The mysterious man from Michigan who got Gabriel Wortman into collecting people-killing guns

Gabriel Wortman’s paternal grandfather died in 1977.

By that date, three of the five sons were out of the Edgett Ave family house : only Chris and Glynn were still at home.

By 1981, if not earlier, Glynn was in Edmonton and Chris was in the RCMP by 1982.

Enter the mystery man from Michigan who Gabe’s dad credits with setting Gabe on his murderous path of collecting illegal people-killing guns.

Gabe’s dad, in his audio transcript with FRANK MAGAZINE, speaks of not knowing the fellow - but “his mom and his brothers did” he says.

Maybe the mom remarried or formed a common law relationship with the mystery guy.

By brothers, I think he means only Glynn and Chris.

We know that by the time that Gabe was 13, ie 1981, a junior high classmate recalls he was already into shooting off his unique airgun.

Airguns weren’t that unique in the 1980s - unless they were American airguns.

Canadian airguns push their pellets out at fairly low velocity but ordinary-looking  (kid-looking) American air rifles can get up to the velocity of .22 shorts fired from a short barrelled rifle, albeit with a lighter projectile than the .22 -  but till very dangerous if a person is hit relatively near by and hit in the eye, ear or neck.

So owning an ordinary looking (kid-looking) air rifle that was actually (secretly) was as powerful as your dad’s .22 was always an illicit thrill for risk-taking Canadian kids - doubled by the fact it had to be illegally smuggled in over the border.

Gabe was still an impressionable twelve year old when he and his dad’s young brother started hanging around with this cool American dude whenever Gabe went over to visit his grandma.

Maybe at some point, the mystery American went back over the border but obviously he and Gabe stayed secretly in touch (“let’s keep this illegal gun-owning thing our little secret, eh ? Another piece of candy ?” because years later Gabe’s dad said he saw a huge pistol his son had smuggled over the border with help from this mysterious criminal* from Michigan.

“Gabe has big hands, but even so, this pistol was HUGE in Gabe’s hands”.

* Cause gun-smuggling is a crime, right ? - don’t let Scheer and the CONs tell you different.

American gun-culture is simply pure poison and the more the CONS spread it about in Canada, the more of these Portapique-style mass shootings we can expect...