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Jews For The Preservation of Firearms Ownership, Inc.
P.O. Box 270143
Hartford, WI 53027

Phone (800) 869-1884
Fax (425) 451-3959


March 1, 2000

National Firearms Association (of Canada) Action Plan

Here is the outline of the NFA plan to win the fight to rescind the Export Ban.

The Issue: The United States Government, at the request of Lloyd Axworthy has suspended Export Licences of rifles, handguns, firearm components and ammunition from the United States to Canada.

This ban has come about reportedly due to concerns expressed by both governments about the number of requests for Export Permits from Canadian Firearm Dealers to American distributors. The Americans expressed concerns that these firearms could be ending up back in the United States or sent to foreign countries that the United States does not want them trans-shipped to.

The American government expressed concern to the Canadian government as to why so many export licences were being requested. The Canadian government responded that they did not know where these firearms were going.

The Facts: This ban, on the legal importation of rifles, handguns and ammunition is evidence of several things.

First, the figures that the American Government based this ban on are quite misleading. The media reports that export licences were issued for 115,000 handguns and 25,000 rifles, since April 1999. These export licence figures do not represent the actual number of firearms that have come into Canada. Major distributors have reported to the NFA that when they place orders to the United States, common practice is to "ask for more firearms then they are ordering".

In fact on 28 February 2000, there was a media report that one dealer accounts for 89,000 of the 115,000 handgun orders. In fact, only 1,500 handguns have been exported from the United States into Canada. The reality is there is not a problem here.

Second, it is an admission by the Canadian Government that their firearm registration scheme is not working. If it was, they could have answered the American government's concerns by simply telling them, each of the firearms that have entered Canada are registered -- we know where each of them are. Instead, the Canadian government asked the Americans to suspend export permits of all firearms until they could get the mess straightened out. The NFA asserts that there should not be any mess, if the Liberal's extremely expensive firearm registration program was actually working.

The Effects:

To National Distributors; This suspension of Export Licences will have a very serious effect on many Canadian Firearm Distributors.

Companies like Remington and Winchester, who manufacture ammunition in United States, will be unable to export product to Canada.

Companies like Browning, who only inventory firearms in the United States but manufacture them overseas will be forced to source directly from overseas. This ban will cause increased costs and longer delays for product to their Canadian dealers. To Firearm Shops and Dealers; This ban will cause serious shortages of inventory on several products which we can expect to see almost immediately. Expect to see Remington and Winchester ammunition to be in extremely short supply very quickly. American manufactured firearms will be unavailable in Canada once current dealer inventories are sold-out.

To Consumers: This ban may raise prices on current inventories and on future shipments, both in the short term and in the long term. It will also likely mean that many new firearms, Winchester and Remington for example, will not be available in Canada shortly.

Action by the NFA to date: We were on top of this issue on Thursday. By Friday morning, most major Canadian media had approached us. CBC Newsworld and CBC Radio featured interviews with David Tomlinson and Jim Hinter. CTV featured David Tomlinson. The Globe and Mail ran a story on this featuring comment by Ray Laycock and Jim Hinter.

Canadian Press did extensive interviews on this story with the NFA, their stories ran across Canada. We issued media releases to over 1500 small town newspapers across Canada, and are continuing to raise this issue in the media.

We have also written every Member of Parliament in Canada expressing the concerns that we have with this ban, and how this ban is likely to affect thousands of jobs at sporting goods businesses across Canada.

As this is an issue in both Canada and the United States, The New York Times has interviewed us, which is the newspaper, which first broke this story.

On 02 March 2000, Jim Hinter will be a guest on an American Radio Station in California that covers most of the southwest United States on this issue. Our goal will be to get Americans involved in direct action on this issue.

Your Task: We need to make this issue one that every Liberal Member of Parliament will feel is going to cost them votes in the next federal election.

We need NFA Members and supporters to telephone and to write letters. Write your Member of Parliament, Lloyd Axworthy MP (Minister of External Affairs), Jean Chretien MP (Prime Minister of Canada), to Anne McLellan MP (Minister of Justice) and to Preston Manning MP (Leader of the Opposition).

United States President Bill Clinton needs to hear from us. Perhaps a good tactic might be to express that you are planning a "personal ban" on purchase of American products and travel to the United States. Express how you feel about this attack on the firearm community -- and on thousands of Canadian businesses that are going to lose sales because of this ban, based on inaccurate information. Remember, lost sales are going to translate into businesses closing and job being lost. There are potentially hundreds of jobs at risk here -- not to mention many firearm shops, which may be forced to close their doors.

Results: We can, by building a growing fire under the Canadian government, make sure that they are aware that they have ignited a fire that will not go out.

This issue is coming on the heels of several very bad weeks for the federal government -- by raising the pressure on them on this, we are confident that we can force the Canadian government to pressure the American Government into reversing this poorly thought out move.

Can it work? Certainly! We saw how this approach worked with John Manley's plan to give tax-dollars to professional hockey.

If each one of us get on this right now -- it can work.

It is all up to us! Let us do it!

Important Addresses:

Jean Chretien MP, Prime Minister of Canada
Langevin Block,
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A3
Phone: (613) 992-4211
Fax: (613) 995-0101 e-mail: pm@pm.gc.ca

Anne McLellan MP
Minister of Justice
Justice Building, 284 Wellington Street
Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0H8
Phone: (613) 952-3500
Fax: (613) 941-2279 e-mail: McLelA@parl.gc.ca

Lloyd Axworthy MP
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Lester B. Pearson Building, Room A-10
125 Sussex Drive
Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0G2
Phone: (613) 995-1851
Fax: (613) 996-3443 e-mail: AxworL@parl.gc.ca

Preston Manning MP
Leader of the Official Opposition
Room 409-S, Centre Block
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6
Phone: (613) 996-6740
Fax: (613) 947-0310 e-mail:ManniP@parl.gc.ca

Garry Breitkreuz MP
Firearms Critic, Reform Party of Canada
Room 252, Wellington Building
House of Commons,
Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6
Phone: (613) 992-4394
Fax: (613) 992-8676 e-mail: BreitG@parl.gc.ca

Peter MacKay MP
Justice Critic, Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
Room 452-D, Centre Block
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6
Phone: (613) 992-6022
Fax: (613) 992-2337 e-mail: MackaP@parl.gc.ca

Alexa McDonough MP
Leader of the New Democratic Party
Room 442-N, Centre Block, House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6
Phone: (613) 995-7224
Fax: (613) 995-4565 e-mail: McDonA@parl.gc.ca

National Firearms Association
Box 4384, Station C
Calgary, Alberta, T2T 5N2
Phone: (403) 640-1110
Fax: (403) 640-1144 e-mail: nfainfo@nfa.ca
Web Site: www.nfa.ca


We have work to do people.

Jim Hinter
National Vice President Communications
National Firearms Association


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