Original Introduction (January 2015)
I created TheGunBlog.ca (Twitter: @TheGunBlog) to promote the safe, respectful, responsible, informed and skilled use of firearms in Canada.
TheGunBlog.ca aims to be a hub for information, facts, data, news, analysis and opinion for anyone and everyone wanting to learn about guns in Canada. It seeks to be thoughtful, fair, balanced and fun.
Whether you love guns or hate them or are in between, whether you are a novice or expert with firearms, whether you want to learn about guns for collecting, hunting, competing, relaxing, training, writing, photographing, defence, war, work, fun, as a hobby or lifestyle, or anything else, TheGunBlog.ca aims to serve you.
If you like this blog, please share it with people who might enjoy it.
Thank you for visiting.
Nicolas Johnson
04 January 2015
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Who Reads Us?
- TheGunBlog.ca is trusted by politicians, policymakers, police, regulators, media, lawyers, and the leaders and influencers of the shooting community and firearm industry.
- TheGunBlog.ca has been quoted or mentioned in the House of Commons and the Senate.
- The RCMP has updated and corrected its website more than once after our reports.
- Our reporting indirectly contributed to a parliamentary review of the RCMP’s website communication.
- Government staff distribute our reports, sometimes within minutes of publication.
- The biggest shooters’ rights groups regularly share our work with their members.
- Gun stores and clubs around the country link to our website and recommend our reports.
Shaping the Debate
- TheGunBlog.ca is giving a voice to concerned men and women who share our point of view.
- We’re driving a grassroots movement of concerned citizens.
- The movement against Bill C-71 had some of the broadest opposition to any legislative initiative by the Liberal Party-led government of 2015-2019.
- TheGunBlog.ca is changing the way people think about and talk about gun owners in Canada.
- 2.2 Million. TheGunBlog.ca was the first to report that firearm licences had risen to a record in 2015, exceeding 2 million for the first time. Nobody mentioned the number of licence holders when we started, and it was hard to find the number. For years we have consisten, we consistently break news with the latest data. Many others highlight the number of licence holders.
- More Canadian Than Hockey. TheGunBlog.ca was the first to emphasize that more adults have a firearm licence than play the top sports, like golf, hockey, basketball, etc. Many people have picked up that meme.
- Confiscation. TheGunBlog.ca was one of the only media referring to “gun bans” as “confiscation” with the threat of prison. Many people are now using that term and those ideas.
Concerns
- I started TheGunBlog.ca because I was concerned about the bias against firearm users in some of the mass media, politics and popular culture.
- Today I am more concerned than ever by the distortions, deceptions and demonizing by certain individuals and groups.
- Hostile political parties and their allies in media, academia, medicine, and elsewhere are exploiting and weaponizing the public’s unfamiliarity with firearm users and the laws that apply to us. They are undermining good policy and politics. Their disinformation campaigns erode trust in government and political institutions, and are dangerous for democracy.
Interests
- My main interest in the “gun debate” is civil liberties, good policy and good journalism.
- I love guns and I love shooting, but the interesting part isn’t the hardware, it’s the software: the complex personal, social, political, cultural, legal and moral questions around gun ownership and use, the role of gun ownership in society.
- I didn’t get into guns for fun. I got into guns for safety and survival, like millions of other responsible men and women around the world. At first I assumed most firearm users were also interested in firearms for protection, even if they mainly used them for hunting, sport or collecting. I later found out I was wrong. Many people do have an interest in armed self-defence, and many don’t. Some of the most-read articles at TheGunBlog.ca are about self-protection.
- One of my interests is recognizing, avoiding, responding to and recovering from violence and the threat of violence, from street crime to terrorism to war. I’ve trained in unarmed and armed self-defence and taken classes on intelligence, security, terrorism and counter-terrorism with some of the leading authorities in Canada.
Policy Goals
- My goal is sound policy that respects civil liberties and promotes a culture of safety, responsibility and good citizenship.
- Good policy should achieve at least two aims: Making sure the right people have guns, and making sure the wrong people don’t. Canadian policy fails on both. It stops many Good Guys, and doesn’t do a thing to stop the Bad Guys. The result is perverse: We disarm Good Guys, and make sure only Bad Guys are armed. That’s not a good approach to public safety.
- A key problem with Canadian policy on firearm ownership is how it criminalizes people who do nothing immoral or injurious. As a firearm owner, I live one step away from jail all the time. It’s bonkers. You can go to jail even if you did nothing wrong or harmful, like taking a detour on the way to the shooting range, being late renewing your firearm-ownership licence. Police regularly confiscate firearms wrongfully because they don’t know the law, and then we have to spend thousands of dollars on lawyers to get them back and get the charges dropped.
- Canada still manages to have a decent regime in many regards despite the policies, not because of them.
Journalism
- TheGunBlog.ca is a remarkable success of independent journalism and advocacy.
- TheGunBlog.ca is in a category of journalism that some people call “advocacy journalism” or “solutions journalism.”
- The “gun debate” was obsessively and exclusive focused on the few hundred people who used guns for crime and violence, and completely ignored the millions of people who have and use guns safely and responsibly every day. It would be as if media and politicians talked about cars or phones mentioning only how they kill people and the planet, without a single word about their utility and convenience.
Origin
- I started TheGunBlog.ca on 04 January 2015.
- The first subscriber was my girlfriend at the time. She didn’t like guns or shooting.
Today
- TheGunBlog.ca is one of the strongest voices for Canadian firearm users.
- TheGunBlog.ca is a remarkable success of independent journalism and advocacy on the most-polarizing and controversial technology in individual hands.
- TheGunBlog.ca is largely a one-man show (me). But it wouldn’t be the success that it is without the inspiration, input and support of hundreds of experts, advisors, collaborators and contributors. See: You Started It
Most recent update of this page: 04 October 2019