PUBLICATION

PUBLICATION: National Post

DATE: 2004.05.29

EDITION: National

SECTION: Editorials

PAGE: A23

BYLINE: Garry Breitkreuz

SOURCE: National Post

NOTE: Garry Breitkreuz is MP for Yorkton-Melville, Sask.

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The Liberals just don't get it

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On Sept. 22, 1998, then justice minister Anne McLellan refused to address thousands of responsible firearm owners rallying on Parliament Hill. Instead, she told the media: "The debate is settled. The debate is over."

Almost six years later, Ms. McLellan-- now the Deputy Prime Minister -- is still tinkering with the Liberals' failed firearms legislation. But last week, she failed to do what 76% of Canadians want the government to do: scrap the gun registry.

Instead, the Liberals have again allowed their disdain for legally owned guns and law-abiding gun owners to trump their ability to do the right or politically smart thing -- even with 10 years of deceit on the firearms file finally having caught up with them.

The facts on the gun registry are straightforward. Its cumulative cost is $2-billion, just as the CBC reported in February, 2004. And it still costs taxpayers more than $100-million per year. Over the past two years, the Official Opposition has asked Liberal ministers 24 times to tell Parliament how much it is going to cost to fully implement the gun registry; the Liberals have failed to answer all 24.

And despite its exorbitant price, the registry is riddled with errors and has totally and utterly failed to reduce violent crime, homicides or suicides.

If the government really wanted to control the costs of the gun registry, it would make the entire $100-million wasted annually on it subject to a free vote, as Liberal MP Roger Gallaway had demanded. If the Liberals can't figure out what the public's law enforcement priorities are, then Parliament should be given the chance to do it for them.

The trouble with the Liberals' so-called gun-control laws is that they're aimed at the wrong target. Amazingly, the 131,000 convicted criminals who have been prohibited from owning firearms by the courts were excluded from the Firearms Act. Consequently, they are protected by the Privacy Act, and don't have to report changes of address to police or open their homes up for "inspections," as law-abiding gun owners are required to do. The Liberals have also conveniently failed to tell Canadians that even before they rammed the Firearms Act through Parliament in 1995, the RCMP ran a Firearm Acquisition Certificate program that was far more effective than the their licencing scheme has ever been.

Since the Liberals obviously just don't get it, it's time for voters to send them a clear message that they can digest while sitting on the opposition benches for the next four years.

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