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Shooting down gun registry

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A man should have an epiphany occasionally on Canada Day. This year, I suddenly understood that the only people who could possibly have given us our firearms registry are people who knew absolutely nothing about firearms and firearm owners, and who had completely forgotten that The Constitution Act, the old BNA Act, is still the law of the land.

Much of that insight, strangely, came from a couple of pieces in the June 20 Globe and Mail, of all liberal places, making the case for scrapping the registry. The lead editorial titled, The long gun registry is ripe for dismantling, contained this startling gem: "As Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day noted yesterday when he introduced his bill (to end the registry), it was always fanciful to think that tracking down, describing and registering every duck rifle and gopher gun in the country was going to make a dent in gun crime."

One can only hope this is simply an ignorant editorial writer putting ignorant words in Day's mouth and that the minister, at least, knows the difference between a rifle and a (shot) gun and that it is illegal to shoot ducks with the former and stupid, expensive overkill to shoot gophers with a shotgun.

But the major food for thought came from a story Up In Arms Over Long-gun Registration, by Gloria Galloway of Ottawa: "(The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police) insist (the registry) is a valuable tool for preparing officers to enter dangerous situations -- although they have difficulty providing examples of instances in which it has solved crimes or helped save lives."

Anyone who follows gun atrocities will not have much trouble providing examples to the contrary, and worse.

Take, for one horrible example, James Rosko's Mayerthorpe massacre.

I am not for a moment being callous about the tragic loss of young lives and the devastating effect that must have on their loved ones. But, as with most of these atrocities, we never seem to be informed if the firearms were registered, or if the perpetrator was licensed to possess or acquire them. With his criminal record, we like to think Rosko would never have been granted a licence to possess or acquire firearms, even if he had passed the mandatory firearms safety course and stored his arsenal safely, as opposed to hiding them.

Surely the RCMP did not check the registry and, finding nothing, assume Rosko was no threat? Hundreds of thousands of Canadians and their firearms are not to be found in the registry, including thousands "in limbo" who sent in their applications and never heard back. How does the registry help?

With Rosko, police knew, or ought to have known from common knowledge in the community, they were dealing with a heavily armed, violent man with a long criminal record, who hated the police. Yet, policemen got gunned down. How did the registry save lives?

Then there is the case of the man in Quebec, known to be violent, who was forbidden by court order from possessing firearms, but had his firearms restored to him by a judge so he could hunt. In came a complaint, a female officer knocked on his door and was shot dead through it. What could the registry have told police they didn't know?

Obviously, none of us, and particularly the police, are getting our money's worth from the firearms registry. To its credit, the Harper government seems determined to rid us of this money-eating white elephant, but faces political problems in Ontario and Quebec where people seem to want to keep feeding the beast, no matter what.

Under The Constitution Act, property and civil rights in a province are a matter of exclusive provincial jurisdiction. Thus, I have always maintained the Supreme Court of Canada should have struck down the registry as an incursion into exclusive provincial jurisdiction, particularly when it has never been shown anywhere that registering firearms has any significant effect in true gun control and public safety.

If there are provinces that wish to go on registering firearms, then the feds should give their blessing. Download whatever provincial records are salvageable from that wonky federal firearms computer to each province that wants to carry on, maybe give each one $2 million, the estimated cost way back when of running the federal registry. Then let the rest of the country get on with spending the big savings on what does do some good: background checks, training and licensing of those who wish to possess and acquire firearms and catching and punishing those who do not comply, or misuse firearms.

bscam@telusplanet.net