Ending the Wasteful Failed Long-Gun Registry

May 13, 2009

Have you ever wondered whether some big city politicians actually understand what a long-gun is?

If you listen to some of these urban opposition MPs who try to link fighting serious crime with the long-gun registry, it sounds as if they don’t understand what they’re talking about.

Long-guns are typically owned by law-abiding farmers and hunters, not the dangerous criminals who are endangering our neighbourhoods and communities.

For too long, it’s the law-abiding hunters and farmers who have taken the brunt of the failed long-gun registry. In addition to the time-wasting red tape, the drain on our tax dollars has been huge. Under the Liberals’ watch, the costs of the gun registry spiralled to almost $2 billion; dollars that could be better used going to support front-line policing efforts across Canada.
It was wrong when the Liberals introduced it in 1997 and it’s still wrong now.

Since first taking office, the Conservative government has been clear: unfairly targeting law-abiding farmers and hunters is the wrong way to fight crime.

But, time and time again, other political parties have shown that they are more interested in playing political games than dealing with the real source of crime in Canada.

That’s their choice.

But the Conservative government’s position has always been to stand up for law-abiding citizens. That is why we are continuing our work towards abolishing the long-gun registry.  We want to return to the better system of having retailers record their sales of non-restricted weapons instead of having to register them with the long-gun registry.

At the same time, we are working to focus our efforts on fighting gun crime and targeting real criminals. We have already made Canadians safer with our far-reaching Tackling Violent Crime Act, which includes mandatory minimum sentences for gun crimes.  We are also working to crack down on criminals who commit drive-by shootings, as well as drug and gang crimes. In other words, we are tackling the real criminals.

This is just common sense.

Yet the opposition continue to disagree and are directly opposing continued Conservative attempts to end the failed long-gun registry. 
Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff has recently confirmed that the Liberal Party’s position on the long-gun registry remains the same, promising to defeat government efforts to scrap the long-gun registry.

In fact, opposition parties are going further than just posturing and are now opposing new Conservative efforts to help law-abiding gun owners. Just in the last few weeks, they brought forward a motion of their own to end the amnesty created by the Conservative government.

This is the same amnesty that protects law-abiding gun owners from prosecution if they fail to register their rifles and shotguns.
While the Liberals may be trying to make Canadians forget that they are to blame for the failed registry in the first place, that doesn’t explain why the Bloc and the NDP want to keep throwing money at this failed experiment — or why they want make life even more difficult for hunters and farmers.

The reality is that Michael Ignatieff and the Liberals continue to punish law-abiding farmers and hunters, advancing a flawed system to keep covering their own mistake.  Even though Auditor General Sheila Fraser told Canadians that the Registry’s information is unreliable, they continue to defend it anyway.

The law-abiding citizens of Canada have been affected by this failed law for too long. The Conservative government believes that tackling crime means fighting gang crime, drug crime and violent offenders. And that’s what we’re doing. Meanwhile, the opposition parties are simply playing politics in a time when Canadians want real action and real leadership. 

The long-gun registry has been proven to fail time and time again; and to finally close the chapter on it will not come soon enough.