LIBERAL PLAN AN ADMISSION THE GUN REGISTRY HAS FAILED
“PM vainly tries to steal another plank from the Conservative policy book.”

Yorkton – Today, Garry Breitkreuz, M.P. for Yorkton-Melville and Conservative Firearms Critic, called the Prime Minister’s gun violence plan a desperate pre-election ploy. “The Liberals have had more than ten years to ‘crack down on violent gun crime and gang violence’ and what did Canadians get - a $2 billion dollar gun registry that has proven to be a total failure at keeping firearms out of the hands of criminals,” declared Breitkreuz.

For the last year, Justice Minister Irwin Cotler has refused every Conservative’s demands for stiffer sentencing in all weapons crime because he claimed mandatory minimum sentences are not a deterrent. “If sentencing isn’t a deterrent, why have jails at all,” mused Breitkreuz.

“A few weeks ago, Statistics Canada confirmed that they have no data to support the Minister’s contention that mandatory minimum sentences don’t work,” reported Breitkreuz. “Odd isn’t it, that just weeks before an election call, the Prime Minister now says mandatory minimum sentences do work and vainly tries to steal another plank from the Conservative policy book.”

“Canadians can only imagine how much safer we would all have been had the government spent the last ten years and this $2 billion putting more police on our streets, hiring more guards for our borders and keeping violent criminals in jail for full and meaningful sentences,” stated Breitkreuz. “Unfortunately for taxpayers, the Liberals won’t admit failure even when it is staring them in the face.”

In 1995, Justice Minister Allan Rock assured Canadians that firearm registration would save lives by reducing criminal violence, domestic violence, and suicides. It has failed on all counts and the Prime Minister's announcement today is an admission of this fact. Sadly, for the thousands of victims of violence, it is ten years and two billion dollars too late,” lamented Breitkreuz.

“A decade ago, the Liberals ignored our warnings that the gun registry was aimed at the wrong target and its projected costs were drastically under-estimated,” stated Breitkreuz. “Law-abiding gun owners weren’t the problem then and aren’t now, yet some Liberals still level their policies and rhetoric at ‘guns, guns, guns’ when all our legislation and resources should be aimed at ‘criminals, criminals, criminals’. The Liberals still don’t get it. They continue to waste a $100 million a year on the gun registry. This has to stop before another billion is wasted and more victims die as a result of misguided Liberal policies and confused public safety priorities.” concluded Breitkreuz.

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