Canadian police want to keep gun registry going

A fatuous article that simply regurgitates factoids glibly proclaimed by anti-firearms extremists internationally (it doesn't seem to matter which country it is, the same 'facts' are run out each time...)

As noted, this article is out of step with the thinking of most peoples of the western, supposedly 'free' world - as has been verified in countless polls on the subject.

People want law-enforcement bang for their buck, not money poured into a bottomless black hole.

Our experience in Australia (which socially, historically, legaly and ethnically is a very close match to Canada) has shown that firearms registries have one, and only one, purpose. That purpose is to facilitate the eventual confiscation of firearms from law-abiding citizens.

Our system - again very closely matching Canada's - has been proved in peer-reviewed scholarly research, including studies by the Commonwealth's own legal think tank and Bureau of Statistics data, to have been responsible for the solving of NO crime. Ever.

It has saved NO life. Never. Deaths by violence have risen.

It has prevented NO crime - our violent crime rate, stable for decades, has shown dramatic increases in the years since draconian firearms registration laws were enacted in 1996.

So what, apart from tying up huge amounts of law-enforcement funding and manpower that could, more profitably, be spent actually addressing crime, and causing endless frustration to law-abiding citizens (incidentally making some of them inadvertent criminals because not even the police understand the law properly, much less the population) has it all been for?

Nothing!

Canadians, take heed and learn from our mistakes. Scrap the registry now, while you can still afford to.

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Uh, Frances, the Association of Chiefs of Police do NOT speak for all police officers. They speak for the chiefs of police. Most actual police associations, who speak for the majority of front line officers (not including the RCMP) believe that at the very least the system is flawed, and that it's a huge waste of money. MOST police officers, and Canadian citizens (who you also seem to speak for, not sure how that works) believe that the money could be better spent on many other things and that the implementation of the registry was ridiculous. Your stat that the system is used XXXX amount of times is also flawed because again, you don't understand how it works. The money could and should have been spent on more police officers, crime prevention and jails. [Edited]

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There are many inaccuracies and bogus "statistics" in this article which appears to be slanted.
For one thing alone, the conclusion that gun registration has caused the murder rate of women with firearms to drop is totally unsubstantiated.
As well, police "using the registry 9,400 times each day" is a total red herring. The gun registry is tied into so many other databases, it is accessed if a gun owner calls in a complaint about noise in his neighborhood.

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Their are many flaws in the story. Our neighbors south of the border live in a completely different society, judicial process and economy. We should be cautious when we make comparisons unless we first have solid data. Stats are simply not enough. Firstly, I'll support Bill C-301. The major reason is the costs of maintaining the registry. The true cost is more in line with 20 million when you factor in all the support staff needed to maitain it. The story says, Wendy Cukier, co-founder and president of the Coalition for Gun Control, says Bill C-301 basically dismantles gun control in Canada. She notes that the Ruger Mini-14 used by Marc Lepine to kill 14 women at L'École Polytechnique in Montreal in 1989 would no longer have to be registered if the bill is passed. Is she kidding. That's exactly the kind of weapon that people DON'T register.
According to the story, between 1991 and 2007, the murder rate of women by firearms dropped by 67 per cent. I guess my question would be, how are women being killed now? Should we register knives, baseball bats? As far as any data put out by the RCMP, we should probably have a second look at it. The RCMP is curently tying up thousands upon thousands of man hours trying to get former gun registrants to renew the registration on their firearms. I wonder how many dollars that equates to when you consider that a Cst. in the RCMP makes $75,000 a year and spends countless hours trying to coax people to renew their registration.
There is no Crown attorney willing to prosecute any firearm owner when he or she refuses or forgets to register or even renew their registration on their firearms. This effctively renders the regisry useless. As a municipal police officer, I can tell you the registry does NOTHING to ensure our safety or the safety of others. The Association of Chiefs of Police is simply lobbying when the publicly support the registry.

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Frightening, to say the least, to note how many firearms are used in spousal homicide, as this column points up. And the proponents of this bill call themselves 'conservatives'? If you honestly think allowing 'Quick, easy gun ownership to law-abiding citizens while keeping guns out of the hands of criminals' is the answer, kindly take half a second to look at the crime statistics of our gun-loving neighbors south of the 49th...

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