Finally – Harper Government Announces Law To Abolish Long-Gun Registry

© By Othmar Vohringer

It was like a ton of bricks had been lifted off my shoulders when I heard it in the radio; “The Harper government announced this morning (October 25th) Bill C-19, a law to abolish the long-gun registry.” It finally happens. The two billion dollar feel-good policy introduced in 1991 that did absolutely nothing to keep guns out of criminals’ hands, that didn’t save a single life but turned every law-abiding Canadian firearm owner into a potential crime suspect will be gone before Christmas. I am very pleased to hear that the government in addition to getting rid of this useless piece of legislation will also destroy all the information on individual gun owners too.

A Conservative government official said, “Rather than leave the door open for a new registry we will not assist provinces to set up a back-door registry.” Candice Hoeppner, whose private member's bill to eliminate the registry came close to passing in the last Parliament, was among the MPs attending the announcement event. "Today is a defining moment for our government. The requirement for owners of rifles, shotguns and other long guns to register their firearms has unfairly targeted law-abiding citizens instead of criminals and burdened them with red tape." she said as she laid out the case for scrapping the registry.

The pro-gun-registry advocates are not happy that the registry will be scrapped and are livid that the information will be destroyed. Quebec, who wants to bring in their own version of a firearm registry, said they would take the federal government to court over the issue of destroying the data on the registry. Other than Quebec no other province has voiced any interest in creating a provincial firearm registry. The gun-control advocates still cling on to the notion, no matter how wrong they are, that the registry saves lives and keeps firearms out of criminals hands. A common comment in favour of the gun-registry is that police access the data approximately 6000 times on any given day. This is a very impressive figure. However, it is a misleading figure. Whenever police officers access the Canadian Police Information Centre to check a name or address an automatic connection is generated with the gun registry whether the police officer desires this or not. Given how many times police officers check names and or addresses per day across Canada it is not surprising that the gun registry gets that many hits.

I am sure there will be a few heated debates in the coming days and weeks. The pro firearm registry lobby and their allied media friends already started their usual spin on what they call “facts.” But no matter how loud and lively the discussions will be the long-gun-registry will be ‘shot down’. With that Harper fulfilled one of his most anticipated election promises to the rural community, hunters, sport shooters and firearm collectors. Thank you Mr. Harper for keeping your election promise.

Tags:
Gun Control, Canadian Gun Registry Abolished, Stephen Harper, Firearm Legislation