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Spare me your gun-registry sanctimony

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Oh, please: Will the Liberals and other assorted supporters of the federal firearms registry climb down off their high horses?

Last week, Sheila Fraser, the Auditor-General, reported the registry is still a sinkhole for tax dollars that was maintained for years by Liberal deceit. Following her assessment, Stockwell Day, the Public Safety Minister, announced a series of regulatory amendments that effectively suspended registration of "long guns" - shotguns and rifles.

Mr. Day granted a 12-month amnesty to hunters, farmers and trap shooters who had not already registered their guns under the Liberals' Firearms Act. Then he announced he would shortly introduce legislation to end registration of long guns. His not-so-subtle (but sensible) message was: If you wait long enough, you won't have to register them at all.

This sent Irwin Cotler, the Liberal public safety critic, into high dudgeon.

"I am very surprised that the government has declared here that there will be an amnesty," Mr. Cotler railed, "that they are prepared to suspend the law while it is in place." Without introducing legislation to end registration, Mr. Cotler insisted, "it's an abuse of process, it's an abuse of Parliament and it's an abuse of the democratic process."

Editorialists across the country picked up on Mr. Cotler's charge and, without much (or any) understanding of how the Liberals themselves had administered the registry, accused the Conservatives of unilaterally suspending the law of the land and making "an end run around the body that Conservatives vowed to have more respect for when they were in opposition."

Excuse me: Where was this reverence for the democratic process when the Liberals were building the registry largely by regulation rather than legislation? Where was this deference to Parliament in any of the 11 amnesties the Liberals granted to non-complying gun owners?

Between 1995 and 2005, the Liberals issued 118 orders in council -- almost a dozen a year -- modifying the laws or regulations governing the registry. In several instances, they issued orders containing regulations that amended other regulations that had already changed the original law.

Yet I cannot find a single instance of any of Mr. Day's detractors criticizing the Liberals for abusing the process.

Nearly all the "procedures and conditions for the registration of firearms," plus the rules governing how individuals and businesses "shall store, transport or display non-restricted, restricted and prohibited handguns, firearms, weapons, devices, ammunition and their components and parts" -- the very guts of the Liberal registry -- were not part of Bill C-68 in 1995. They were contained in 1998 regulations issued by Cabinet without any discussion in Parliament.

The provisions that the Chief Firearms Officer of Canada or his agents approve all transfers of long guns between individuals and businesses and verify the identity of all firearms owners and each and every one of their guns -- requirements that Canadians were originally told were essential to tracking guns for public safety -- have been repealed in recent years by order in council, not Parliamentary vote.

By regulation, not legislation, the Liberals ordered that every gun in the country be permanently marked in such a way that each firearm was uniquely identifiable. Then, when it became obvious that regulation was too ambitious, the Libs issued another regulation countermanding the first -- the same Liberals who last week proclaimed themselves so indignant at Mr. Day's actions.

The exemption of aboriginals from most provisions of the Firearms Act? Order in council. The requirement that all shooting clubs and ranges be approved by Ottawa rather than municipalities? Same.

Rules governing permits for civilians to carry guns for work, banning certain types of guns and ammunition, and exempting guns used by Olympic target shooters? Yep. Orders in council, all.

The authority Mr. Day used to declare his amnesty and modify registration through regulation is granted him by the Liberals' own gun law.

Of course, the Liberals never envisioned anyone using that power to dismantle the registry. They granted it to themselves so they could expand the registry whenever they wanted without subjecting their plans to contentious Parliamentary debate.

But I suppose there's the distinction: It's OK to ignore Parliament when your objective is supposedly pure and noble (and Liberal), but wrong when you are trying to clean up the mess left behind.

lgunter@shaw.ca