
the design of a practical firearms control system.
The system is based on the pilot's license, which is also a
system designed to control unsupervised legal access to dangerous
equipment. That system works; anyone who gets a pilot's license
isn't, and isn't seen as, a menace to the safety of others.
This system uses a graduated Firearms Permit as the control for
acquisition, possession, movement, use, and disposition of
firearms. The graduated method is necessary; adequate training
to use a single-shot .22 rifle on a basic range is not adequate
training for complex practical handgun competitions.
While this method may seem cumbersome at first glance, it
actually reduces costs. It also benefits the public, the police,
and the firearms owner--in that order of precedence.
1. When a first-time applicant wishes to have legal and
unsupervised access to firearms, he or she first applies to an
Instructor. Such an Instructor is a person certified by one of
the many existing firearms bodies and is not paid by tax money,
but is registered in the system for recognition purposes. The
Instructor is qualified to certify only for specified entries.
3. The Instructor trains and tests the applicant; the applicant
has no legal unsupervised access to firearms in this period.
4. The Instructor certifies and recommends the applicant as
eligible for a Firearms Permit with specified entries, saying:
(a) The applicant knows how to use firearms of this class
safely for this class of use.
(b) The applicant knows the rules of safety and safe handling,
and the laws that apply.
(c) The applicant is the kind of person who obeys the rules.
NOTE: That certification is very meaningful; the Instructor is
saying, "I trust this person to stand next to me, unsupervised,
with a loaded firearm." He bets his life. Effective screening
can only be done by someone who sees and considers the
applicant's behavior with a firearm over an extended period.
5. The applicant then applies to the police, who check his
criminal record. They then issue or refuse (or are precluded
from issuing by a statutory condition) a Police Clearance
Certificate (PCC) authorizing issuance of a Firearms Permit and
specifying the entries which will form part of it.
6. The applicant takes the PCC to the issuing office (which may
be a motor vehicle license office) for routine issuance of the
Firearms Permit. The actual issuer has no decisions to make.
NOTE: This procedure has the advantage of using scarce and costly
police resources only in those areas where they are needed,
instead of wasting them on Firearms Permit issuance and other
"red tape" paperwork. In the city of Edmonton, for example, this
change alone will free one sergeant, one constable, two clerks,
and three rooms of the police station for real-police-work
duties--a great financial saving. The criminal record check is the
only thing currently done by the police which can't be done
more cheaply and efficiently elsewhere.
7. The Firearms Permit is in the form of a grid, with firearms
classes down the left edge and firearms usage across the top. It
replaces all twelve "licensing" documents currently used.
8. The Firearms Permit authorizes possession, acquisition,
carriage, transport and use, with control appropriate to the
holder's status in the law, not forever re-typed on permits.
9. The Firearms Permit is required for legal possession of any
firearm, and offers a thumbnail sketch of the holder's status.
Being able to determine the status of the possessor by a required
document is useful for the police. Documenting the status of the
firearm isn't nearly as useful for real police work.
10. The system sets national minimum standards for local police,
security guards, and anyone else licensed to carry a loaded
firearm to protect human life from criminal violence. This is
done by making the Armed Forces and the RCMP exempt, then using
RCMP Constable standards for issuing "Police" endorsements.
12. Instructors won't certify people who act unsafely with
firearms, and police won't issue PCC's to people with records.
13. Police are protected because absence of a Firearms Permit is
grounds to seize any firearm (no such document exists in the
current system) and a Firearms Permit provides much meaningful
information as to the holder's character and status.
14. Firearms owners are protected, because they can demonstrate
who they are and what they're qualified to have and use.
15. This system uses "grandfathering" for firearms owners and
users who have already proven that they are not a menace to
society; such people may use past history to gain a Firearms
Permit, without "going through the hoops".@NEWPAGE
EXAMPLES OF FIREARMS PERMIT ENTRY PATTERNS
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EXAMPLE 1: .22 rifle target-range-only shooter.
Type/Usage: * POSSESS * BASIC * ADVANCED * FIELD * PROF * POLICE
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CLASS A | | | | | | |
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CLASS B | | | | | | |
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CLASS C | | | | | | |
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CLASS D | Q | Q | | | | |
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WEAPON | | | | | | |
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Q = Qualified * I = Instructor * Issuer: G H Jenks, Alta Wildlife
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EXAMPLE 2: Police officer/expert witness; hunter; PPC shooter.
Type/Usage: * POSSESS * BASIC * ADVANCED * FIELD * PROF * POLICE
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CLASS A | | | | | Q | |
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CLASS B | Q | Q | Q | Q | Q | Q |
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CLASS C | Q | Q | Q | | Q | Q |
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CLASS D | Q | Q | Q | Q | Q | |
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WEAPON | | | | | Q | Q |
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Q = Qualified * I = Instructor * Issuer: Sgt R Collins, RCMP
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*****************************************************************
EXAMPLE 3: IPSC Range officer/Instructor; recreational hunter
Type/Usage: * POSSESS * BASIC * ADVANCED * FIELD * PROF * POLICE
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CLASS A | | | | | | |
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CLASS B | Q | QI | QI | Q | | |
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CLASS C | Q | QI | QI | | | |
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CLASS D | Q | QI | QI | Q | | |
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WEAPON | | | | | | |
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Q = Qualified * I = Instructor * Issuer: C M Jones, Ont Wildlife
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DEFINITIONS OF TERMS USED ON THE FIREARMS PERMIT
POSSESS: To possess the firearm and display it at shows, as
a collector might require.
BASIC: To use the firearm on a basic shooting range.
ADVANCED: To use on an advanced range, where one moves about
with a loaded firearm or draws one from a holster.
FIELD: To use at any place, other than a shooting range, where
a firearm may lawfully be fired.
PROF: To carry and use for professional reasons, as a salesman
or expert witness, etc. might require.
POLICE: To carry and use for protection of human life from
criminal violence; requires meeting all relevant
standards required of an RCMP Constable.
Q and I: Qualified and Instructor; R for Range Officer
may also be used in the identical single-document
System used within the firearms community.
CLASS A: All full automatic firearms.
CLASS B: All centerfire rifles and shotguns over 660mm (26").
CLASS C: All short firearms, fireable when under 660mm (26").
CLASS D: Rimfire rifles and shotguns over 660mm (26") and all
muzzle-loading firearms.
WEAPONS: Weapons which are not firearms, such as police batons.
(This category is needed for the POLICE column.)
The Firearms Permit authorizes its holder to acquire, possess,
and transport firearms of each specified CLASS for all purposes
relevant to of each specified type of USAGE. It thus replaces,
for example, Canada's Firearms Acquisition Certificate, Permit to
Carry, Registration Certificate, and Permit to Transport.
Each entry on the Firearms Permit is subject to specific rules:
A "CLASS C/POLICE" endorsement, for example, licenses a local
police detective for loaded concealed handgun carriage on the
person to protect human life from criminal violence.
A "CLASS C/FIELD" endorsement, on the other hand, similarly
licenses a geologist loaded handgun carriage on the person, but
only in the FIELD and for the purposes of survival hunting,
signalling, and protecting human life from animal attack.