Corlane Sporting Goods in Dawson Creek is a local institution. Specializing in outfitting hunters with everything from caps and boots to ammunition and rifles, the business has been owned by the Schram family for almost four decades. Jack Schram bought the store in 1961 and passed it on to his son, Tim, in 1990. In all those years, however, business has never been as bad as it is now. "It's real painful for us," says the younger Mr. Schram.

The reason is Bill C-68, the federal government's new gun-control legislation. The law, which for the first time forces gun owners to register ordinary rifles and shotguns, took effect December 1. "Bill C-68 is kicking the s—— out of our business," Mr. Schram says. "People are just not accepting the fact that they have to register firearms." From the store's perspective, that means one important thing: far fewer customers.

But Mr. Schram says there is another ramification: existing firearms owners are saying they will never register their guns, period, even if it means breaking the law. In fact, he says some gun owners "are saying, 'No, forget it, and if they think they can take it away from me, then let them try.'" This sort of attitude is understandable, says Mr. Schram, but also contains the potential for confrontation. "It's actually bringing out the ugly side of some perfectly good citizens, and it's not a good thing," he says. "We've had some customers say, 'When you take something away from someone without paying for it, that is theft. And if someone's coming on my property to steal from me, I won't tolerate it.'"

What is needed to channel such anger is grassroots political action, says Mr. Schram, and that is why he, like many other concerned British Columbians, is enthusiastic about a new group called the Law-abiding Unregistered Firearms Association (LUFA), which, through civil disobedience, hopes to force the repeal of C-68.

And it is not just in B.C. that the registration rebellion is rising. Ted Cardwell, a farmer and hunter from Glendon, Alta., 110 miles northeast of Edmonton, says he supports LUFA because he is convinced the government will not stop with registration. "If history teaches us anything, it's that the government always wants more," he says. "They're going to confiscate our guns. And thanks to the registry, they'll know exactly where all the guns are."

Late last year Mr. Cardwell heard a radio broadcast about LUFA, called association president Bruce Hutton at his home in Rocky Mountain House, Alta., and offered to organize a rally in Glendon.* Despite limited advertising and a snowstorm, 230 people attended the January 26 gathering. They heard LUFA's leader introduced as "a man with no aspirations to be a politician because he's far too honest—a very cranky Canuck—Bruce Hutton!"

"Welcome government spies, Canadian Security Intelligence Service agents and undercover RCMP officers," opened Mr. Hutton, addressing the government agents he believes watch LUFA's every move. "I was sick of the government ignoring the wishes of the people. I was tired of the government making irresponsible, politically correct decisions. But most importantly, I was sick and tired of doing the normal Canadian thing, bitching and complaining in the coffee shop, then going home and doing nothing about it. Tell the government that we aren't going to register our long rifles and shotguns. If we get off our butts and stand up and say 'no,' there isn't a damned thing they can do about it. Are they going to put 10,000 of us in jail?"

Ten thousand members is not an impossible goal for LUFA, if the enthusiastic response in Glendon is any indication. More than half the audience plunked down $20 each to buy one-year memberships. By the end of the night LUFA, co-founded by Mr. Hutton in October, claimed 4,000 members across the West. That number is rising in the wake of several more Alberta meetings this month, and is sure to climb again during a series of planned meetings in B.C. The rallies are set for March 2 in Dawson Creek, March 3 in Fort St. John, March 4 in Chetwynd, March 5 in Mackenzie, March 8 in Prince George and March 26 in Kamloops.

LUFA's membership remains small compared to the 100,000 who belong to the National Firearms Association (NFA), Canada's largest firearms lobby group. But despite sharply differing approaches, the groups represent a one-two punch against Bill C-68. While Mr. Hutton and LUFA preach civil disobedience, NFA president Dave Tomlinson works to prove to the feds that a firearms registry is a monstrously expensive, unusable white elephant that should be scrapped (see story, page 34).

"I'm no gun nut," says LUFA founder Hutton. A former RCMP officer, hockey coach and owner of a business promotions firm, Mr. Hutton owns three dusty long guns he says he never touches. But he is incensed by Bill C-68's disregard for individual privacy. "I lost it after those protesters got pepper-sprayed at the APEC summit in Vancouver and Jean Chretien joked about pepper being something he puts on his plate," says Mr. Hutton. "That showed the contempt the government has for hard-working Canadians. I was driving when I heard about APEC and I yelled, 'Before I'm done with you, you're gonna know who Bruce Hutton is.'"

Mr. Hutton met with LUFA's seven-member board in January to decide how best to spend the $60,000 in membership dues they had collected on the way toward getting Mr. Chretien's attention. They are seeking intervenor status in the C-68 legal challenge that Alberta's Department of Justice has appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada. And they plan to buy television, radio and newspaper advertisements outlining C-68's faults in the home ridings of every Member of Parliament who voted for the bill.

If those measures do not persuade the government to repeal Bill C-68 by January 1, 2003, the current deadline for registering all rifles and shotguns, LUFA threatens what Mr. Hutton jokingly calls "Alternate Plan Z." "If any one of our members is charged with not registering, we will appoint legal council for him and pay for it," says Mr. Hutton. "Then every LUFA member—10,000 people, 30,000, 100,000—will go to their nearest RCMP detachment and confess to the same crime. When we get charged, we'll all ask for legal aid. The lawyers will get an information package from LUFA on how to defend against this law. We'll tie up the courts forever."

If the government rises to the challenge, LUFA members could suffer. The new firearms law states that anyone possessing an unregistered long gun faces up to five years in jail. But LUFA members are prepared to pay the price. "We tell everyone if you're scared of the government, don't sign up," says Mr. Hutton. "United we stand, divided we fall." Mr. Cardwell agrees, saying he is "most definitely" willing to go to jail if need be. "I'm not willing to quit," he says. "I guess I'm not a halfway kind of person."

And neither is Hugh Toenjes, of Pinantan Lake, about 20 miles northeast of Kamloops. A retired communications worker who now makes handmade flintlock rifles and presentation cases for an exclusive international market of collectors, Mr. Toenjes is not a member of LUFA yet but says he knows why so many others are joining. "When it comes right down, basically people get involved because their own toes are being stepped on," he says. "When it gets personal, people stand up and take notice."

In his case, "It seems totally ludicrous and absolutely ridiculous that there is any legislation involving flintlocks." He points out that there has not been a crime committed with a weapon of this sort for more than 100 years. "I'm not going to register my flintlocks," Mr. Toenjes pledges. "If they want me to register, I won't. I'll go right to the end. Somewhere, you have to draw the line...I don't know how far they're going to go to enforce the law on flintlocks. But I stand firm anyway."

Some LUFA sympathizers are not so bold. "I'm not stupid enough to put my name on there," said one elderly Glendon gentleman while squinting at a LUFA application. He requested anonymity. "The police will get that list and right away they'll come to my house saying, 'We know you have guns in here,'" the man said as he flipped through a telephone book. "I'm putting the name of one of my enemies on that application. Let the police kick in his door!"

The NFA's Tomlinson shares the concern that LUFA's membership list makes easy pickings for police. (That doesn't bother Mr. Hutton, who says, "Our membership is no secret. It's open to the public.") But then Mr. Tomlinson thinks the NFA's legal objections will force Bill C-68's repeal long before 2003. "By then, C-68 Titanic will have been sunk for four years," he says. "LUFA is wasting its time."

Not necessarily. Gary Mauser, a Simon Fraser University business professor and gun law expert, says Mr. Tomlinson is overly confident if he expects the federal Liberals to listen to reason. According to Prof. Mauser, C-68 was never meant to be enforced. "It's a symbolic law," he says. "By promoting gun control as a public safety issue the Liberals are placating their friends as much as they're fooling the general public. And C-68 gives the bureaucrats justification for more jobs and promotions. There will never be enough people inputting enough information to make the Canadian Firearms Centre effective. But who gets hurt if it's inefficient? Not the Liberals. Only gun owners get hurt."

Prof. Mauser thinks the showdown between LUFA and the feds will not end with 30,000 LUFA members behind bars, but he agrees with Mr. Hutton that LUFA is being watched. "The RCMP would be remiss if they didn't have operatives inside any group that threatens the legitimate legal order," he says. He suspects agents will blend in at LUFA meetings (wearing baseball caps with fresh creases in the brims) and shoot the breeze with any crazies and criminals they come across on the fringe of the new organization.

The LUFA members who get busted for not registering by 2003, says Prof. Mauser, will be those with a drug charge or assault pinch on their records. "All the government needs is someone who's had a few brushes with the law," he says. "No squeaky-clean university grads. Find a guy who drinks too much, who was accused by a neighbour of uttering a threat or misbehaving sexually. Single them out and embarrass the hell out of LUFA. Hutton is going to have to be very vigilant—he's got a lot of people to manage."

Mr. Hutton agrees that he has not set himself an easy task. Even though the vast majority of the people attending the Glendon meeting were farmers and blue-collar workers with genuine concerns about property rights, one elderly fellow was heard muttering about how much quieter the gun supporters were when compared to the rallies he used to attend for Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel. "Those rallies always got wild," he said, "when the Jewish Defence League showed up."

Moreover, at a meeting late last year in Grande Prairie, Mr. Hutton was greeted with uproarious laughter when he announced, "We're all law-abiding citizens here." Unbeknownst to Mr. Hutton, Hythe-area farmer Wiebo Ludwig and friend Richard Boonstra, who just a few days later would be charged with offences related to oilfield vandalism, were sitting in the crowd. Mr. Ludwig's application to join LUFA was politely declined. "We're always on the lookout for religious zealots, people with political aspirations, fanatics and paranoids," says Mr. Hutton.

But that will not nearly be enough to ensure victory, says Sun Media Ottawa bureau chief Sean Durkan. "The NFA might be able to convince the government to pay compensation for confiscating guns," says Mr. Durkan. "But scrapping C-68? Forget it. The Liberals have victims' rights groups on their side, every health group in Canada, the police chiefs, educators, coroners, physicians, emergency workers. That's a large coalition. And back east, [gun owners] conjure up an image of the Unabomber hiding in the Montana backwoods. Every time the gun owners talk about not registering their guns, the Liberals rub their hands with glee because it makes [C-68] more saleable to the rest of the Canadian public."

Nevertheless, LUFA may still have an impact. "If LUFA can get 20,000 or 30,000 people to turn themselves in you could have a revolution on your hands," says Prof. Mauser. "It could force the government to prosecute people they don't want to prosecute. Sure, most likely [LUFA members] will get arrested, spend all their money and wind up in debt. But they're five years ahead of the public—most people in Canada say if a law is stupid, follow it anyway. But LUFA is taking a bold and audacious step."

Prof. Mauser compares LUFA's civil defiance to the 1773 Tea Act, which gave the East India Company a monopoly to sell tea in the British Empire. "The English had just discovered tea was wonderful, but the monopoly made it horribly expensive," he explains. "So all sorts of people were breaking the law and smuggling in tea. Eventually England just gave up and the monopoly collapsed. It's very hard for any government to keep a lot of people from doing something they want to do." The Tea Act, of course, led first to the Boston Tea Party, and then shortly thereafter to the American Revolution.

For now, Mr. Hutton says he hopes not to have to violate the law in 2003. "It's true," he says, "law-abiding gun owners obey the law. But Martin Luther King said it is moral to disobey an immoral law. You know the old joke that asks how do you get 100 Canadians out of a swimming pool? You say, 'Hey, you Canadians! Get out of the pool!' Generally Canadians just do what they're told and don't ask why. But not LUFA. We're asking why." BCR

with notes from TERRY O"NEILL

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