Katey Montague: Growing Up Guns By Christopher di Armani Katey Montague has spent the majority of her youth involved in the battle for our gun rights. Her entry into the fray was not like most of ours, however. For most of us, we entered this battle willingly, and with full knowledge of what was ahead. Not so for Katey.

At age 12, her introduction to our battle was watching five large policemen arrest and drag her father out of the Dryden gun show, where he was in the middle of purchasing a saddle for her horse.

The Ontario Provincial Police officers left her there. Alone and crying.

Katey was the pawn the OPP officers used to get Donna Montague, her mother, out of the family home. The officers who arrested Bruce Montague intentionally left the 12-year-old girl unattended in the gun show to ensure this.

Since her twelfth birthday Katey Montague's life has centered around gun rights. It wasn't her choice, but she made a decision as a result of that traumatic event. She would fight back.

When she was thirteen she made her first video on the Firearms Act. It was about the more obscene errors in the gun registry, including how they registered Brian Buckley's soldering guns, and its first confirmed shooting victim, 15-year-old Martin Angnatok. Martin's alleged killer, Abraham Zarpa, has never been brought to trial and most likely never will, despite the fact that everyone, including the police and Crown prosecutors, know exactly who murdered young Martin Angnatok. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJggEvIlsJ4)

Katey has gone on to create dozens of videos which she publishes frequently to her own channel on YouTube, the popular video sharing site, http://www.youtube.com/KateysFirearmsFacts.

"Our rights come from God, not some stupid politician", she says frankly. "They're not God, and it's up to all of us to make sure they are reminded of that fact." Her grasp of her God-given rights and her intense determination to protect them has inspired people across Canada and the United States. “Kate you're an? intelligent mature young adult, keep up the great work!” writes one viewer. Another writes: “I absolutely LOVE what your doing for Gun? Laws in your country. Keep up the excellent work. As a Police Officer in Virginia, take it from me, you understand what the politicians never will. ” Her videos cover a variety of topics, including the Ontario Provincial Government's use of the controversial Proceeds of Crime Act to seize the Montague family home. “My dad had the audacity to challenge their stupid gun law”, she says in her video. “In retaliation they steal our home using legislation that they said would stop drug dealers and gangs.”

A few of her videos deal with the murder of police officers across Canada. One of these profiles Laval Police Constable Valérie Gignac. She was murdered by a man who, despite an existing firearms prohibition order, still had in his possession and the very firearms listed in that prohibition order when he was arrested for Gignac's murder.

“If that's not the most useless law on the books, I don't know what is” Katey says in the video.

She ends this particular video by asking, “How many more fine police officers like Valérie Gignac have to die before we start enforcing firearms prohibitions on violent criminals?”

It's a good question, and one politicians from coast to coast so far refuse to answer.

Some of her other videos are of a more dramatic nature, and question what a woman should do when faced with an attacker. One such video, titled “Rape Prevention: Two Options”, has over 70,000 viewers alone.

To date her videos on Youtube have received over 950,000 views, and at the current viewing rate she will see her one millionth viewer sometime in September. That's pretty amazing for a young woman, and a pretty powerful showing for the idea that one twelve-year-old girl had after coming face-to-face with the overwhelming power of the State.

Katey Montague graduates high school this year, and will be off to college in the fall.

While she speaks her mind openly and frequently online, at home in Dryden, Ontario it's a different story. There she is very shy about her internet fame. She doesn't talk much about it at school, and was embarrassed when friends first found her videos online.

"It's (the videos) something I like to do, something I have a lot of fun with, but it's a family thing. We're all pretty passionate about our rights, about being self-reliant. School is different, and it's just awkward seeing myself on the screen like that."

University this fall is an exciting prospect for Katey. She has been accepted into three universities, but hasn't made her choice just yet. Whichever institute of higher learning she chooses, that campus will be much richer for it.

She plans to study acting, and credits her Youtube videos and her theatre performances in many Dryden plays for inspiring her to get serious about acting as a career choice.

As for her immediate future?

“I'm spending the summer working and hanging with my brothers before going to university in the fall. And keep an eye on my Youtube site... I've got lots more videos coming!”

Keep up the great work Katey. There's hope for Canada yet!

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Christopher di Armani is a freelance writer and filmmaker who resides in Lytton, BC, Canada, with his wife Lynda and their two dogs, Koda and Tuco.

Christopher can be contacted at christopher(at)diArmani.com or http://www.diArmani.com.

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