2003
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The FN P90 was in use with military and police forces in over 25 countries worldwide, the 5.56x45 MK 16 emerged as the winner of a U.S. SOCOM competition to find a new rifle for Special Forces, and Savage was awarded the Manufacturer of the Year by the Shooting Industry Academy of Excellence.
Anheuser-Busch (the makers of Budweiser) stopped backing Gov. Bob Holden, in large part because of their differences over CCW. Holden was pro-gun control and had vetoed a concealed-carry bill passed by the Missouri General Assembly.
In Canada, the registration of all long guns became mandatory, with failure to do so resulting in draconian criminal sanctions. Meanwhile, the Americans passed the Tiahrt Amendment, which prohibits the BATFE from releasing information from its firearms trace database to anyone other than a law enforcement agency or prosecutor in connection with a criminal investigation.
Down under, the Australian advocacy group CLASS began to wonder quite loudly and publicly about the worth of the country's infamous national gun buy-back scheme, which had completed 5 years earlier.
January
- January 21 — CLASS publishes Science in the Service of Politics, outlining the foolishness of Australian gun control measures.
- January 24 — The American Homeland Security Act comes into effect, renaming the ATF the BATFE and shifting it from the Treasury Department to the Justice Department.
February
- The Canadian government announced "plans to strengthen the administration of the gun control program," the farcical nature and massive cost overruns of which had been exposed the previous year by Auditor General Sheila Fraser.
March
- March 19 — United States President George W. Bush orders the start of war against Iraq.
April
- April 14 — The Canada Firearms Centre was transferred from the Department of Justice and becomes an independent agency within the Solicitor General Portfolio.
- April 29 — US patent 6553706 "Trigger Assembly Having A Secondary Sear [i.e. Accutrigger], Inv. Gancarz et. Al." is awarded.
May
- May 13 — Bill C-10A, An Act to Amend the Criminal Code (Firearms) and the Firearms Act, received Royal Assent. Statutory authority of all operations was consolidated under the Canadian Firearms Commissioner, who reported directly to the Solicitor General.
June
- The Canadian long gun registry reaches a size of 6.4 million firearms, out of an estimated 18 to 24 million firearms in the country. This despite the fact that failure to register a firearm of any kind had become a criminal offence on January 1 of the year (see above).
July
- July 11 — Canadian gun rights advocate Bruce Montague made his appearance at the CUFOA rally at Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario.
Other events
- Smith & Wesson introduced their Model 500, the most powerful production revolver ever created, using the .500 S&W Magnum round.
- Mauser introduced their M03 rifle.
- Ignatius Piazza produced the documentary Innocents Betrayed.
The year in pictures
March 17: MIL-EX 2003 in Gulfport, Miss.
March 31: live-fire exercise in Djibouti.
July 11: Bruce Montague at Queens Park, Toronto.
July 23: Kandahar Air Field weapons range.
September 1: shooting range outside Camp Ramrod, Ethiopia.
October 13: range qualifications in Camp Hansen, Okinawa.
November 7: on the range at Marine Corps Base Quantico, VA.
December 17: live-fire training at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.
US Marines in Africa.
The Montague family in 2003.
