"Stabbing, beating and strangulation accounted for two-thirds of all murders in 1998."

Ottawa – Today, Garry Breitkreuz, Firearms Critic for the Official Opposition, shot another hole in the Liberal logic being used to perpetrate a five-year hoax on unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers. "The government’s firearms registry is more than 300% over budget and homicide statistics released by Statistics Canada this week show why it won’t reduce murders in Canada," said Breitkreuz. "We told the Liberals in 1995 that their logic was flawed but they wouldn’t listen. Now Canadian taxpayers are paying a huge price. Hundreds of millions that could have been spent on proven crime control measures have been wasted by the Liberal gun control charade."

Last week, Statistics Canada released a report titled, Homicide in Canada – 1998 [Catalogue no. 85-002-XPE Vol. 19 no. 10]. A graph on page 7, shows the most common methods used to commit homicide in 1998 were "Stabbing" at 33.2%, "Beating and Strangulation" at 33.5% and "Shooting" at 27.2%. Page 6 reveals that of the 151 murders committed with firearms, 46% of the murderers used a handgun, 9% used a sawed-off rifle or shotgun and 8% used a fully automatic firearm. "This despite the fact that gun control laws have required handguns to be registered since 1934, and sawed-off rifles and shotguns and fully-automatic firearms have been banned for years," explained Breitkreuz.

"If registration of firearms is supposed to save lives as the Liberals say, why hasn’t it worked with handguns? If banning guns is supposed to work even better than registration, why were 26 people killed last year with prohibited firearms?" asked Breitkreuz.

Last Friday, the Canadian Police Association issued a news release stating, "The frightening reality is that organized criminals are flourishing in epidemic proportions, and police feel frustrated by the lack of tools and resources to fight back." In the same release, Mike Niebudek, CPA Vice-President and an 18-year veteran with the RCMP said, "Our budgets are being cut, enforcement is being reduced and our front-line officers are extremely demoralized."

"Although approximately $275 million has already been wasted on the government’s flawed firearms registry, it’s not too late to divert the more than $50 million being wasted each year to the fight against organized crime," commented Breitkreuz. "Politics is about priorities and these government statistics show the Liberals have their priorities wrong."

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