Maybe some of you in Eastern Canada heard about United SHooting SPorts being held up and robbed about a week ago. I guy I knew name John Fullerton was working in a job much like I do with my spare time, helping Canadian shooters out.
http://www.canada.com/toronto/story.asp?id={A129FD05-2344-4747-96B6-7D3D17EE5CCD}John subsequently died of his injuries caused by the shotgun blast to his head region. It is now known from witness accounts and the evidence that he did what the party line is here in Canada - put your hands up and do EXACTLY what the criminal tells you...after all, he's a logical beast he only wants money, and not to hurt anybody. Well, John did this, and in fact had his hands up still as the crew of robbers went out the door, and as the last guy exited, he spun and shot John in the face, while John was still motionless reaching for the sky. The other 3 employees were co-operating as well, and one had his infant son with him. Fullerton leaves behind a family. 75 handguns 9mm caliber and up were taken by the 4-6 thiefs, who escaped in 2 mini vans.
When my oilpatch jobs gets slow, I do some volunteer range officer duties at
http://www.theshootingedge.com here in Calgary, Alberta. About 6 months ago, the CFC and federal gov't came down on us for wearing sidearms at work (members were allowed and are allowed in every other range to have pistols strapped on, so long as they follow range rules - you can't walk around anywhere else in the country with a gun on except at a range). They said it was fine for members to be wearing them, as their transport permits semi-cover it, but employees fall under the "retail" act which specifically prohibits firearms, mainly because the gov't is worried about self defence.
Well, there was a big outcry after John's death about the gov't ignoring or just plain refusing the version of a carry permit to protect life we have here. There is less than 8 of them that I've heard of ever being issued, and mainly only to x-police chiefs or political friends of whoever that wanted them. Now, the head of the Canadian Firearms Center has said that people can "apply" for self defense permits, particualarly if they work in a high threat buisness involving say firearms or cash. Nobody knows if any of the permits several have put in for will be approved, but historically they never are.
I'm not sure if having a gun on would have saved John Fullerton's life, but at least he would have had the choice to try. I'm also thinking about the deterant factor, as I've read that criminals surveyed in jail say that they will rarely if ever attack an armed person, or a person they feel is trained with firearms. I know I'm not the fastest person, but I've taken a number of courses for pistol self defence at frontsite in the USA, and in less than a second I can draw and fire into a close range target, but I'm not sure after working the counter at the gun range if this is a wise course of action once a robbery is taking place. I've done some mental exercises as people enter the shop "what would I do if, etc", and it's a pretty unappealing tactical situation. I've come to the conclusion that the best thing to do was if you had a clear line of fire, the instant you see a masked person with a gun rushing in, shoot him, OR, don't have a gun on at all, and hope what happens to John Fullerton doesn't happen to me.
I'm wondering what my fellow Canadians here I know dislike firearms, particularly for self defence, think about the possibility of a CCW type permit becoming prevalent in our society, because once the first one gets approved, there will be precedent for many, many more.
