Gun registry in bind again

In Brief: A computer problem at the Canadian Firearms Centre is just the latest in the federal gun registry's seemingly endless list of woes.

If you'll pardon the puns, the federal gun registry's latest misfire is bound to trigger a new round of complaints about the billion dollar boondoggle.

Wayne Easter, the federal solicitor general and the man now responsible for the Canadian Firearms Centre, revealed the registry's latest problem to reporters on Wednesday. Easter said a computer crash at the centre last year may mean a number of gun owners who thought they had successfully applied for registration certificates are in fact not registered.

This latest foul-up adds to the questions that surround the June 30 registration deadline. But Easter says despite the problem -- which may make it difficult to prosecute anyone who hasn't registered their guns -- the government has no intention of further extending the deadline. An estimated 500,000 gun owners have either not registered their long guns or not re-registered handguns registered under the previous law.

This latest problem fits right in with what has been yet another a bad month for the firearms registry. (Actually that's a bit redundant. The registry hasn't had a good month since the enabling legislation was introduced in 1994.)

Here's what has happened since May 7:

- The Justice Department revealed it had awarded $400,000 to a gun control coalition last year and the money was used to hire lobbyists to press the government to maintain the program;

- The former head of the centre said no one was fired at the centre despite Prime Minister Jean Chretien's claim that people were dismissed or demoted as the costs of the registry soared;

- It turns out the government had spent at least $17 million more on the firearms registry than the outrageous $1 billion cost cited by Auditor General Sheila Fraser last fall; and

- Ontario announced it will join Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, Alberta and Manitoba in refusing to prosecute people who have not registered their guns, leaving the job up to already over-burdened federal prosecutors.

In Quotes

''The bottom line is the government has made these people criminals by its incompetence and mishandling of this information."

-- Garry Breitkreuz, Canadian Alliance MP for Yorkton Melville, reacting to the news that as the result of a computer failure at the Canadian Firearms Centre, some gunowners who thought they had registered for firearms certificates did not, in fact, complete the registration process.