PUBLICATION:        The Moncton Times and Transcript

DATE:                         2004.03.06

SECTION:                  Opinion

PAGE:                         D7

COLUMN:                  Editorials

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Just scrap the gun registry

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The federal government should cut its losses and simply scrap the national gun registry

Prime Minister Paul Martin and the federal Liberal government, if it really wants to send a signal to Canadian citizens that they are more responsible and better managers than we've seen in many years, should cut its losses, admit the error of their ways, and simply scrap the national gun registry.

The facts are clear: it doesn't, and never has worked; it is outrageously expensive for no gain, the bill to date in the billion dollar range for a program that was supposed to cost a mere $2 million; and it never has and never will achieve the stated purpose, which was to make Canadians safer from gun-related crimes. Quite simply, there is nothing in the legislation or the registry itself that will make anyone any safer.

It is also clear that rather than achieve the stated goals, what the program has done and threatens to do is make criminals out of ordinary, law-abiding, gun-owning Canadians who enjoy hunting and sport shooting.

The key to understanding the utter mess and ineffectiveness of the gun registration scheme lies in the crucial distinction between the terms "gun registration" and "gun control." What those who support the registry really want and it is how they justify the registry - is gun control. So do most responsible gun owners. But there is no additional control of firearms in the registry. In fact, since all guns must be licensed in any event, the registry is redundant. And that's the main point the federal government and registry supporters have consistently ignored - the nation already had very strict gun control measures that worked and still do work, the registry was not required nor did it add any additional security.

The entire registry, it is clear, was little more than a political sop to a loud and vocal lobby that worries about gun crimes without any realistic thought as to whether it would actually work. In fact the government was warned it would not work and ignored and dismissed those who knew what they were talking about.

It is time to scrap the entire registry. A billion wasted is a billion too much. And reported efforts afoot to tinker with the registry and remove some of its most objectionable aspects are simply silly and guaranteed to waste yet more money. It is a sign of politicians unable to admit they were wrong and their program was an utter failure. But why should taxpayers continue paying for years to come for a make-work registry that achieves virtually nothing? It isn't too late for Mr. Martin to rethink the whole thing and take the only logical course.