PUBLICATION:        The Calgary Sun

DATE:                         2004.12.08

EDITION:                    Final

SECTION:                  Editorial/Opinion

PAGE:                         15

BYLINE:                     ROY CLANCY, CALGARY SUN 

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GUNFIGHT ON HILL

SHOWDOWN OVER FIREARMS PITS GRITS AGAINST EACH OTHER

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Tomorrow, Canadians will be treated to the Liberal version of the gunfight at the OK Corral.

Grit MP Roger Gallaway will lead a posse of maverick Liberals against sheriff ... er, Prime Minister Paul Martin and his deputy Anne McLellan in a move that could potentially scrap the $1-billion gun registry.

It could even -- in the most farfetched scenario -- bring the minority federal government tumbling down.

Intriguing as that vision might be, there's not much danger of it coming to pass.

The Liberals, who regard Gallaway's defiant gesture as the worst insolence since Carolyn Parrish turned her fearsome mouth their way and roared, will be out in force to stomp the MP into the ground.

If the rebel Liberals aren't sufficiently bloodied by their fellow party members, there will be plenty of reinforcements in the form of the NDP and Bloc Quebecois to uphold the boondoggle, which is on tap to hit the $1-billion mark.

By coincidence (or is it?) the move comes during the same week as the 15th anniversary of the Ecole Polytechnique massacre in which 14 female students were murdered by a deranged gunman.

That horrible crime served as the impetus for the Liberals' gun-control legislation a decade ago. Deputy PM Anne McLellan used the occasion to suggest the massacre should give pause to critics of the gun-control program.

Wendy Cukier, president of the Coalition for Gun Control, told reporters: "We know very clearly that where you have strong laws, the likelihood of a Montreal Massacre is pretty much reduced."

Strong laws are one thing, but the federal firearms registry has proved anything but. In fact, by draining vital funds away from more effective crime control, it could be argued it is doing the opposite.

Despite his plan to engineer the registry's demise, Gallaway is no M-16 totin' Rambo. "Everybody supports gun control," he told a Toronto newspaper Sunday. "The question is, can we support this version of it?"

The answer is no, even though the Liberals will never admit it. After all, that would be to concede they've squandered a decade and a billion of our tax dollars on this ill-conceived misadventure, when different measures would have struck far deeper into the heart of the problem.

Conservative MP Garry Breitkreuz, a tireless critic of the registry, points out some of its more bizarre wrinkles.

For instance, some two-million innocent, federally licensed gun owners must report any change of address within 30 days or face up to two years in jail.

"Guess who doesn't have to report their change in address to police?" asks Breitkreuz. That would be the 176,000 convicted criminals who have been prohibited from owning firearms by the courts.

He says Canada's Commissioner of Firearms admits these proven-dangerous types are no longer even effectively covered by the firearms act.

And while the firearms act authorizes the government to inspect the homes of law-abiding, federally licensed gun owners, it offers no similar authorization to see if convicted, violent criminals have acquired firearms illegally.

That's absurd, but even worse has been the government's inability to prove the gun registry has improved public safety.

The only thing it has proven thus far is that it is mindbogglingly inefficient at its appointed task -- keeping tabs on millions of law-abiding firearms owners.

In addition to drawing the wrath of the auditor-general for failing to reveal the true costs, the government has now admitted the firearms program won't even be fully implemented for another three years.

To echo Gallaway's words "everybody" -- or at least anyone who is reasonable -- supports gun control. We stared aghast across the border when the U.S. let a 10-year ban on assault weapons expire in September.

We're rightly proud of Canada's minuscule level of gun crime compared to our southern neighbour.

But when it comes to public safety, putting all our faith in this bureaucratic white elephant of a firearms registry is misdirected.

As Breitkreuz points out, the "$120 million wasted on the gun registry this year equals the salaries of more than 1,300 police officers."

How may lives would they have saved?