The Federal Tories tabled a bill in Parliament last week to eliminate the country’s 16-year-old long-gun registry and destroy all of its records.
Wild Rose MP Blake Richards was one of the Conservative MPs who supported the proposition, sponsored by Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, in Ottawa on Oct. 25.
“It’s obviously something I’ve called for for a long time and something I think many of our farmers, ranchers and hunters have been fairly inconvenienced by for a number of years,” Richards said during a break in the debate on Oct. 27.
“We’ve seen that registry have about $2 billion of taxpayers money go into it – and it’s been a complete waste because it’s been completely ineffective. All it has done is make criminals out of law-abiding Canadians.”
The Jean Chrétien-led Liberals created the registry in 1995. It required owners of rifles, shotguns and other long guns to register their firearms.
The Conservatives, who have called this potential abolishment a “proud moment for the party,” have long said they believed it unfairly targeted law-abiding citizens instead of criminals. The registry is not a valuable tool to reduce gun crime, the Tories say, as the majority of homicides are not committed with long guns.
“I don’t think there was too many people in Alberta who supported it in the first place,” said Greg Boehlke, a Rocky View County councillor who lives on a farm near Crossfield. “I think it’s good that it’s officially going to be gone.”
Boehlke said he registered his guns before the deadline in 1995 and received his card, but never received any official acknowledgement of the registered guns.
“That’s how efficient that system was,” he said. “It was a make-work project that went terribly awry. It was an extreme overreaction by the government.”
The Conservative government has tried several times to eliminate the registry since taking power in 2006, but was unable to pass anything with a minority of seats in Parliament.
“This is something, from all the calls, letters and emails that I get from my constituents, that is one of the biggest issues and always has been,” Richards said.
“Many people see this as a real invasion of their privacy and their rights as law-abiding firearms owners. We want to get rid of that registry and focus our efforts on fighting actual crime. The money could be far better spent, so let’s end this now and stop that waste of taxpayer dollars.”
