WFSA Current News - February, 2005

February 25, 2005

British deer imbalance
           An example of the need to manage wildlife in a way that incorporates good science is to be seen in a coming study in Britain.
            There are believed to be about a million deer in England, and population numbers are at their highest level in nearly 1,000 years. Roughly a sixth of the total herd is culled each year. Even so, the British Trust for Ornithology has issued a severe warning.
            While there are of course other pressures, the report nevertheless isolates deer overpopulation as being central to the destruction of habitat vital for the existence of many species of birds. The review was carried out for Government wildlife advisers.
            Affected are both quarry and non-quarry species.
            Among the former, woodcock have fallen by over sixty per cent because deer heavily affect the feed supply left on the forest floor. Another species, the capercaillie, is dying in numbers as a result of flying into deer-proof fences put up to protect Scottish forests. This bird also has declined by over sixty per cent in three decades.
            Non-quarry species are being equally hard hit. Deer in oversupply grazing on undergrowth are harming thrushes, nightingales, dunnocks and willow warblers. Willow tits have declined by three-quarters of their numbers in four decades.

February 17, 2005

  A new extension for a gun amnesty
           The government of Zambia intends to take gun amnesty proposals outside its own borders to unnamed neighbouring countries in the hope that somehow this will diminish the flow of illicit arms used by criminals within Zambia.
            In an interview, Kolombo Mwansa, the Minister of Home Affairs, said that other countries would need to be involved before guns could be removed within his own country. He alluded to the signing of joint permanent commissions on defence and security with neighbouring countries in an effort to stamp out the traffic in illegal firearms.
            Three years ago, Zambia brought in a gun amnesty program offering money in exchange for guns. Over that time, a total of about 800 guns were handed in and the intention is to increase the money paid out with a view to increasing the attractiveness of surrender.

February 14, 2005

People not tracked in Canada’s gun registry
         Garry Breitkreuz, a Conservative Member of Parliament from Saskatchewan, has questioned Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan. In order to try to stabilize peaks in the volumes of mail, the gun registry decided to extend over seven hundred thousand gun licences. This was intended to stagger the arrival of renewals. During this mailing process, it was discovered that no fewer than 46,000 renewals were undeliverable. This is a failure rate of six per cent out of a random selection of names.
            Breitkreuz said the missing information could be detrimental to the safety of police officers who approach dwellings on the basis of incorrect information.
            The Firearms Centre said that the undelivered return-mail rate for the renewal notices was lower than "industry standards".

 
February 4, 2005

Proposed changes to Belgian gun laws
            Laurette Onkelinx, Belgium’s Minister for Justice, has told the federal parliament that she intends to propose new gun laws, including licensing, and also some kind of requirement for the potential gun buyer to state reasons for ownership.
            "Permission will only be given if there’s a legitimate motive," she is quoted as saying.
            An article on www.expatica.com has taken up the usual components that arise in this subject – the number of guns the government says exist in the country, somewhere over 600,000, and in contrast the number estimated by other sources, approaching 2,000,000, and then the number of people who die by gunshot annually, with murder and suicide figures in the usual conflation.
            The popular media trend is to offer up the total number of guns legally owned in a country in relation to a perceived need to tighten gun laws. Just why this should be claimed to be relevant is never clarified.