BLASTOGRAM from Jane Gaffin ON THE ART OF COMMUNICATION

By Jane Gaffin

 

WHITEHORSE, Yukon-slavia - I have no way of knowing if the National Firearms Association and the Canadian Shooting Sports Association contributed to the Allen Carlos Legal Defense Fund or not.

Neither organization answered my letters.

It's maddening.

When I write business letters, I expect answers.

But what I expect and what I get are often two different things.

Somebody, some place, some time has to make the decisions. But there is an old adage that says: Either make the decisions or get out of the way so somebody else can.

When that little piece of business is sorted out, give me a call with a simple answer: yes, you did/will contribute; no, you won't contribute.

On November 15, 2001, I sent a seven-page letter to NFA legal advisor Dave Tomlinson in Edmonton.

I was requesting $60,000 assistance, which I hoped could be shared with other gun groups, to cover legal and other sundry costs for NFA member Allen Carlos. The illustrious "justice" system was driving the Whitehorse resident into the Supreme Court of Canada on scurrilous firearms storage charges of which he had been acquitted in two lower courts.

This landmark case should have been of utmost importance to the gun community. And he deserved full support.

Why he was wrongly charged and brought before the courts is a case that should never have happened. That is another subject and one which I am presently addressing in a voluminous manuscript that details this whole sorry mess. I am convinced that had the same arguments the defense lawyer put forward in the Yukonslavia court been used in, say, Alberta or Ontario, a male judge who practices judicial restraint would have noted the string of irregularities and thrown the case out on its head, along with the Crown prosecutor and his police witnesses.

Meantime, Carlos deserved support from the big guys with the deep pockets. I expected Tomlinson to acknowledge my request with a "yes", "no" or "under advisement".

Nothing.

On January 3, 2002, I followed up with a one-page note. "As you are aware, I haven't heard from you or any NFA board member regarding my letter of November 15," I wrote. "But I assume from reading the good publicity you gave the Carlos case in the December issue of 'Point Blank' that the NFA does intend to contribute money as well as continue to assist from a legal aspect."

Nothing.

On January 3, I wrote notes to NFA president Jim Hinter and to communication whiz Wally Butts.

Nothing.

However, I later learned Tomlinson had forwarded my letter to Hinter in the Calgary office. He ignored it. I forgave him. He was busily embroiled in his own gun case.

On January 14, after a little arm-twisting from somebody, Hinter sent an e-mail addressed to Richard Fritze, Paul Rogan and Jane Gaffin with a concurring copy to Wally Butts.

The succinct message referred to a "second mailing". That was my five-pager dated December 28, 2001 and sent to the Canadian shooting Sports Association in Mississauga, Ontario.

In an effort to communicate effectively with all the troops involved in possibly sharing the burden, I had sent copies of my CSSA letter to Tomlinson, Hinter, Butts, Rogan, et al.

Hinter also referenced a "conference call". In the CSSA letter, I had suggested the major players maybe could get together through e-mail or conference calls to discuss particulars. Yet Hinter claimed he hadn't read my letter.

Hinter's short message said: "I received your second mailing on the Carlos case today, and have not as yet had time to read it. I want to fax a copy of it to Wally Butts, our National Vice-President Communications, so that he too can look at it. When we have had a chance to discuss it, I think a conference call might help assure that the NFA can help in this case."

How much talking do they have to do? That was seven months ago and the only response I ever received from the NFA. One would think that at least one high-ranking NFA member had a mother who raised him on manners. A simple "yes" or "no" would have sufficed.

These gun organizations can claim to have been waiting on the outcome of the Carlos case, if they want. He was convicted in a rigged, summary-type decision brought down in 10 minutes after arguments were heard in the Supreme Court. In my book, that doesn't make him guilty. It's the system that is wrong. It is the law gone astray and has been placed in the hands of the wrong people. The law has become perverted and the police powers perverted along with it.

The police had no right to charge him with storage infractions in the first place. If they wanted to check storage regulations, they are supposed to set a time mutually-agreeable to both police and owner, aren't they? They don't even need a warrant, do they?

Carlos has never been brought to trial for the purported reason the police espoused as the reason for raiding his house and seizing his guns. Yet here we are over two years later, waiting. As far as I know, the Yukon RFOC has raised roughly $34,000 of the minimum $50,000 needed.

The NFA once had a fairly hefty bank account of some $600,000. That's why I approached the organization for assistance. But if the decision-makers chose not to financially assist Carlos nor to top up the RFOC-established legal fund, fine. It still does not let the board members off the hook from not answering my letter to tell me so, does it?

Neither have I had a definitive answer from the CSSA, albeit all legal documents were forwarded long ago. After prodding, the last e-mail from executive director Larry Whitmore was in March. I was advised my request was under review by a legal committee and was coming before the CSSA board that month. He promised to apprise me of the board's decision. That was five months ago. I still haven't heard diddly-squat.

I keep hearing the old adage ringing shrilly in my ears: Either make a decision or get out of the way so somebody else can.

Much thanks and appreciation to all those individuals and gun groups across Canada who did rally whole-heartedly for the cause and contributed to the Al Carlos Legal Trust Fund, Bank of Montreal, 111 Main Street, Whitehorse, Yukon, Y1A 2A7, Transit 0998, account no. 8075-985.

-- 30 --

Copyright 2004 diArmani.com