When I was a lad, many, many, years ago, I attended a high school in Ontario that required its male students to be members of the Canadian Army Cadet Corps. We were issued uniforms and shoes and wooden cut-outs of rifles with which we performed fancy close order drills.

We had a brass band and, once a year, would march through the streets of town with our wooden rifles to the stirring refrain of the “Thunderer” and other military tunes. Today, this imperative would, no doubt, be viewed with horror but back then no one thought it to be particularly outrageous. Quite a bit of school time was spent in practice – marching, mostly.

One of the activities required attendance at the local armoury where we learned to disassemble, clean and re-assemble a Bren gun. We did this many times. Our instructor told us that we should be so proficient at this that we would be able to do it blindfolded. In this, we were never put to the test. Nor were we ever invited to actually fire the weapon.

So, in what I think of as a charmingly Canadian concept, we had a cadre of boys that had not the faintest idea of how to fire a Bren gun, but who could disassemble, clean and re-assemble one in 45 seconds. Weʼre not a martial nation, loathe to threaten, but we do like to be neat.

Well, there was target practice. In a connection that remains mysterious to me, being a student at this particular school somehow made you a potential member of the National Rifle Association. I say “student” rather than “cadet” because there was that rather attractive red-haired girl. There were no girl cadets.

Back in those days, Canada was a “Dominion.” We referred to ourselves and others referred to us as the “Dominion of Canada.” We were, in other words, dominated. The dominatrix, of course, was that wilful wench Britannia. So the official title of the rifle club was the “Dominion of Canada Rifle Association” – the DCRA.

The DCRA provided, in conjunction with, I assume, the Canadian Army, rifles and ammunition for participant members to blast away at paper targets in the firing range in the basement of the local Armoury. The rifles were Lee Enfield stocks which had been retrofitted with single shot, bolt action, .22 long rifle, barrels. As I recall, they featured excellent peep sights.

Each target was about 2-1/2 inches in diameter and there were six of these per sheet of paper. One was allowed two shots per target. One of these targets was for sighting in – because no one ever knew which rifle one would draw and thus, how it would shoot. This left 5 targets (10 shots) that counted. The bullʼs-eye was the same diameter as a . 22 calibre bullet. A perfect hit meant removing part of the circle that defined the bullʼs-eye. If you accomplished this for ten shots over five targets, you had then a “perfect” target.

I must have discharged well over a thousand rounds at the taxpayerʼs expense (I have no idea who cleaned the rifles) and earned the “Crossed Arms and Crown” for application to my cadet uniform. I donʼt know what that badge signifies. One among our number managed to accomplish more. Ten sequential perfect targets. One hundred shots, one after the other, each one, a bullʼs-eye. The golden bullet award. I wanted to ask her out. We had things in common. But I never did. I just knew that red-haired girl wouldnʼt think that we were of the same calibre.

I was thinking back on this the other day, wondering if there might be a history of the DCRA online. Maybe some explanation of how they fit into my school days. So I Googled them up: http://www.dcra.ca/

Not only is there a complete history of the outfit on their 1930ʼs – style site, but they are still active. They still exist. They are still in operation. They are current. And, incredibly, they are still the Dominion of Canada Rifle Association.

Hello?

And now, Royal Navy, and Royal Air force...

Where was the DCRA during the gun de-registration debate? Thinking about the activist National Rifle Association in the United States, I cannot help but wonder if the DCRA has not carried the concept of “low profile” to the level of “clandestine.”

Hereʼs the question: Is the Prime Minister of Canada a member of the DCRA?