NEWS RELEASE

November 30, 2004                                                                For Immediate Release

$20 M FOR FRONT-LINE POLICE BLOCKED BY LIBERALS, NDP & BLOC

“The gun registry ignores the real gun problem in Canada – CRIMINALS!”

Ottawa – Saskatchewan MP Garry Breitkreuz, Official Opposition Firearms Legislation Critic, was disappointed that Liberal, NDP and Bloc MPs on the Commons Justice Committee ganged up to defeat his motion to transfer $20 million from the gun registry budget to front-line police priorities.  “It’s sad that petty politics continues to take precedence over police and public safety priorities,” said Breitkreuz.  “The evidence of the gun registry’s waste and ineffectiveness is overwhelming.”

Debate of the Conservative Party’s motions to reduce the gun registry’s estimates by $20 million and transfer the money to the RCMP started last Wednesday and ended in defeat late yesterday afternoon despite convincing arguments put forward by Breitkreuz and Peter MacKay, Deputy Leader and the support of Justice Critic Vic Toews and Finance Critic Monte Solberg.

“No matter how damning the evidence is proving the ineffectiveness of the gun registry, the political parties that support it just continue to bury their collective heads in the sand,” said Breitkreuz  We’ve always known that convicted criminals and proven-to-be-dangerous individuals were the real problem, but the entire Firearms Act is aimed at the wrong target; namely, completely innocent, law-abiding hunters and sport shooters,” he added.

During yesterday’s committee meeting, Breitkreuz argued:  “Statistics Canada recently reported that in 2003, 69% of murders were committed by convicted criminals (amazingly five had been previously convicted of murder).  The RCMP recently reported that there are 176,091 convicted criminals that have been prohibited from owning firearms by the courts and restraining orders on another 37,015 (Canada-wide) and 2,241 (Province-wide). But does the Firearms Act authorize the government to track the addresses of convicted criminals and proven-to-be-dangerous persons?  No!   The government decided that 2 million law-abiding gun owners should be forced to report their change of address instead of the criminals.  And does the Firearms Act authorize the government to check to see if convicted violent criminals and the more than 215,000 proven-to-be-dangerous persons to see if they have acquired firearms illegally.  No!  Instead, the Liberals authorized “inspections” of the homes of law-abiding federally licenced gun owners.  I ask the Committee members, where’s the logic in that?”

“Canadians will always wonder how many lives could have been saved if this billion-dollar boondoggle had been spent on real police and public safety priorities.  The sad fact is that yesterday’s vote will have us all asking the same question after the second billion is long gone,” warned Breitkreuz.

MOTIONS TO TRANSFER $20 MILLION TO FRONT-LINE POLICE PRIORITIES http://www.cssa-cila.org/garryb/Private%20Members%20Motions/nov-24-2004.htm

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