NOTE:
This column also appeared today in the Calgary Sun under the headline
"MOM GOT HIS GUN"
PUBLICATION: The
Edmonton Sun
DATE: 2002.05.08
EDITION: Final
SECTION: Editorial/Opinion
SOURCE: BY
MIKE JENKINSON, EDMONTON SUN
COLUMN: Editorial
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GRITS SHOOT BLANKS
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For
years now, Canadian Alliance MP Garry Breitkreuz has risen in the House of
Commons and asked the justice minister - be it Allan Rock, Anne McLellan or
Martin Cauchon - to explain the latest head-scratching screw-up in Ottawa's gun
registry.
Inevitably,
the question is ignored and the minister starts spouting platitudes about the
how well the gun registry works and how much safer Canadians are by keeping guns
out of the hands of criminals.
"Whether
it is the intention of the owner to use it lawfully for proper purposes or
otherwise, the fact of the matter is that this government has decided, and I
believe it is quite correct, that anyone who wishes to acquire or use a firearm
should be subject to the reasonable controls in the law today," said Rock
on March 10, 1994.
"Firearms
licensing and registration program is an investment in public security and
safety and it is an investment supported by an overwhelming number of
Canadians," chirped McLellan in November 2001.
"We
are proceeding with gun registration, making sure as well that to carry sidearms
in this country will be seen as a privilege and not as a right, and including
the framework to ensure we will continue to have a safe and secure country and
communities," said Cauchon on March 19.
Those
empty words came back to haunt the Grits this week when <Breitkreuz>
nailed Cauchon with the stunning revelation that Maurice "Mom"
Boucher, the Hells Angels leader from Quebec who was convicted on the weekend of
two counts of first-degree murder and one of attempted murder, had managed to
legally obtain a firearms licence that authorized him to have a 9-mm handgun and
three pump-action shotguns.
That's
despite the fact that Boucher was not only a biker gang leader, he had a long
criminal record including convictions for theft, sexual assault with a weapon,
possession of a prohibited weapon, carrying a firearm and counselling violence.
It's
one thing when criminals steal guns or illegally import them as a means of
bypassing Ottawa's farce of a gun registry. But the Boucher story shows the
ultimate flaw in the Liberals' $800-million black hole: it doesn't even stop
criminals from legally obtaining weapons!
Cauchon's
reply? "I do not know why the honourable member keeps attacking the gun
registry system, which is a very good system that we, as the government, have
put in place."
If
this is a "very good system," we'd hate to see what a really bad gun
registry would look like.