PUBLICATION:          The Calgary Sun 

DATE:                         2005.03.10

EDITION:                    Final 

SECTION:                  Editorial/Opinion 

PAGE:                         14 

COLUMN:                  Editorial 

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GUNNING FOR TROUBLE

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The one thing that comes through loud and clear in the aftermath of the Mayerthorpe massacre is the utter failure of the Ottawa Liberals' faulty gun-control legislation to prevent the tragic murders of RCMP constables Peter Schiemann, Brock Myrol, Leo Johnston and Anthony Gordon.

This is the very same law praised to the heavens by Public Security Minister Anne McLellan when her leader, Paul Martin, launched his federal election campaign last spring.

Well, Annie "Get Your Guns" isn't looking so good right now.

Especially when the country's former top cop, retired RCMP commissioner Norman Inkster, is questioning how McLellan's gun law so tragically failed the four young men who laid down their lives attempting to keep the peace. Inkster wants to know how the constables came to be gunned down by someone described as a ticking time bomb in possession of a powerful weapon.

Neighbours identified the weapon as an HK .308 sniper rifle and say that Roszko had it openly displayed. That's hardly your average deer rifle.

And it's the type of gun that the firearms legislation specifically banned.

Yet, here was a man with a long record of lawlessness, including weapons offences, having such a weapon in his possession.

The last Alberta Mountie death, that of Stony Plain dog handler Cpl. James Galloway, also involved a person who was mentally unstable.

He, too, was in possession of firearms.

Conservative MP Garry Breitkreuz hit the nail on the head when he fumed that the deeply flawed gun law "does not keep guns out of the hands of criminals." Instead, it's a paper-pushing exercise designed to frustrate and antagonize legitimate and law-abiding Canadian gun owners.  Once again Breitkreuz called for the multibillion-dollar gun registry to be scrapped and the money used to pay for front-line police officers.

Left to defend the indefensible was Wendy Cukier of the Coalition for Gun Control. She claimed the Breitkreuz argument is the same as calling for a repeal of seat-belt laws because one failed to prevent an accident. The comparison is ludicrous. Criminals aren't engaged in a lucrative underground business trying to get around seat-belt laws like they are gun laws.

Albertans deserve better than the bad leadership we're getting from McLellan, Paul Martin and the Ottawa Liberals.

We agree with Breitkreuz: Scrap the gun law and give the money to the Mounties to keep Canada safe.

Are you listening, Anne?