Dealing With The New Firearms Control Bureaucracy (FCB)

If you have been following NFA advice you will have in the past year obtained a fresh FAC and in the past 6 months a fresh permit to carry, valid till next summer. That way you won't have to deal with the new firearms control bureaucracy (FCB) until they have figured out what they are doing. If not then you'll have to deal with it sooner rather than later.

You will no longer be dealing with the your local police department but with a new civilian bureaucracy under the provincial Chief Firearms Officer that will be operating out of your local New Brunswick Government Services Office.

How to conduct yourself:

Before you ask anything of this new bureaucracy please, please familiarize yourself with the process as defined by the Canadian Firearms Centre, in it's bulletins, so you'll know exactly what you're supposed do, what you are supposed to get, and how quickly you're supposed to get it. That having been said:

DO NOT TRUST THOSE BULLETINS, OR ANY PUBLICATION OTHER THAN A COPY OF BILL C-68 AND A COPY OF THE "MARCH 1998 REGULATIONS."

The CFC's error rate in its publications is FAR too high to trust them.

THEY DO NOT UNDERSTAND THEIR OWN LAW.

Keep notes and copies of all records and transactions you make with this new bureaucracy indefinitely. Just as though you expected to have to explain your activities in court. You may well have to. The new act contains even larger fines and prison sentences than the old act for any error made and, as in the case of Constable Mark Smith several years ago, the FCB may be expected to go to great lengths to pin their errors on the individual. Be Warned! Be prepared! Read the newspaper report of the Mark Smith trial: marks3.txt

If you experience any difficulty report it to your local gun club so that a member with internet access may report it to the [email protected] . There are many experts on the digest who are most willing to provide comment and help to formulate a course of action.

If you suspect you're not being treated in accordance with the simple friendly process defined in the bulletins, but rather in accordance with the harsh, ambiguous, obfuscation provided for in the act and regulations, ask that the NFA be informed.

That having been said, expect to be treated as provided for in the act and regulations.

If you are being treated softly, it is because they are NOT DOING WHAT THE ACT REQUIRES -- and that is an indictable offence that they commit in order to get out of working. DO NOT allow them to get away with it -- IF WE HAVE TO OBEY BILL C-68, SO DO THEY. And they CANNOT do what C-68 requires -- they do not have the manpower, the expertise, OR the funds.

If you hear of anyone being prosecuted for any stand alone firearms offence (ie not secondary to criminal activity) please record the details and report it to the NFA through your local gun club.

How to Keep up to Date

It's practically impossible to put anything in print on this subject these days that isn't going to be outdated by the time it is published. That's why the firearms community has moved to the 21^st century communication system, the internet.

The NFA web site http://www.nfa.ca and

the NB Firearms Alliance web site http://nbfa.home.ml.org

can provide you with reasonably current information.

To stay on the leading edge the CDN-FIREARMS-DIGEST a 25 page digest of discussion of problems experience court cases etc, is distributed to 1700 subscribers nationally every day. This is the development process for the information that appears on the Web page. Everyone can't follow this level of detail, but one member of each gun club should.

Each community in New Brunswick has in it's library, or community centre or school a Community Access Centre to the internet funded by Industry Canada. There's a link from the NBFA web site to this system of access centres so you can find out where your local one is.

Keeping up to date on this issue doesn't have to cost you more than your time.

Frank Ryder NFA-NB