It is time for the Canadian firearms community to realize that a politics-only approach to oppose the government's regulatory and confiscatory agenda, has not worked and will not work. The reason is clear. This kind of one-dimensional thinking has failed to account for the essential strategic nature of the struggle in which we are engaged.
Strategy is defined as "The art of so moving or disposing troops or ships or aircraft as to impose upon the enemy the place and time and conditions for fighting preferred by oneself." We will come back to this point.
Don't be thrown off by the military lingo. Your adversary is the Canadian government and they know all about strategy and strategic planning and how to apply it to firearms policy and enforcement. And you had better know too, or you are going to lose it all.
Our government is organized to exert its power and influence using strategic assets of political, legal, administrative, and tactical means. By now it should be readily apparent that the government's current actions are the culmination of 25 years of policy development to attack Canadian firearms rights and to disarm the population. They are very close to achieving this objective. If the government's most recent legislative proposals pass into law, then without question the government will have given itself all the power it needs to impose the final solution, without further recourse to the democratic process.
In contrast, no matter how effective or successful our own efforts, if we confine our activities to the political sphere only, we cannot hope to match the government's ability to operate at the strategic level, and we consign ourselves to defeat.
Under other circumstances, it might have been different. If only the majority of Canadians were legitimate gun owners...
...stop the wishful thinking. Gun owners are not and are not likely to be the majority in Canada for some time, if ever. This basic fact of political demography means that if we stick to a politics-only approach, our capacity to survive the current onslaught is zero. Intrinsically, we know this. Those who argue otherwise and who are trying to lead us elsewhere have been revealed over the past year as purveyors of false hope and failed dreams.
Face facts. In an unregulated democracy, or in a defective democracy such as Canada which appears to lack the controls to stem its own excesses, 51% of the people can vote to eat the other 49%. An outrageous but entirely democratic proposition.
The firearms community may not be 51% of the Canadian public. But we are 100% of our own people. And we have got to show the general population just what that means. 51% democracy is not democracy at all if it allows the state to repress and destroy the rights and freedoms of people on the downside of 51%.
If the federal government fails to carry the firearms community, their legislation will be so many useless words. We are the stakeholders. It is our property and our freedom and our way of life which is imperiled. In a democracy, the general public is entitled to express their opinion freely, and the government is empowered to exercise the collective will of the majority. But there have to be limits, or democracy fails. Specifically, the majority has no right to destroy the traditional rights and freedoms of others, or to impose limitations to rights and freedoms without full and irrefutable justification, of which the firearms community has seen precious little.
The Interaction of Politics, Law and Tactics
The major problem is that the government's most effective weapons so far have been legal, not political. It is the law itself and the abuse of unwarranted regulatory powers under C-17, which are being used to bludgeon the firearms community into submission.
Under these circumstances, all the politicking in the world is not capable to stop the juggernaut of legislative and executive excess. Just look at where it has got us so far. Yes, our politics have been effective, and will be more so in future. But there are real-life limits to what can be achieved. And they fall short of the mark necessary to ensure that we can win. So let us not exhaust ourselves on the political palisades. There is a great need to preserve and build our strength to oppose and challenge the implementation of government legislation after it passes into law. Which surely by now, even the least forward thinker amongst us must realize is going to happen. We are going to have a new law. And it is going to be very bad law in every sense of the word.
Unless a way is found to attack and neutralize the government's legal and legislative arsenal directly, then strategically we cannot win. To correct this weakness, firearms owners and firearms organizations have got to develop the ability to operate effectively and decisively in the legal and extra-legal arena. Along these lines, the declaration of our firearms rights will provide an effective counterstroke to repudiate the federal legislation. A means to do so was addressed in prior communications.
Which brings us to the third leg of our strategic triad: tactical operations.
It is well known that government forces continue to operate against us tactically, even as this article is written. The intervention of armed police to seize and destroy our property continues, even as the government denies this is their ultimate policy objective. It should be obvious to any impartial observer that the temporary cessation of raids would be the most astute course of action by government to lull us into sleep. But the federal government and certain police authorities seem unable or incapable to control their contempt for our freedom, their despise of our cultural values or their disrespect for the property of Canadian citizens. Instead we are seeing more evidence of out-of-control regulatory powers increasingly abused in more and more jurisdictions by an out-of-control law enforcement mentality.
Even considering the growth in our political power, and even as we develop our capacity to engage in legal and extra-legal undertakings, we must bear in mind the limitations of each. It is essential to recognize that our strategy remains critically flawed if we abandon the realm of tactical operations entirely to the government side.
Moreover, we can anticipate that the government's tactical operations will become increasingly active and effective if we allow them to operate unopposed. The inescapable strategic conclusion is that we have no option but to develop our own tactical doctrine and to engage in our own tactical operations, or we will lose.
On this essential point of strategic thinking, it is not possible to place too much emphasis. Good strategy does not guarantee victory. Even a bad strategy might prevail against an adversary who is even worse. But a defective strategy guarantees absolutely that you cannot win. To ignore our tactical requirements would leave the firearms community teetering on a one-leg or two-leg stool, easily toppled by even weak tactical attacks from virtually any direction.
So there it is. The government has pushed us to the wall. The only options are to capitulate, to fight a hopeless politics-only battle, or to acquire a balanced strategic capability of our own based on the development of political, legal and tactical capabilities within the firearms community.
Already we have too many politicians in Canada, inside and outside the firearms community. It can be predicted with confidence that political plans are likely to develop quite capably without extra help or encouragement. Likewise, the need for legal and extra-legal action was discussed in prior communications. In general, political and legal concepts are widely understandable, and do not require emphasis.
However, the Canadian population suffers from a pronounced weakness in tactical knowledge and understanding. The diminutive size of Canada's armed forces relative to the overall population, especially in comparison to most other nations, has led to a situation where the percentage of the general population with exposure to tactical training is a small and diminishing quantity. In order to be successful, our doctrine has to take this factor into account.
It is customary for doctrine to be widely disseminated, over and above security concerns. Doctrine is useless unless everyone knows it and has access to it. Unfortunately and invariably, this includes the opposition. So be it. What the opposition does not have is our plans and intentions.
Just the same, it should be no surprise to anyone that right now the firearms freedom movement in Canada has little or no tactical capability at any level above the individual, or at best, section level. That being the case, there is no need to divulge the full range of tactical doctrine. What follows are the essentials that you require to operate effectively as an individual.
Although this doctrine has been developed downwards from strategic considerations, it will be presented in reverse order from the bottom up. Doctrine applicable to higher level operations will be released only when it is apparent that firearms organizations have committed themselves to operate at higher levels of tactical integrity and that their members are ready to undertake the necessary training and preparations.
In the meantime, the proliferation in Canada of tactical capability at the individual level is going to be effective. And individual tactics will always remain as an essential foundation to support higher level operations, if and when we are compelled by the imprudent laws and actions of government to develop such capability.
The most basic tactical capability that you require as an individual is:
to enable you to carry on with your traditional life in freedom in the way that you choose, as best you can under prevailing circumstances, and
to minimize or eliminate your exposure to the criminal justice system according to your ability or willingness to accept a particular degree of risk at any given time.
This capability requires you to acquire the following knowledge, skills and equipment;
Off-Property Storage
Your firearms can be stored covertly and effectively almost anywhere. (So long as you have not registered them). Except in your home or on your own property. If authorities know that you have firearms in your home or on your property, the likelihood that they will find them when they want to is about 100%. The possible exception may be if you are a rancher with a sizable spread.
On the other hand, the simple expedient of concealing your guns somewhere outside your property line, accomplishes three things:
First, it forces police to conduct a records investigation and a forensic investigation to link you to any guns, if they find them. This considerably complicates their problem and substantially increases the cost and resources they must devote to this dubious enterprise. Especially if there is no record of registration or sale. And whether or not some records link can be established, they would still be required in court to prove that these firearms which may somehow be connected to you, or which may have been connected to you in the past, were in fact in your possession illegally at some time in the past or at the time of seizure.
Let's say they obtain authority and bear the considerable cost of a DNA test on a flake of skin. It's yours. Does that mean that you are or that you were in possession, legally or illegally? Bear in mind that at least up to now, it has always been your right to dispose of guns however you choose. Without keeping records. Maybe you sold them. Who owns them now? You remember he had an FAC, but you don't remember his name. Did he re-sell them? The trail is cold. Say they find your dog's hair. Does that mean he is in possession? Or you? This is a legal circus. Crown prosecutors are not going to waste valuable court time on this nonsense when the outcome is so doubtful.
All of this assumes they are able to find your guns in the first place. Which could be located on your neighbour's property (with or without your neighbour's knowledge) or anywhere else in town or in the country.
Which brings us to the second point; the laws of probability. Authorities have to substantiate reasonable and probable grounds to obtain a warrant to search your home or property. This does not entitle them to disturb or to search your indignant neighbour, unless they establish reasonable and probable grounds that you have concealed your firearms on his property. In other words, they can't just search or dig up the whole neighbourhood or countryside on speculation. And the probability of police finding your guns decreases exponentially (actually the inverse square law) as the radius of search is forced to expand. If they don't find firearms on your property or close to your property, then it's hard to see they ever will. They don't have the men, they don't have the money, they don't have the time, and they don't have unlimited authority.
Furthermore, most police forces will not be motivated to engage in this kind of political witchhunt against their own community. Even the anti-gun zealots amongst them will not long maintain their motivation to engage in search and surveillance operations against trained and informed individuals, as the unproductive and wasteful nature of this undertaking sinks in. They will be reduced to raiding soft targets and we will expose their moral bankruptcy as they make war against old men with a shotgun on the porch.
All of this might concern you. But only if they find your guns. And such an occurrence becomes a virtual impossibility once you become skilled in covert techniques for the storage of firearms. You have a better chance of winning big in the lottery than having one of your sites discovered.
Which leads to the third point: money, taxpayers and politics. It is true that police have to do their duty and that they will do their duty as we expect them, even when ordered by fanatic politicians or foaming anti-gun police authorities. But in the end, the authorities have to justify their budgets. And if Canadians ever witness the spectacle of a costly and unproductive campaign against those nasty but harmless gun owners instead of the real crooks, you can be sure that there will be an accounting and reassessment of priorities within the police service, all the way up the line. The alternative will be an unpalatable accounting to irate crime-ridden taxpayers of all stripes and persuasions.
Consider the cost of a surveillance operation against even one site or just one gun owner: up to $300,000 per year or more, unless you are not completely serious and want to cut corners. And still there is no guarantee. To accomplish what? To arrest and jail some poor, honest citizen? Whose only crime is a firm and abiding belief that it is his right as a Canadian to live his life in peace and freedom the way he has always lived?
Any reasonable police service, in the unlikely event a site is discovered, sooner or later is going to arrive at a decision or policy or procedure written or unwritten, to remove the firearms and perhaps run a records check. And that will be the end of it, unless there is some reason to believe a gun is connected to armed robbery or some other real crime. Which essentially is what they do now. Some police authorities might make claims to the contrary, but in the end common sense and real-world limitations are going to win out.
Underground vs Aboveground Storage
In built-up areas, it is easy to conceal firearms from the police in buildings of all kinds. It is more difficult to hide them from other persons who may then report to the authorities, or take matters into their own hands and steal your guns directly. If you want to conceal your guns in town, the same rule applies: in order to protect yourself from the possibility of being deemed in possession, keep them off your own property. Obviously, you want to select a site that will minimize the possibility that someone may stumble onto it, or discover it while looking for something else, or during the course of some other regular or random activity or just plain snooping around. Also consider how you are going to access your firearms when you need them, and how your approach to the site and disturbance of the site can be concealed from others. These things are all possible, but they do have to be well thought out if you are going to hide your guns in town.
But consider why you would want to conceal guns in town, anyway. If they are not going to be readily accessible to you, what good are they for defence? If your only objective is to protect your firearms from government thievery, then covert storage in built-up areas probably offers no advantage over the alternatives. Millions of firearms are concealed in cities, and quite successfully. But in a vast territory such as Canada which is just made for hiding, a secure and covertly accessible means to protect your guns is provided by underground storage out in the countryside. And for purposes of shooting and hunting and the general enjoyment of firearms, underground storage out of town or in remote areas probably makes the most sense in most cases.
Underground Storage
Site Selection. The general area in which you position your main underground storage facility or facilities should be an area with as many access routes as possible. The purpose is to minimize or to eliminate the number of times you have to transport firearms to a spot or spots which have only one road in and out. Consider areas with a good network of concession or grid roads. If you want to install a site along a single in/out road, then in most cases it should be an end-use operational site close to your shooting or hunting area, and not a transshipping or storage site. You should also pick surroundings where people do not frequent the off-trail areas. Consider the likelihood of increased activity during hunting season and the tracks you might leave, especially in winter. If the area is rocky, you may spend a lot of time finding an easy spot to dig. Consider how the water table may affect your ability to dig, although a suitable hermetic container can provide protection against even the occasional inundation.
Select your site so that approaches are concealed. Can your car or truck be seen? If someone sees your car or truck, will that lead them to your site? Consider leaving your vehicle or driving your vehicle to a safe distance once you drop off your equipment, or have someone drop you off and pick you up at a rendezvous.
The spot you select should provide good concealment from all-round observation and the sound of digging. The further you are off the main road, track or trail, the better. Consider what the surroundings will look like when the leaves have fallen. The thicker the brush, the better. The tougher it is for you to push through the brush at your site, the better. Ideally there will be no natural entrance, and someone would have to want to get in badly just to try (not that they would see anything anyway, if you have camouflaged the site properly). Think of the spot that smart old buck would choose to bed down.
This provides only one option. Another tack is to install your site at night in an obvious, but indistinct location. For example, a wheat field. Once the plow's been through her, no one is going to suspect that sucker is in there. And what about a junk yard? (O.K. try to pick out a metallic signature in there). The possibilities are endless.
Digging. A well driller can do an excellent and speedy job. But consider the limitations. You are restricted to accessible areas and sites. Drill rigs have a pronounced signature during movement and operation. The operator will know the location. For smaller diameter operational storage containers, a power post hole auger could be employed. But the most flexible and stealthiest method is to dig-in your site with pick and shovel. Vertical installation is recommended so that a minimum of ground disturbance occurs when you dig-in or dig-out your guns. Containers can be buried with a horizontal orientation, for example in rocky ground. However, the signature of horizontal installations and the ground disturbance due to digging will be greater. In mountainous country, normal digging-in may be possible down in the flats, or consider partial burial in hollows, or stash and camouflage in caves, crannies, on wooded bluffs or at remote and inaccessible spots.
Camouflage. To facilitate the camouflage of your site, make sure you bring tarps on which to place the spoil. If you can, cut the turf or surface material into chunks and place it aside on a tarp or plywood sheet for later reconstruction to give a natural and undisturbed appearance. Excess spoil can be wheelbarrowed away, dragged away and spread out using the tarp, or at least flung away from your site using a shovel. Fallen leaves and other surface debris can be gathered from the surroundings and spread or placed over the spoil and other spots. Plan on 3-4 hours initially to dig-in your site by hand, and about an hour to uncover, cover and camouflage each time you require access. This time can be cut to a few minutes if you install one of the smaller operational containers with the top buried more shallow than usual, say 4 inches or so below the surface, and especially if you access the site so frequently that you choose not to seal the container air-tight each time.
Metallic Signature. Someone realistically can locate your site with a metal detector only if they first find out roughly the local area in which it is installed. If they discover only the approximate area, this is not good enough since even an intensive search has only a small chance of success. If they are exceptionally determined, the police can use any general information to try and catch you the next time you visit the area. But good tactics on your part will preclude this possibility. And you can complicate the searcher's technical problem by reducing the metallic signature of your site. Eliminating metal parts in the construction of your storage container, and going for deep burial, say 2 feet or more, will help.
A word of advice; if you sink your container with the top more than 1 foot under the ground, you will regret it each time you dig out your guns. Deep burial makes sense only in exceptional circumstances or if you are putting guns in the ground for several years or more between visits.
Networking. Even if you install just one site each year, soon you will have an extensive and growing network of sites all over the countryside. As you acquire more and more sites and more firearms, the greater will be your shooting and hunting opportunities and the less often you will need to transport guns between sites by road and highway. As your network grows, you will benefit from an enhanced ability to operate with greater freedom and less risk.
Most shooters need only one main storage site, and perhaps a transshipping site or two. These larger sites should be capable of storing several or more guns and would be accessed perhaps once a year, or less. Guns in these locations by and large should be prepared for long term storage.
If you intend to shoot or hunt as most people will, you will want and need any number of smaller operational storage sites. These consist of smaller containers holding one or two firearms fully assembled in ready-to-use condition, or prepared for short term or long term storage, according to your plans and the frequency of access.
Records. It is difficult to forget where you buried your guns - but it can be done. Especially as your network expands. Keep a record of all locations. Your records should not reveal any clues which could compromise the general area or the local area where a site is installed. Record only the precise directions to the exact spot from a known and unmistakable and more-or-less permanent marker. Your records should be perfectly useless to anyone who does not know the general location and start point from memory. A sketch of compass bearings and distances with a few details, works well. A long metal prod is useful to confirm the spot before you dig. In most cases, it would be a good idea if one other trustworthy person knows the location of your guns. Lost guns are no good to anyone, and no one including you is going to live forever.
Tactical Access. Your best defence to prevent a site from being compromised is to hone your tactical skills to enable you to approach a site unseen and unheard. Check that you are not being followed, and that no one is waiting for you in the area based on information they might have obtained from prior surveillance. Some simple rules;
Don't tell anyone you are going to visit a site, not even family members if you can help it. (Someone phones, "Where's your dad?" "Oh, he's going out to dig up his guns." Whoops.)
Load equipment into your vehicle under cover inside your garage.
Configure your load and the way you dress, time your departure, and perhaps combine your trip with some other activity, so that your departure looks perfectly normal.
If you have any reason to suspect you may be under surveillance, don't visit your sites. You are safe. You are in control. Your guns are safe and in the ground. Keep it that way. Borrow someone else's gun this time round. If someone might be watching, let them blow a fuse and wait forever.
Don't leave your vehicle too close to your site, or in a spot where it might compromise the location of your site.
If you need access in winter to dig-in or dig-out your guns, watch the weather reports and time your visit to coincide with a predicted snowfall, if you can. Consider a long, indirect approach to your site. Camouflage your site with snow as best you can, or maybe make it look like you stopped for lunch or to rest. Don't forget to bring tarps. Consider making some similar disturbances in the snow at various points along your trail. You can make more "hunter's" tracks over a wide area on your way out. Cut down a Christmas tree; whatever. The objective is to create some sort of deception or diversion so that no one would suspect anything out of the ordinary. If you need frequent access during winter, its better and easier to hide your guns in plastic in the snow rather than underground, and then put them underground in the spring.
If you access a particular site frequently or daily, consider the value to install two or more containers in that area, dispersed several hundred meters or more apart. In this way you never have to return to the same spot on the same day.
If you feel a site may have been compromised, don't go near it for a long, long time. And when and if you do, consider making it a last and final visit to remove your guns permanently to another site. Be aware and look for signs of possible electronic surveillance devices.
Lastly, don't be paranoid. The above are precautions only. This stuff is dead-easy straightforward common sense. Once you get used to visiting sites and get a feel for it, the way you operate will become second nature and you will wonder, what was the problem anyway?
To preserve your guns in like-new condition over many years requires them to be stored in a non-corrosive, non-abrasive environment, free from humidity and frequent or rapid extreme fluctuations in temperature.
Underground storage intrinsically provides temperature stability as good as you can get without a heating system. Your guns will experience more thermal cycling on a typical winter hunt than they will underground. A desiccant to remove moisture from the container, and the liberal application of grease or oil to all surfaces subject to corrosion, will provide all the protection you need. A few points:
fill the gun barrel completely with grease. A grease gun fitted with a piece of garden hose fastened by a hose clamp works well. Fit the hose over the muzzle, and squeeze.
apply grease or oil liberally to all surfaces (except rifle scopes and plastics).
Cling wrap is useful to cover each gun and prevent a grease and oil mess.
keep wood components separated and free from grease and oil. This may require taking down or disassembling guns for long term storage.
not much needs to be done for wood stocks. Keep them dry. Consider stainless steel guns or rustproof gun finishes and synthetic stocks for future purchases.
Be aware that non-commercial desiccants may corrode gunmetal if they come into direct contact - be careful not to spill or upset the desiccant container. Fill the container halfway to leave room for the material to expand as it absorbs moisture. A charge of about a kilogram or so is all you need for many years of protection. If the gun container has a perfect hermetic seal and is seldom opened, the desiccant will last indefinitely. If it shows signs of liquefying, it is time to recharge the desiccant. Do not use a glass container. If the desiccant liquefies and freezes, the glass could shatter.
To store your guns for the short term only, no more needs to be done than you would at home - a good oiling and perhaps an oily rag in the muzzle. For daily or frequent access, guns can be stored underground fully assembled in operational storage containers, without preservation and without hermetic sealing, so long as a proper means of desiccation is provided and checked from time to time.
Off-the-shelf containers suitable for underground storage are available commercially. See your gun dealer. Another option is to fabricate storage equipment at home or in a small shop. This can be achieved at a cost of about $150 per container using common, uncontrolled materials. Most kinds of barrels, pipes, cans, bins, etc. can be considered. The usual tools found in most homes are all that is required to produce a high quality product of which you can be proud.
Storage containers may be of a hermetic or vented design. Vented containers depend absolutely on the quality and quantity of desiccant that is present, and on the degree to which the gun storage container is sealed. The better the seal, the longer the desiccant charge will last. Vented containers are more convenient in the case where frequent access is required. To make a vented container, install a pin or nail-sized hollow vent tube protruding from the container lid. A needle valve to inflate footballs or a similar device most commonly can be used. A rain cover or rain cap for your container also is a must to protect the vent tube and keep it free from obstruction.
Hermetically sealed containers are recommended for very long term storage (ie. greater than one year), and in areas where inundation is a possibility. Hermetic containers may be less convenient to access on a frequent basis due to the more critical and time-consuming requirement for perfect air-tight sealing. Note that if the seal on a hermetic container fails or if you choose not to seal it perfectly, under most circumstances it will continue to perform its function quite adequately in a kind of quasi-vented mode; so long as it is equipped with a good rain cover, the desiccant charge continues to function, and there is no occurrence of flooding.
Select your materials with the following properties in mind. Your container once buried, will have to withstand a significant ground compression force which over time will tend to crush it inwards like a pop can. Avoid thin-walled materials such as typical garbage cans and air duct type pipes. Oil barrels, culverts and water pipes are fine. 1/8 in. - 1/4 in. steel plate stock should suffice for ends and caps. If you don't have welding equipment, any welding shop will do this kind of work. Otherwise, stick to plastics. The only potential drawback to plastics is that they may be vulnerable in some locations to rodent damage. If you see a lot of rodent burrows near your spot or when you dig your hole, you may have a problem.
Plastics should be at least 1/5 in. thick, and not susceptible to brittleness in cold temperatures. Lid materials should be in the order of 1/2 in. thick to withstand the weight of overburden and prevent bending that might compromise the seal. Corrosive metal surfaces, including galvanized surfaces which have been heated or torched, should be treated with metal primer and metal paint and/or autobody undercoat. Silicone sealant works well on permanent seams. For non-permanent seals, stick to non-silicone type weather sealants which do not give off that strong vinegary smell (these are acetic acid fumes and may not do much good if they get inside with your guns). Or use a suitable gasket, if you can find one or make one that fits.
Handguns are the simplest items to place in underground storage. This is good for handgunners conditioned to hear only the bad news in our paranoid society. Any type of container such as a roasting pan, stew pot or any old pot, paint can, etc. can be used. Apply an appropriate sealant around the rim, and for a few dollars you have an instant underground storage container that will protect your handguns in perfect condition for as long as you want. The same preservation and storage techniques apply to handguns as to rifles. You can more easily and cheaply build up an impressive and accessible handgun network, and enjoy more convenient and accessible shooting, than is the case for long guns. You may or may not be able to shoot as often as you do now. But when you do, you can have a whale of a time, limited only by the rules of safety and your own imagination.
Storage container plans can be purchased through catalogues. We have obtained an excellent set of plans for various types of containers, and have made them available through the media to anyone who wants them. You are encouraged to use these plans, to modify them, design and develop your own containers, and above all, do all that you can to make sure every gun owner in Canada gets a copy of this kind of information.
Once your complete storage network is in place to your satisfaction, seldom if ever will you have to move firearms to, from or between distant sites using a vehicle. In the meantime, you will have to appreciate that during these movements in your vehicle, you are going to be at your most vulnerable. But if guns have to be moved, they have got to be moved, and you are going to have to get on with this task as tactically and as safely as you can.
Bear in mind that your degree of vulnerability during road movement with guns is a relative quantity. You will still enjoy far greater security (by a factor of at least 100) compared to the fellow who keeps unregistered firearms at home or on his property. Where the police can search, seize, charge, arrest and jail him at any time of the day or night as they choose, 365 days a year. You, by comparison, will be vulnerable only one or two days a year (if any), and then only on those days when YOU decide it is safest to move between points and along routes which YOU have chosen.
Go back to the definition of strategy at the start of this article. Perhaps you can see that a high degree of strategic integrity is exemplified by these tactics. You are moving the place and time and conditions of confrontation from under the control of police (ie. at your home whenever they feel like it, and however they wish to conduct their raid), out into the countryside to a time and place of your choosing, under conditions over which you have the greater control. This is the essence of strategy. You seek to avoid confrontation, and on your terms.
By contrast, the government is following a strategy to frighten you to comply with a body of unjust law under threat of armed intervention against you and your household. But where is the tactical viability of the government's plan against a trained and informed citizenry? And where is the moral legitimacy in the methods they are employing?
Timing gives you your best protection when moving guns by road. You are free to choose any time of the day, any day of the year, under any circumstances favourable to you. And if you sense something may not be quite right, there is no problem to abort and try again some other day. You are in control. Your guns are safe and in the ground. You always have the option to keep it that way.
If you are installing a new site, consider leaving your guns elsewhere when you go. That way, you may be asked to account for some unusual equipment in your truck, but that's all. Show them your Hole Acquisition Certificate. Make a second trip with your guns at some later date.
Obey the traffic regulations. Fasten your seat belt. Don't speed. Maybe take the back roads. Maybe hunting season is not the best time to move guns. Good luck. You are going to be O.K. Just think of the poor fellow who keeps his guns at home. Registered or unregistered, he is going to be in a world of hurt. The feds will see to that.
Tactical rangework is best accomplished by reducing or eliminating the propagation of your firing signature. .22 shooting is great fun and has a very low signature, which in any case can be completely silenced. Commercial silencers are available, as well as expedient designs for home or shop manufacture. These can be as simple or sophisticated as you want. We will have more to offer on this subject in future articles.
Security during tactical shooting is achieved by silencing, muffling, cloaking, camouflage, time, distance and movement. For calibres larger than .22, generally it is not possible to silence your firearm completely with a mechanical device. But a silencer can still reduce the firing signature significantly, and should be considered.
Whether or not your firearm can be silenced, tactical rangework then becomes an exercise to conceal the residual report of firing, as loud or as low as that may be. This can be accomplished inside buildings (in town or out of town), especially for handguns. In addition, the report of any firearm can be completely muffled by constructing or modifying an existing underground structure. An appropriately buried aboveground firing bay, or one dug into the side of a hill, either temporary, permanent or semi-permanent, can provide considerable muffling. (If you use a bay, your field of view will be considerably restricted, so be sure to use a buddy as a safety and lookout). Select the site for your bay to take advantage of the surrounding woods or ground to further muffle the residual noise. As an alternative or supplement, you can cloak the sound of firing by locating near a continuous or semi-continuous noise from some other source.
During aboveground firing, security is achieved by selecting remote areas, by shooting only a few rounds at each outing, or by firing only a few rounds, then changing locations to take advantage of the short exposure time at any one place. In some areas at some times of the year, there are so many shooters and so much shooting, that your particular activities will be indistinguishable from the background noise. Consider working in pairs. A lookout is a good idea. We will have more to say about setting up and operating clandestine gun camps of all kinds. But for now, all you have to know is how to operate as an individual or with a good buddy.
Ultimately, the situation you want to create is one in which you have complete strategic control over your life - not the government, not the police. With guns hidden at all the right locations, with transshipping requirements reduced to an absolute minimum or nothing at all, your style may be a bit crimped, but it will be your style. You can shoot here, move your firearms there, go to a different location next week or next month and do it all over again. Ideally, without ever being anywhere near your vehicle with a gun. As a hunter, you can enter the woods carrying no gun, and come out toting nothing but your legal kill. Without papers, or Firearms Possession Certificates, nothing but your legal hunting license. Without worrying day and night that your home could be invaded by police, while you are led off to jail for some chintzy violation. Let's not kid ourselves. These things are real. They are really happening. Here, in Canada. Don't let them happen to you.
Your car or your truck is your greatest vulnerability. It is a signpost to your presence and activities. The further away your vehicle is located from your hunting or shooting area, the more it acts like a decoy than a signpost. Better yet, get someone to drop you off so there is no truck. The minimum requirement is to park beyond the sound of gunshot. Many hunters know how to set up a small concealed hunting camp, and never go near their vehicle the whole time, except to recover game after the guns are back in the ground. For certain kinds of hunting, this is an effective hunting technique in its own right. Tactical hunting will make you a better and more appreciative hunter. Once you learn to break free from your truck, you are going to be O.K. and you might even enjoy your hunting that much more.
We do not believe that any responsible government will support police entering the woods to come after your guns while you are out hunting. Nor will responsible provinces be inclined to permit conservation officers to check serial numbers or gun documentation. The immediate effect of drawing COs into this mess would be the collapse of provincial wildlife management programs. Hunters in increasing numbers would exercise their option to operate outside the provincial game regulations. The work of years building trust and cooperation between hunters and conservation officers could be shattered in a single season.
The second problem would be the volatile situation any government would be creating for hunters, police and COs if authorities are directed to enforce the gun laws against us in our own back woods and our own back country. This is the worst-case extrapolation of the failure mode we are witnessing with the federal government and its firearms policy. It is a lose-lose proposition, but not a situation we would be powerless to withstand. It is hard to imagine any government so desperate as to gamble on such incalculable odds. But it bears mentioning so everyone is aware of the safe bounds for all of us. It would take a heartless and hideously foolish man to overstep them.
There are a number of nuisance options a repressive government could try to use to degrade the quality and enjoyment of your otherwise legal hunting and shooting. But these can be neutralized by good tactics or countermeasures, or they would have to be written in such convoluted wording as to be impractical, unenforceable or counterproductive. For example, a law that requires all hunters to carry a gun. So who's hunting and who's not? And besides, any legislation requiring citizens to bear arms is welcome, since it establishes a precedent that goes well beyond the acknowledgment of our right to do so. As problems arise, you will be advised.
Maintaining the status quo is the only means by which provinces are going to be able to provide for the security of their resources and their people (hunters, recreational shooters and COs included) - with the utmost cooperation and support of the firearms community as we have always provided. Provincial governments can be expected to react strongly against any federal action detrimental to the orderly administration and enforcement of provincial wildlife regulations. Those who do not will reap the bitter harvest they sow.
Now you know some of the things you can do. We are not jabbering at you to play 1-2-3 let's all jump in the lake. You have heard it before; if only WE ALL refuse to register! etc, etc. The idea has merit. The problem is how to get from here to there, while providing for the safety and security of ourselves, our families and our firearms.
The fact is that you are responsible to secure your own future. What your neighbour or friend does is up to him. You decide what is best for you. Don't just blame the Allan Rocks of this world. They will always be there. If you lose your freedom or your guns, it will be on account of choices you make. You have options. You can make a commitment. You can take action. Protect yourself. Join the resistance. The first step is easy. Start up your own storage project. At home or in the shop. Show your friends. Everything else will follow in due course. These things can be done and they are being done; peacefully, in reasonable and comfortable safety, and in a way that will preserve your freedom and your firearms from those who would so contemptuously take them away.
In particular, you are encouraged to use the opportunity provided by the government's proposed five year registration amnesty, to develop and put into action your own personal plan. Don't waste this precious gift. Build and install the facilities you need now. Use the time wisely to purchase the guns you need, before the registration deadline. Act safely within the law while you still can. Prepare for the times of troubles so they will not become your troubles. And remember. We got rid of the Tories, but we've still got C-17 and the GST. Don't expect miracles to fall from the sky. The real miracle is the one that you are going to make happen.
Together all of us can do more. And we will. But it takes time to grow and to organize. All of us look forward to brighter days when our guns can be restored in freedom to their rightful place in our homes. In the meantime it's going to take a lot of sweat, tears and toil.
So why not get busy with your project? As you go about your work, you are going to experience a sense of relief and satisfaction that you have not known since the government started wrenching your guts. Don't get mad, get even. You can do it, and in a way that protects you and makes sure that no one gets hurt. Can the federal government of Canada say the same thing?
Until the ink is dry on the government's new bill to be introduced in February, the scope of our program and the type of information that we can provide through the public forum has to be restricted. We do not intend to do the government's homework for them. Still, you are invited to watch for our February release and a discussion of how and why government registration means the end of legal gun ownership in Canada. But not the end of guns, so far as we can help it.