Fisherman_48768
Member
From a friend of mine in Ontario.
CFO Inspection at Ellwood Epps
Had a lengthy phone conversation this morning with Wes Winkel at Ellwood Epps. The store has just gone through what the CFO calls Phase One of a Two-Phase full-blown inspection of the business. Phase Two is to begin in another week or so.
This is apparently the Ontario government's response to the Feds extending the Registry amnesty for another year. Apparently the provinces did get a heads-up from Ottawa and Ontario (at least) as them not to do it. The feds went ahead anyway.
The inspectors openly told Wes about this and said provincial government policy now is to strickly enforce every rule and regulation regarding firearms businesses and firing ranges. Wes said they told him 12 ranges have been inspected since January and eight have been closed in whole or in part. The Orillia Gun Club is one of them as is, he said, the Barrie gun club. At Orillia, the only outdoor shooting currently allowed is one stand of their sporting clays setup. All other shotgunning is banned because the range does not meet the new shotfall distances issued by the province. Thus, shotgunning is effectively banned. All their rifle ranges are closed as for various issues such as berm height, berm slope angles, cross-fire opportunities, etc. The indoor handgun range is not affected.
At Ellwood Epps:
1. There are more than 19,000 firearms in the store. Every single one was checked for registration and to see if the registered information was correct. Quite a few long guns had to be re-registered because the barrel length was off by an inch -- whcih was probably a typing error at the Firearms Centre in the first place.
2. The Epps business licence included permission to pin high-cap magazines (they been doing this for years). The inspectors removed their authorization and seized 200 hi-cap magazines that had not yet been pinned. The Epps lawyer says they should be able to get them (and the authorization) back, but it might starting legal action against the CFO -- the very entity that issues the business licence. That could get nasty . . . the CFO would likely hand back the magazines, then cancel huis licence to sell firearms and firearms parts.
3. The government has taken the position that registered firearms taken to the store for repair or sale must be brough to the store by the person named on the registration certificate. All of the firearms found that did not conform were seized; future status unknown at this time. Wes didn't say how many, but indicated he is working through calling a long list of gun owners to tell them about their seized possessions.
4. Phase Two of the inspection will, among other things, have the inspectors going through every one of their log books to see that every sold gun was properly logged out, complete with the signature of the new registered owner and that every other regulation and rule about selling and transfering of firearms has been followed to the letter.
5. Epps has been told that effective immediately, all Ontario gunshops will twice a year be subjected to surprise "min-inspections" with full-scale inspections conducted every two years. More than 100 new inspectors have apparently been appointed.
6. Epps must install a curtain or other covering so that the handguns in the separate, locked and barred room cannot be seen from the main gunroom. The setup was originally inspected and approved by the CFO; now the approval is rescinded.
7. No ammunition is allowed to be on display. It must all be stored out of sight of customers.
Clearly, after determining it has no authority to ban handguns and other restricted firearms, the Liberal government of Ontario will now use to the fullest possible extent the authority it does have over firearms businesses and gun clun ranges and demand strict adherence to every regulation and rule -- and if that's not done, the CLOSED sign goes up. The government theory would seem to be one of total harrassment: "if we can't ban guns, we'll make it very hard to buy and sell them and very hard (especially for sport shooters) to legally shoot them."
This, I fear, is going to get a lot worse before, if ever, it gets better.
Regards,
CFO Inspection at Ellwood Epps
Had a lengthy phone conversation this morning with Wes Winkel at Ellwood Epps. The store has just gone through what the CFO calls Phase One of a Two-Phase full-blown inspection of the business. Phase Two is to begin in another week or so.
This is apparently the Ontario government's response to the Feds extending the Registry amnesty for another year. Apparently the provinces did get a heads-up from Ottawa and Ontario (at least) as them not to do it. The feds went ahead anyway.
The inspectors openly told Wes about this and said provincial government policy now is to strickly enforce every rule and regulation regarding firearms businesses and firing ranges. Wes said they told him 12 ranges have been inspected since January and eight have been closed in whole or in part. The Orillia Gun Club is one of them as is, he said, the Barrie gun club. At Orillia, the only outdoor shooting currently allowed is one stand of their sporting clays setup. All other shotgunning is banned because the range does not meet the new shotfall distances issued by the province. Thus, shotgunning is effectively banned. All their rifle ranges are closed as for various issues such as berm height, berm slope angles, cross-fire opportunities, etc. The indoor handgun range is not affected.
At Ellwood Epps:
1. There are more than 19,000 firearms in the store. Every single one was checked for registration and to see if the registered information was correct. Quite a few long guns had to be re-registered because the barrel length was off by an inch -- whcih was probably a typing error at the Firearms Centre in the first place.
2. The Epps business licence included permission to pin high-cap magazines (they been doing this for years). The inspectors removed their authorization and seized 200 hi-cap magazines that had not yet been pinned. The Epps lawyer says they should be able to get them (and the authorization) back, but it might starting legal action against the CFO -- the very entity that issues the business licence. That could get nasty . . . the CFO would likely hand back the magazines, then cancel huis licence to sell firearms and firearms parts.
3. The government has taken the position that registered firearms taken to the store for repair or sale must be brough to the store by the person named on the registration certificate. All of the firearms found that did not conform were seized; future status unknown at this time. Wes didn't say how many, but indicated he is working through calling a long list of gun owners to tell them about their seized possessions.
4. Phase Two of the inspection will, among other things, have the inspectors going through every one of their log books to see that every sold gun was properly logged out, complete with the signature of the new registered owner and that every other regulation and rule about selling and transfering of firearms has been followed to the letter.
5. Epps has been told that effective immediately, all Ontario gunshops will twice a year be subjected to surprise "min-inspections" with full-scale inspections conducted every two years. More than 100 new inspectors have apparently been appointed.
6. Epps must install a curtain or other covering so that the handguns in the separate, locked and barred room cannot be seen from the main gunroom. The setup was originally inspected and approved by the CFO; now the approval is rescinded.
7. No ammunition is allowed to be on display. It must all be stored out of sight of customers.
Clearly, after determining it has no authority to ban handguns and other restricted firearms, the Liberal government of Ontario will now use to the fullest possible extent the authority it does have over firearms businesses and gun clun ranges and demand strict adherence to every regulation and rule -- and if that's not done, the CLOSED sign goes up. The government theory would seem to be one of total harrassment: "if we can't ban guns, we'll make it very hard to buy and sell them and very hard (especially for sport shooters) to legally shoot them."
This, I fear, is going to get a lot worse before, if ever, it gets better.
Regards,
