Canadians need group like NRA 
Washington Times
January 15, 2003

Byline: Gene Mueller
In the ongoing saga of Canada's heavy-handed, mandatory
national gun registration program, the Windsor Star newspaper in
Ontario says there's increasing momentum among Canadians to
start a nationwide gun owners group similar to the National
Rifle Association in the U.S.
The president of the Law-abiding Unregulated Firearms
Association (LUFA) believes it's high time to have a real gun
owners advocacy group. Wayne Fields last week told the Star that
Canadian gun owners are dismayed with the federal gun registry
fiasco and that a national lobbying group for firearms advocates
is needed to protect their interests.
"The question is where do we go from here," said Fields, who
claims membership in the Alberta-based LUFA jumped almost 50
percent in the past year to 30,000 members nationwide.
"Groups like the Coalition for Gun Control are not going to
go away. We need a strong national organization along the lines
of the NRA to protect firearm ownership."
Fields told the newspaper that while Canadian gun owners do
have umbrella organizations to turn to, like the Canadian
Shooting Sports Association and the Ontario Federation of
Anglers and Hunters, these groups are disparate and focus
narrowly on their individual interests. 
He said a national organization "with at least 100,000
members" is needed to act on behalf of all gun owners.
What is so sad about the Canadian gun conundrum is that our
neighbors to the north are in bad need of something like the
Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which
is a clear-as-a-bell amendment that gives Americans the right to
keep and bear arms. It came about after considerable abuses by a
British colonial government that eventually was booted out by
the residents of the new United States of America.
Canada needs to do just that: boot out its British-inspired
restrictive laws.
Already, a number of provincial governments have called for
an end to the gun registry program that threatens to severely
punish otherwise law-abiding Canadians if they don't fall into
line. Recently, Newfoundland and New Brunswick have come on
board to call for an end to the registry program. 
Fields estimates at least 50 percent of gun owners refused
to register their weapons by Jan.1, as mandated. Some Canadians
waited until the last moment to register and then sent in bogus
names and addresses to confuse the registration system.