The Vancouver Sun from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • 4

A4 The Vancouver Sun, Tuesday, November 5, 1991 i DRAWING BEAD 5 Political struggle over guns demonstrates the will of a passive majority is 'limp lettuce' when a very vocal minority goes to the wall -j. jiH didn't take long for surviving students to get the names of 560,000 Canadians on a petition demanding a drastic overhaul of the country's gun laws. Knowing 80 per cent of Canadians support more restrictive measures, the Coalition for Gun Control also drew a bead on the estimated 50,000 semi-automatic weapons now held in private homes and the military assault rifles that are apparently obtained so easily. But the two-year political struggle has demonstrated the will of a passive majority is limp lettuce when a vocal minority goes to the wall. Membership in the Edmonton- based National Firearms Association has jumped from about 1,000 in January 1990 to more than 40,000 and "it's growing like a weed," said president David Tomlinson.

ITH AN ANNUAL adult membership fee of $25, that adds up to a hefty pile of change to wage a national lobbying campaign, one that appears to take on some of the tactics of the high-pressure National Rifle Association of the United States. Officials of both groups acknowledge they trade information. Safeguard, an umbrella lobby representing nearly 80,000 shooters and collectors, has a big enough bank balance that it can buy a $25,000 full-page advertisement in the Toronto Globe and Mail in which it portrays C-17 as a political football that will victimize law-abiding citizens. It concludes with a threat to MPs that more ads will be run before the next election. "We will inform all Canadian firearm owners of how their MP voted on this travesty of justice.

So they can vote accordingly." Wendy Cukier, president of the gun-control coalition, can't quite fathom why so many of their arguments fell on deaf ears as the gun lobby persuaded government MPs to water down the legislation. The two ends of the spectrum do have NORM OVENDEN Edmonton Journal OTTAWA IB THE THOUSANDS, the letters from gun owners pile up in the offices of their targets. They come from lawyers and farmers, pensioners and teachers. Usually well researched and reasoned, they've been landing on the desks of MPs for months and the pace has picked up as the time for decision draws nearer. Some handwritten, most of them i typed, these forms of letters are far more effective on wavering MPs than the 30,000 identical postcards mailed in by opponents urging -tougher gun-control legislation.

They're also more numerous, probably three times as many. "You may think there is an emergency which warrants the passage of this bill. There is no such emergency," writes a Montreal lawyer to a western MP. "I urge you to give this matter your earnest considera- tion and not fall prey to the emotional appeals of a few ill-informed groups who do not understand the consequences of what they are demanding." Another shooting enthusiast, this one from Oakville, implores the MP to make an extra effort to ensure Bill C-17 is directed at criminals, "not the legitimate, (voting) firearm owner." Taking a more vitriolic stand, an Okotoks, Altai, businessman says the debate and vote on the contentious gun-control bill will determine whether Canada is a democracy or a Communist state. "Even if guns were totally i banned in Canada, it would not -stop people like Marc Lepine or others obtaining and using guns for illegal activities.

If Canada cannot punish the guilty and not the innocent, I will take both my business and money and emigrate to the Bill C-17, of course, has as its genesis the horrible massacre of 14 women students at a Montreal university nearly two years ago. It CANADIAN PRESS treal. The legal Sturm-Ruger .223 semi-automatic rifle fires a single bullet with each pull of the trigger. GUN LIKE THIS was used by Canadian mass murderer Marc Lupine to kill 14 women at the University of Mon- some points in common such as improved screening and a mandatory 28-day waiting period for a gun purchase. But C-17 does not include a requirement to register all rifles and shotguns, there are no controls on the sale of ammunition (except for large-capacity magazines) and military assault weapons such as the AK-47 are not being immediately banned and removed from circulation.

The coalition is backed by police, legal associations, doctors, unions, churches, women's groups, teacher's groups and the mayors of all of Canada's major cities. The police position is simple. If there are less guns, there will be less gun-related violence. The more than 1,400 firearm deaths every year in Canada are grim reminders of easy access. Only about one-seventh of those deaths are the result of crimes.

Of the 100 police officers killed in the line of duty since 1960, 96. It's now easier to get ammunition than prescription drugs. Citizens don't think twice about having their pictures taken, lining up to get registered and paying an annual fee for a driver's licence. In fact, the red tape and permits to drive a car cost more than the $50 gun owners will have to fork out for a firearms acquisition certificate under the amended bill. That's up from $10.

While Cukier says C-17 is a step in the right direction, her eyes were opened to the political realities in Ottawa and how a well-organized and well-funded lobby can influence MPs, if not the public. It makes her wonder if the powerful National Rifle Association in the U.S. hasn't somehow crossed the border to lend a hand in inspection of gun collections are particularly oppressive. Blackman says these things won't do anything to attack the real villain in the piece the criminals. The NRA provides moral and intellectual support to its Canadian counterparts.

"If we come across research on a firearms issue which might be relevant to their argu- ments, we'll certainly try to make-sure they know about it. But any 1 politicking is on their own." A Ryerson professor in Toronto, Cukier finds a lot of comparisons between the Canadian and American gun lobbies. They're organized and determined, use political threats against decision-makers and stack public meetings. Cukier recalls visiting Edmonton in August to debate Tomlinson. "Of the 125 people at the meeting, 124 were gun owners who yelled at me -for two hours." The gun lobby has also packed town hall meetings held by influential Tories such as House leader Harvie Andre and chief whip Jim Hawkes.

Deputy Prime Minister Don Mazankowski was the target of an estimated 200,000 letters. "The silent majority may think tougher gun control is a good thing, but they're not likely to jump up and down or march in the streets or even call their MPs," Cukier says. "As a result, we're not getting the attention we should." Norm Ovenden is the Edmonton Journal's Ottawa correspondent- (The NRA has managed to keep effective gun-control laws out of the U.S. for decades. The day after 22 people were gunned down in Killeen, Texas, the U.S.

Congress rejected a restraint proposal.) For instance, a common refrain from the NFA is a call for women to arm themselves to prevent rapes. "You put this stuff side by side with the NRA stuff and there isn't a whole lot of difference." The only visible evidence of a link occurred during a meeting between Ecole Polytechnique students and the NFA. Attending was a NRA representative from Washington, she says. Safeguard reads NRA literature and published studies, concedes spokesman Larry Whitmore. "We try to keep ourselves at arm's length from the NRA," Whitmore said.

"They're not well thought of in Canada because they're a little too right wing for Canadians. "They're extremely powerful. If we had anything like that here, we wouldn't be fighting the fight that we are now." R.EACHE IN Washington, NRA research co-ordinator Paul Blackman is following the Canadian situation closely. Measures in Bill C-17 that allow for regulations to prohibit large ammunition magazines, define safe storage and call for periodic 1 1 11 urai" 111 1 1 11 mmmmmess in -J- si 1 fJya ASSOCIATED PRESS died in October. George Jo Hennard used a legally obtained automatic pistol.

MASS KILLER'S TRUCK is lodged in front window of Texas eatery where 22 people LEGERE LEGACY murderer jailed Healing begins as savage i I- I vff: ff i I X. 1 PPi Canadian Press NEWCASTLE, B. The "Legere lights" still snap on when darkness falls across the Miramichi, but today they cast a softer glow. The dusk-to-dawn lights, common in many cities, were hastily installed in communities along New Brunswick's Miramichi River during the seven months when convicted killer Allan Legere was on the loose. Legere, 43, was convicted Sunday of killing four people in the Miramichi in 1989.

The killings occurred after Legere escaped from prison guards in Moncton, N.B., in May 1989. Legere is back in the Miramichi region today, in the maximum-security penitentiary in Renous, while lawyers prepare an appeal of his conviction to be filed with the New Brunswick Court of Appeal sometime this week. Although Legere was convicted of tour counts of first-degree murder, the life sentences will be served con currently. That means that from the day of the conviction, Sunday, Legere has no chance of parole for 25 years the harshest sentence possible in Canada's justice system. Legere's appeals could keep his case before the courts for years.

But in the Miramichi, people are declar- And there are memories of 69--year-old Rev. James Smith every Sunday as worshippers file into the Church of the Blessed Virgin in Chatham Head. Smith was savagely beaten to death in the rectory near the church. "We do not want to see him (Legere) in our headlines any more," Miramichi Leader editor Rick MacLean said Monday. MacLean said Legere has swamped the front page of newspapers every November for the past three years.

He was captured in November 1989, charged with the murders in November 1990 and convicted in November 1991. It is difficult to find people willing to talk about the Legere case Monday on the streets of Newcastle. People here are very discreet when it comes to the convicted serial killer, perhaps because he has friends and associates still living in the region. Doug Dolan, chairman of an ad hoc citizen's group set up in 1989 to help citizens cope with the Legere tragedy, said people want to forget about it. "There is a sense of closure today, especially for the people closest to the victims," Dolan said.

"But in the general community, we have the sense that many people had already closed the book." Thereisasenseof closure today, especially for the people closest to the victims. DOUGDOLAN 99 ing it case closed. Still, there are plenty of reminders of that terrible time in 1989. Apart from the lights, which people here will always associate with Legere, there are the murder scenes. There is the house in downtown Newcastle where sisters Linda Daughney, 41, and Donna Daugh-ney, 45, were raped and suffered unspeakable pain at the hands of their murderer.

Other people now live in the house and a Legere light was installed nearby. Across the river in Chatham and Chatham Head, there is an empty lot on Chatham's main street where 75-year-old Annie Flam's store and home once stood. She was sexually assualtcd, beaten and her body left to burn in the building. Following the verdict, Justice David Dickson thanked the jurors for their hard work and endurance the trial lasted almost 10 weeks. "I don't usually comment on verdicts.

but let me say this: Don't lose too much sleep over your verdict," Dickson said. Legere's most noticeable friend through the trial has been Lois Gaunce, of Sussex, N.B., who has been trying to raise funds for him by selling his paintings outside the courthouse. Gaunce said Legere didn't get a fair trial. "I'm looking for things that tells me that Allan Legere is guilty of one or any of these murders, and I haven't found anything," she said. "There was a lot of evidence that wasn't allowed in, for one thing, that I thought should have been allowed.

"There was a tape of the interrogation the day that Allan was taken into custody. There was a lot of important things on it, and the judge wouldn't allow it to be taken into evidence at all." Gaunce, who befriended Legere after his recapture in 1989, wants permission to visit him in prison again. Her visiting rights were revoked after she was thrown out of court partway through the trial. I ASSOCIATED PRESS KILLER ART: Allan Legere supporter Lois Gaunce holds sample of murderer's drawings, which she plans to sell.