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FACE TO FACE: Should the feds shoot down the controversial long-gun registry?

If it feels like Canadians have been debating the merits of the long-gun registry for a long time, it’s because we have.

It was back in 2001 that Jean Chretien’s Liberals introduced the controversial measure that required all owners of hunting rifles and shotguns to register them with the government.

The debate was revived late last year when MP Candice Hoeppner of the Manitoba riding of Portage-Lisgar introduced a private members bill, Bill C-391, which

aims to repeal the registry. The introduction of the bill has caused political pundits, journalists and citizen groups alike to rehash old rhetoric.

“The registry does nothing to stop criminals from getting guns” was a common refrain for anti-registry lobbyists in the 1990s while registry supporters retorted with comments such as “The gun registry will save lives.”

The difference between the debate now and the debate in the ’90s, however, is that we now have almost a decade of empirical evidence about the program’s success — or lack thereof.

Coquitlam resident Gary Mauser, a business professor emeritus at Simon Fraser University, will be travelling to Ottawa next week to speak to the parliamentary committee on public safety about gun control. “The key question is have you shown a link a between the [long-gun registry] legislation and homicide and suicide rates.” Mauser says. “The statistics clearly show that the long-gun registry has not been effective in reducing deaths or accidents.”

According to Mauser, suicide rates in Canada have slowly been declining since the 1970s — long before the registry. The homicide rate dropped dramatically, in both Canada and the United States, in the 1990s and has been flat since then. Accident rates with guns since the long-gun registry was introduced have also remained steady.

The long-gun registry has simply not made a difference.

Governments cannot continue to spend money on programs that aren’t working. The registry was budgeted in 1995 to cost $85 million to operate and is now up to an estimated $2 billion and counting.

It’s time to put a bullet in the long-gun registry and use that money in more effective ways: to hire more police officers, to fund victim services initiatives and to develop programs to combat gang activities.

Canadians, by a small margin, favour scrapping long gun registration, which hasn’t worked the way it was intended.

Once again, the gun registry is a political issue in Canada.

Tories want registration abolished for long guns — shotguns and hunting rifles — while the Liberals (as ordered by Michael Ignatieff) want it kept, but to make failure to register a gun a non-criminal, ticketing offense.

When gun registration was implemented in 1993 by the Liberal government of Jean Chretien (Bill C-68), the Canadian public was told it would cost $2 million — the difference between what the government paid and what licensing or registration fees would bring in.

By the end of that decade, it was apparent costs had reached $1 billion and rising, with no appreciable decline in the use of firearms in crimes. More significant is the goal of registering every firearm in Canada, largely aimed at reducing crime by making every gun traceable, has been a failure.

In 1974, prior to mandatory gun registration, the justice department figured 10 million guns were owned by Canadians. By 1994, a year after registration, it was estimated there were 7 million guns in Canada.

Does that indicate a 30% decline in gun ownership over 20 years when the population increased by some 40%? Nope. What it indicates is many people didn’t register their long guns, possibly fearing confiscation would be next, or simply mistrusting government intentions.

Whatever the reason, a huge percentage of Canadians who own unregistered guns are un-convicted criminals, which explains why Ignatieff wants to decriminalize failure to register.

Police chiefs (as opposed to police members) publicly support gun registration. Rank and file cops are not so politically correct, and have doubts.

Homicide and suicide rates over the years tend to argue against firearm registration as an inhibiting factor. After firearms registration, Canada’s suicide rate was relatively stable, with a decrease of some 20% in suicide by guns, but a similar increase of suicide “by other means.” Suicide with a gun can be impetuous and messy, but all suicides are fatal, and statistically are relatively constant year after year.

Homicides remain relatively the same before and after gun controls — firearms used in homicides are in the 30% range, with hand guns (banned or registered since 1934) by far the favoured weapon of murder.

Interestingly, Canada and Australia, both with gun controls, have roughly the same homicide rate per 100,000 of population (1.57), but Canadians are twice as likely as Australians to use a gun to murder someone.

In the U.S. the homicide ratio per 100,000 of population is three times higher than in Canada — but murders are six times more likely to be with a gun.

The private member’s bill (C-391) by Manitoba Conservative MP Candice Hoeppner squeezed through two readings (164-137) with the support of a handful of rural Liberal MPs.

Michael Ignatieff “ordering” all Liberal MPs to vote against it on third reading poses an interesting dilemma if there’s an election. Polls show Canadians, by a small margin, favour scrapping gun registration, which hasn’t worked the way it was intended.

Hand guns and automatic assault weapons are the real danger, while the shotgun and hunting rifle are part of the Canadian heritage. Many law-abiding citizens have been branded criminals because they haven’t registered these guns.

That, surely, is a reason to change a bad, unenforceable law.

New Brunswick’s largest gun shop owner is shedding no tears over the passage of a federal private member’s bill that is designed to kill Canada’s long-gun registry.

Ross Faulkner, the owner of the McAdam, N.B.-based Gun Dealer, sells more than 9,000 firearms annually.

That means Faulkner is required to enter data in a book and again online in the federal registry each time he sells a weapon. This task creates hours of work each day, especially in hunting season when he said he can sell 40 rifles or shotguns a day.

Faulkner said he is relieved to hear the registry could soon be shut down.

“I think common sense has prevailed. The objective to eliminate crime in Canada has not been met. It’s been too costly,” he said.

“I believe that the money that could be saved here would be better used by putting police on the streets where we do have problems with crime.”

Faulkner said he does not accept the position of Canada’s police chiefs that they need the information collected by the Miramichi, N.B.-based registry.

“I cannot believe that they continue to say this. The information is already available at store level,” he said.

“The police chiefs know there is a lot of inaccuracies in the system. It is not 100 per cent accurate.”

In an annual report from Canada’s firearms commissioner prepared by the RCMP, police said they used the registry more than 2.5 million times in 2007.
Liberals introduced gun registry

The Conservatives have long opposed the gun registry, brought in by a former Liberal government in response to the killing of 14 women at Montreal’s L’École Polytéchnique in 1989.

Conservatives often argue the long-gun registry has been a billion-dollar boondoggle.

However, a 2006 study by the auditor general found that eliminating the long-gun portion of the registry would only save taxpayers about $3 million a year.

Manitoba Tory backbencher Candice Hoeppner’s private member’s bill to eliminate the long-gun registry still has a few parliamentary hurdles to overcome before people such as Faulkner can finally say goodbye to the gun registry.

The bill must go to a parliamentary committee for examination before heading back to the House of Commons and the Senate for votes.

With support from 18 Liberals and New Democrats, the private member’s bill passed second reading 164-137.

Madawaska-Restigouche Liberal MP Jean-Claude D’Amours voted with the Conservatives in support of ending the gun registry.

Liberal MPs Dominic LeBlanc and Brian Murphy and NDP MP Yvon Godin voted against the bill, while the province’s Tory MPs all endorsed the private member’s bill.

If passed, Bill C-391 would scrap the decade-old registry and destroy existing data within the system on about seven million shotguns and rifles.
Rural opposition

Opposition against the gun registry was especially acute in rural areas of Canada.

In New Brunswick, several Liberal backbenchers have voted against the gun registry over the years, fearing a backlash in their ridings.

But not everyone is celebrating the loss of the gun registry.

Deborah Glazebrook, a St. Stephen resident, said the gun registry is needed to protect police officers entering homes where there are domestic disputes.

“They might be able to keep an eye on what’s going on with different houses,” she said.

“They could say, OK, this household has registration of four guns, this name keeps popping up.”

She said she hopes MPs think twice about scrapping it before their final vote.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2009/11/06/nb-gun-registry-reaction-541.htmlNew Brunswick’s largest gun shop owner is shedding no tears over the passage of a federal private member’s bill that is designed to kill Canada’s long-gun registry.

Ross Faulkner, the owner of the McAdam, N.B.-based Gun Dealer, sells more than 9,000 firearms annually.

That means Faulkner is required to enter data in a book and again online in the federal registry each time he sells a weapon. This task creates hours of work each day, especially in hunting season when he said he can sell 40 rifles or shotguns a day.

Faulkner said he is relieved to hear the registry could soon be shut down.

“I think common sense has prevailed. The objective to eliminate crime in Canada has not been met. It’s been too costly,” he said.

“I believe that the money that could be saved here would be better used by putting police on the streets where we do have problems with crime.”

Faulkner said he does not accept the position of Canada’s police chiefs that they need the information collected by the Miramichi, N.B.-based registry.

“I cannot believe that they continue to say this. The information is already available at store level,” he said.

“The police chiefs know there is a lot of inaccuracies in the system. It is not 100 per cent accurate.”

In an annual report from Canada’s firearms commissioner prepared by the RCMP, police said they used the registry more than 2.5 million times in 2007.
Liberals introduced gun registry

The Conservatives have long opposed the gun registry, brought in by a former Liberal government in response to the killing of 14 women at Montreal’s L’École Polytéchnique in 1989.

Conservatives often argue the long-gun registry has been a billion-dollar boondoggle.

However, a 2006 study by the auditor general found that eliminating the long-gun portion of the registry would only save taxpayers about $3 million a year.

Manitoba Tory backbencher Candice Hoeppner’s private member’s bill to eliminate the long-gun registry still has a few parliamentary hurdles to overcome before people such as Faulkner can finally say goodbye to the gun registry.

The bill must go to a parliamentary committee for examination before heading back to the House of Commons and the Senate for votes.

With support from 18 Liberals and New Democrats, the private member’s bill passed second reading 164-137.

Madawaska-Restigouche Liberal MP Jean-Claude D’Amours voted with the Conservatives in support of ending the gun registry.

Liberal MPs Dominic LeBlanc and Brian Murphy and NDP MP Yvon Godin voted against the bill, while the province’s Tory MPs all endorsed the private member’s bill.

If passed, Bill C-391 would scrap the decade-old registry and destroy existing data within the system on about seven million shotguns and rifles.
Rural opposition

Opposition against the gun registry was especially acute in rural areas of Canada.

In New Brunswick, several Liberal backbenchers have voted against the gun registry over the years, fearing a backlash in their ridings.

But not everyone is celebrating the loss of the gun registry.

Deborah Glazebrook, a St. Stephen resident, said the gun registry is needed to protect police officers entering homes where there are domestic disputes.

“They might be able to keep an eye on what’s going on with different houses,” she said.

“They could say, OK, this household has registration of four guns, this name keeps popping up.”

She said she hopes MPs think twice about scrapping it before their final vote.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2009/11/06/nb-gun-registry-reaction-541.html

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New Brunswick’s largest gun shop owner is shedding no tears over the passage of a federal private member’s bill that is designed to kill Canada’s long-gun registry.

Ross Faulkner, the owner of the McAdam, N.B.-based Gun Dealer, sells more than 9,000 firearms annually.

That means Faulkner is required to enter data in a book and again online in the federal registry each time he sells a weapon. This task creates hours of work each day, especially in hunting season when he said he can sell 40 rifles or shotguns a day.

Faulkner said he is relieved to hear the registry could soon be shut down.

“I think common sense has prevailed. The objective to eliminate crime in Canada has not been met. It’s been too costly,” he said.

“I believe that the money that could be saved here would be better used by putting police on the streets where we do have problems with crime.”

Faulkner said he does not accept the position of Canada’s police chiefs that they need the information collected by the Miramichi, N.B.-based registry.

“I cannot believe that they continue to say this. The information is already available at store level,” he said.

“The police chiefs know there is a lot of inaccuracies in the system. It is not 100 per cent accurate.”

In an annual report from Canada’s firearms commissioner prepared by the RCMP, police said they used the registry more than 2.5 million times in 2007.
Liberals introduced gun registry

The Conservatives have long opposed the gun registry, brought in by a former Liberal government in response to the killing of 14 women at Montreal’s L’École Polytéchnique in 1989.

Conservatives often argue the long-gun registry has been a billion-dollar boondoggle.

However, a 2006 study by the auditor general found that eliminating the long-gun portion of the registry would only save taxpayers about $3 million a year.

Manitoba Tory backbencher Candice Hoeppner’s private member’s bill to eliminate the long-gun registry still has a few parliamentary hurdles to overcome before people such as Faulkner can finally say goodbye to the gun registry.

The bill must go to a parliamentary committee for examination before heading back to the House of Commons and the Senate for votes.

With support from 18 Liberals and New Democrats, the private member’s bill passed second reading 164-137.

Madawaska-Restigouche Liberal MP Jean-Claude D’Amours voted with the Conservatives in support of ending the gun registry.

Liberal MPs Dominic LeBlanc and Brian Murphy and NDP MP Yvon Godin voted against the bill, while the province’s Tory MPs all endorsed the private member’s bill.

If passed, Bill C-391 would scrap the decade-old registry and destroy existing data within the system on about seven million shotguns and rifles.
Rural opposition

Opposition against the gun registry was especially acute in rural areas of Canada.

In New Brunswick, several Liberal backbenchers have voted against the gun registry over the years, fearing a backlash in their ridings.

But not everyone is celebrating the loss of the gun registry.

Deborah Glazebrook, a St. Stephen resident, said the gun registry is needed to protect police officers entering homes where there are domestic disputes.

“They might be able to keep an eye on what’s going on with different houses,” she said.

“They could say, OK, this household has registration of four guns, this name keeps popping up.”

She said she hopes MPs think twice about scrapping it before their final vote.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2009/11/06/nb-gun-registry-reaction-541.html

It’s a good time for the federal gun registry to die. After 11 years of low-calibre crime-fighting — shooting blanks at bad guys, backfiring financially or taking aim at all the wrong targets — the billion-dollar boondoggle uncovered in 2002 by the Auditor General will likely be placed on the de-registration block this afternoon.

The magic number to send the gun registry bill off for committee scrutiny and sober Senate thought is 10 opposition MPs.

Under intense pressure from an attack ad campaign against MPs in ridings the Conservatives don’t hold, and where local opposition to the registry is strong, at least five Liberals and six New Democrats will likely be spooked enough to vote with the government or abstain on Manitoba MP Candice Hoeppner’s private member’s bill.

Unless the two opposition party leaders successfully plead for unity at caucus meetings this morning, that count should stick, lifting the bill over its highest hurdle and putting it on track to unplug the registry and shred its records.

The beauty of using the private-member process is how it allows the Conservatives to scrap a registry they have demonized for a decade without tarnishing their law-and-order credentials.

As a free vote, the bill’s passage will allow Prime Minister Stephen Harper to tell police organizations and urban voters who support the registry that a three-party, um, coalition of MPs actually put it out of its misery, not government ideology.

That’s just optics, of course.

The Conservatives have tried three times to legislate the firearms registry into oblivion, only to watch the bills die on the order paper or languish in the Senate. The private-member bill route at least offers them some political cover.

The premise behind registering long guns (handguns will remain subject to a registration requirement that began in 1934) was always suspect. The greater the owner’s propensity for illegal gun activity, the less likely they’d be to register their weapon.

“We do have a problem in Canada with gun crime, but it’s handguns mixed with drugs and gangs,” says Ms. Hoeppner. “It’s not the law-abiding long gun owners.”

The better approach, she argues, would be to track those who are prohibited from owning firearms, most of them living without any form of weapons surveillance, and leave hunters and sport shooters subject only to obtaining a licence when they purchase unrestricted firearms.

It’s the right move, but it doesn’t mean they will be shuttering any time soon that unmarked brown box of an office building that houses registry computers in Miramichi, N.B. Opposition MPs supporting the move could get cold feet when the final roll is called or the Liberal-controlled Senate could stonewall the bill until the next election kills it yet again.

But that would really prolong the inevitable. Despite the 7.3-million firearms on file now, the vast majority being hunting rifles or unmodified shotguns, the registry has become outdated and thus unreliable after three years of reporting amnesties.

Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/story.html?id=0be68578-76fa-4f1d-895f-9ed56a8a8e6e#ixzz0W5fIAEM9
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Besides, it just doesn’t seem to work.

While proponents point to the falling crime rate as proof it has merit, serious crime rates are falling much faster in the United States where the right to bear arms is constitutionally guaranteed.

Police have warped its merits by recently showcasing a weapon seizure and wrongly boasting their haul was helped by the registry. They also exaggerate law enforcement reliance on the registry by insisting police access it about 5,000 times a day, knowing full well every search of the Canadian Police Information Centre for any reason generates an automatic search of the firearms registry.

There’s lingering political sensitivity to axing the registry. Prime Minister Harper, for example, has promised to preserve the 290 Miramichi and Ottawa headquarters jobs at risk from the closure. How? Why? The last thing this bloated, deficit-ridden government needs to do is preserve employees for eliminated jobs, particularly ones of dubious merit.

Later today, if the bill passes second reading, a billion-dollar loss for taxpayers and inconvenience for honest gunowners will finally move up the Parliament Hill it should die on.

dmartin@nationalpost.com
http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/story.html?id=0be68578-76fa-4f1d-895f-9ed56a8a8e6e&p=2It’s a good time for the federal gun registry to die. After 11 years of low-calibre crime-fighting — shooting blanks at bad guys, backfiring financially or taking aim at all the wrong targets — the billion-dollar boondoggle uncovered in 2002 by the Auditor General will likely be placed on the de-registration block this afternoon.

The magic number to send the gun registry bill off for committee scrutiny and sober Senate thought is 10 opposition MPs.

Under intense pressure from an attack ad campaign against MPs in ridings the Conservatives don’t hold, and where local opposition to the registry is strong, at least five Liberals and six New Democrats will likely be spooked enough to vote with the government or abstain on Manitoba MP Candice Hoeppner’s private member’s bill.

Unless the two opposition party leaders successfully plead for unity at caucus meetings this morning, that count should stick, lifting the bill over its highest hurdle and putting it on track to unplug the registry and shred its records.

The beauty of using the private-member process is how it allows the Conservatives to scrap a registry they have demonized for a decade without tarnishing their law-and-order credentials.

As a free vote, the bill’s passage will allow Prime Minister Stephen Harper to tell police organizations and urban voters who support the registry that a three-party, um, coalition of MPs actually put it out of its misery, not government ideology.

That’s just optics, of course.

The Conservatives have tried three times to legislate the firearms registry into oblivion, only to watch the bills die on the order paper or languish in the Senate. The private-member bill route at least offers them some political cover.

The premise behind registering long guns (handguns will remain subject to a registration requirement that began in 1934) was always suspect. The greater the owner’s propensity for illegal gun activity, the less likely they’d be to register their weapon.

“We do have a problem in Canada with gun crime, but it’s handguns mixed with drugs and gangs,” says Ms. Hoeppner. “It’s not the law-abiding long gun owners.”

The better approach, she argues, would be to track those who are prohibited from owning firearms, most of them living without any form of weapons surveillance, and leave hunters and sport shooters subject only to obtaining a licence when they purchase unrestricted firearms.

It’s the right move, but it doesn’t mean they will be shuttering any time soon that unmarked brown box of an office building that houses registry computers in Miramichi, N.B. Opposition MPs supporting the move could get cold feet when the final roll is called or the Liberal-controlled Senate could stonewall the bill until the next election kills it yet again.

But that would really prolong the inevitable. Despite the 7.3-million firearms on file now, the vast majority being hunting rifles or unmodified shotguns, the registry has become outdated and thus unreliable after three years of reporting amnesties.

Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/story.html?id=0be68578-76fa-4f1d-895f-9ed56a8a8e6e#ixzz0W5fIAEM9
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Besides, it just doesn’t seem to work.

While proponents point to the falling crime rate as proof it has merit, serious crime rates are falling much faster in the United States where the right to bear arms is constitutionally guaranteed.

Police have warped its merits by recently showcasing a weapon seizure and wrongly boasting their haul was helped by the registry. They also exaggerate law enforcement reliance on the registry by insisting police access it about 5,000 times a day, knowing full well every search of the Canadian Police Information Centre for any reason generates an automatic search of the firearms registry.

There’s lingering political sensitivity to axing the registry. Prime Minister Harper, for example, has promised to preserve the 290 Miramichi and Ottawa headquarters jobs at risk from the closure. How? Why? The last thing this bloated, deficit-ridden government needs to do is preserve employees for eliminated jobs, particularly ones of dubious merit.

Later today, if the bill passes second reading, a billion-dollar loss for taxpayers and inconvenience for honest gunowners will finally move up the Parliament Hill it should die on.

dmartin@nationalpost.com

http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/story.html?id=0be68578-76fa-4f1d-895f-9ed56a8a8e6e&p=2

Hunt Lake Manitoba Narrows

www.huntlakemanitobanarrows.com

It’s a good time for the federal gun registry to die. After 11 years of low-calibre crime-fighting — shooting blanks at bad guys, backfiring financially or taking aim at all the wrong targets — the billion-dollar boondoggle uncovered in 2002 by the Auditor General will likely be placed on the de-registration block this afternoon.

The magic number to send the gun registry bill off for committee scrutiny and sober Senate thought is 10 opposition MPs.

Under intense pressure from an attack ad campaign against MPs in ridings the Conservatives don’t hold, and where local opposition to the registry is strong, at least five Liberals and six New Democrats will likely be spooked enough to vote with the government or abstain on Manitoba MP Candice Hoeppner’s private member’s bill.

Unless the two opposition party leaders successfully plead for unity at caucus meetings this morning, that count should stick, lifting the bill over its highest hurdle and putting it on track to unplug the registry and shred its records.

The beauty of using the private-member process is how it allows the Conservatives to scrap a registry they have demonized for a decade without tarnishing their law-and-order credentials.

As a free vote, the bill’s passage will allow Prime Minister Stephen Harper to tell police organizations and urban voters who support the registry that a three-party, um, coalition of MPs actually put it out of its misery, not government ideology.

That’s just optics, of course.

The Conservatives have tried three times to legislate the firearms registry into oblivion, only to watch the bills die on the order paper or languish in the Senate. The private-member bill route at least offers them some political cover.

The premise behind registering long guns (handguns will remain subject to a registration requirement that began in 1934) was always suspect. The greater the owner’s propensity for illegal gun activity, the less likely they’d be to register their weapon.

“We do have a problem in Canada with gun crime, but it’s handguns mixed with drugs and gangs,” says Ms. Hoeppner. “It’s not the law-abiding long gun owners.”

The better approach, she argues, would be to track those who are prohibited from owning firearms, most of them living without any form of weapons surveillance, and leave hunters and sport shooters subject only to obtaining a licence when they purchase unrestricted firearms.

It’s the right move, but it doesn’t mean they will be shuttering any time soon that unmarked brown box of an office building that houses registry computers in Miramichi, N.B. Opposition MPs supporting the move could get cold feet when the final roll is called or the Liberal-controlled Senate could stonewall the bill until the next election kills it yet again.

But that would really prolong the inevitable. Despite the 7.3-million firearms on file now, the vast majority being hunting rifles or unmodified shotguns, the registry has become outdated and thus unreliable after three years of reporting amnesties.

Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/story.html?id=0be68578-76fa-4f1d-895f-9ed56a8a8e6e#ixzz0W5fIAEM9
The New Financial Post Stock Market Challenge starts in October. You could WIN your share of $60,000 in prizing. Register NOW

Besides, it just doesn’t seem to work.

While proponents point to the falling crime rate as proof it has merit, serious crime rates are falling much faster in the United States where the right to bear arms is constitutionally guaranteed.

Police have warped its merits by recently showcasing a weapon seizure and wrongly boasting their haul was helped by the registry. They also exaggerate law enforcement reliance on the registry by insisting police access it about 5,000 times a day, knowing full well every search of the Canadian Police Information Centre for any reason generates an automatic search of the firearms registry.

There’s lingering political sensitivity to axing the registry. Prime Minister Harper, for example, has promised to preserve the 290 Miramichi and Ottawa headquarters jobs at risk from the closure. How? Why? The last thing this bloated, deficit-ridden government needs to do is preserve employees for eliminated jobs, particularly ones of dubious merit.

Later today, if the bill passes second reading, a billion-dollar loss for taxpayers and inconvenience for honest gunowners will finally move up the Parliament Hill it should die on.

dmartin@nationalpost.com

http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/story.html?id=0be68578-76fa-4f1d-895f-9ed56a8a8e6e&p=2