LIBERALS KILLED BREITKREUZ BILL TO IMPROVE CANADA’S GUN CONTROL LAWS

Ottawa - Last Friday afternoon in the House of Commons, the Liberal government killed Garry Breitkreuz’s bill that would have implemented a five-year process to see constant improvement in Canada’s gun control laws. The MP for Yorkton-Melville, was disappointed that the Liberals killed this important bill after just one hour of debate. "People arguing against this bill will have to argue that they support gun control laws even if they do not work, no matter how much they cost, and even if another measure might work better," explained Breitkreuz. "We want to make our society safer. We want to pass laws in Parliament that are effective. We need sunset provisions so we can focus on what works."

Paddy Torsney, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment, speaking on behalf of the Liberal government, proceeded to make a series of false statements about the effect of Breitkreuz's bill.

The Liberals claimed, "The bill proposes that we repeal the new firearms legislation without giving it a reasonable time to work." False: "Bill C-278 would give the Auditor General five years to determine whether any gun control measure was working or not. Remember it was the Auditor General who said in his 1993 report that the previous set of gun control laws had not been proven effective before the government implemented the new set of gun control laws," responded Breitkreuz.

The Liberals claimed, "Members will see that it [the Firearms Act] has already been effective." And then offered up 85 blocked license applications as proof of this effectiveness. False: "All of these blocked, legal gun sales could have been accomplished before the Firearms Act took effect simply by revoking the Firearms Acquisition Certificates of dangerous people identified by police. The Liberals remain obsessed with controlling legal gun sales rather than the real problem of black-market gun sales to real criminals."

The Liberals claimed, "If Bill C-278 were to become law and all Canadian gun laws were sunsetted, Canada would be left with no licencing and no registration, nothing." False: "Bill C-278 would only sunset gun control laws that the Auditor General proved were not cost-effective at achieving their stated objective of saving lives and reducing the criminal use of firearms," explained Breitkreuz

The Liberals claimed, "Bill C-278 is a simplistic, unrealistic piece of legislation." False: "Is it ‘simplistic’ to ask the Auditor General to conduct an independent audit and report to Canadians on the cost and effectiveness of Canada’s gun control laws?" asked Breitkreuz. "Is it ‘unrealistic’ to believe that Canada should only have gun control laws that are actually proven to save lives and reduce the criminal use of firearms? I don’t think so and I’m betting millions of Canadian taxpayers don’t think so either."

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