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From: Jim Hinter, National Firearms Association [jhinter@shopnfa.com]
Sent: Thursday, April 22, 1999 2:42 PM
Subject: Primer on PFCS
A Primer on the Practical Firearms Control System (PFCS):
The PFCS uses the same methods used in every other area where people use
potentially dangerous equipment. It is based on 200 years of experience,
where we learned how to ensure SAFETY when firearms are being used.
PFCS seeks answers to three questions, the same questions that YOU think of
when you meet a new shooter at the range or in the hunting field:
1. Does this person know how to use this firearm SAFELY for this type of
use?
2. Does this person know the rules that keep us all SAFE?
3. Is this person the kind of person who obeys the rules that keep us all
SAFE?
If those three questions are answered with a firm "Yes!" by an Instructor or
other qualified person, then you obviously have little left to worry about.
And that is what the PFCS is all about.
Substitute "airplane" or "explosive" or "pesticide" for "firearm" in
question 1, and you will see that this simple test describes the tests we
apply to learn whether possession -- by this person -- of any dangerous item
is SAFE, because the person is trained, competent, and not malicious. The
danger has been minimized as well as any procedure can minimize it.
People currently who have owned and used firearms -- and have not gotten
into trouble with them -- have proven themselves SAFE. They are
"grandfathered" under this new system, at the level where they currently
operate. If they want to learn how to use other firearms in other
circumstances, they may need additional training. Once certification is
granted, it is permanent. One document -- the Firearms Permit - covers
everything, which reduces costs.
The PFCS also includes strong, mandatory sentences for any criminal who uses
any weapon -- firearm, knife, baseball bat, that does not matter - to attack
a human being. A mandatory sentence is written into the system. Unlike our
current law, this sentence is not one that can be plea bargained away or
served concurrently. Under our current system, plea-bargaining is a scandal.
Too many people in our criminal justice system are
reluctant to use the similar laws that already exist. The PFCS ends that
problem.
When a weapon is actually used to injure, kill, sexually assault, or rob
anyone, the charge must be laid, the charge must be prosecuted, and the
sentence must be served. Not imposing the sentence, plea bargaining to drop
the charge, or failing to lay the charge by judge, crown prosecutor or
police officer are all criminal offences.
The PFCS does not include firearm registration, because firearm
registration is not, and cannot be made, cost-effective. Firearm
registration has never reduced violence or crime -- anywhere in the world.
Why should we copy a method that fails every time it is tried?
We have made shooting ranges among the safest places on earth. If the
government will adopt our methods -- the PFCS -- then we can make all of
Canada safe. Our methods work, and theirs do not. They have been testing
firearm registration for 65 years, and it has not ended crime with handguns.
As a matter of fact, nothing that Ottawa has done in the past 65 years of
legislative changes has ever had any demonstrable favorable effect.
Now we ask you just one question: Is Canada a safer place today than it was
65 years ago? Safer than it was 20 years ago? Safer than last year? If your
answer to those questions is "No," then perhaps Ottawa is wrong and we are
right. We believe our PFCS will make Canada SAFER -- and that Ottawa's
methods make things worse.
The British tried the C-68 methods in the period 1988-93. In those five
years, the number of firearm owners went down by 22.4 per cent. The number
of violent crimes went UP, by 33.6 per cent; the number of robberies went
UP, by 80.6 per cent; and the number of robberies with a gun went UP by 117
per cent. The criminals were grateful that the government made their crimes
safer for them to commit.
SO WHY ARE THE LIBERALS COPYING FAILURE?
Copywritten by the National Firearms Association. NFA Permission is granted
to copy, print and distribute this material in its complete form.
Jim Hinter
Coordinator
National Firearms Association
