BREITKREUZ SHOOTS BIG HOLES IN

McLELLAN’S GUN REGISTRY PLAN

By Garry Breitkreuz, MP – May 28, 2004

 

On September 22, 1998, then Justice Minister Anne McLellan refused to address thousands of responsible firearm owners rallying on Parliament Hill, but told the media: "The debate is settled. The debate is over.”  Almost six years later, Anne McLellan is still tinkering with the Liberals failed firearms legislation. 

 

Last week, now Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan failed to do what 76% of Canadians want the government to do: namely, scrap the gun registry.  Editorial headlines and comments following her announcement echoed the common sense of the vast majority of Canadians:

The problem for the Liberals is that ten years of deceit on the firearms’ file has finally caught up with them.  In fact, the Liberals’ feeble proposals for their fatally-flawed firearms legislation proves their hate for legally-owned guns and law-abiding gun owners exceeds their ability to do either the right thing or the politically-smart thing.

 

And the Liberals never learn.  Minister McLellan’s new gun registry plan is full of more deception, starting with her creative revision of the gun registry cost and spending estimates.  In November of 1994, then Justice Minister Allan Rock’s plan for a universal gun registry stated: “phase one, the registration of owners” and “phase two, the registration of firearms.”  Only after a demonstration of monstrous mismanagement and a scandalous waste of tax dollars are the Liberals now trying to divide their original registration scheme into two parts in a vain attempt to create the illusion that the costs are lower than they actually are.

 

The truth is that the cost of the Liberal firearms fiasco is two billion dollars just as the CBC reported in February 2004.  The truth is that the Liberals’ universal firearms registry costs taxpayers more than $100 million a year.  The truth is that over the last two years the Official Opposition has asked Liberal Ministers twenty-four times to tell Parliament how much it is going to cost to fully implement the gun registry and that the Liberals have failed to answer our question all twenty-four times.  The saddest truth of all is that the two-billion-dollar Liberal registration scheme is incomplete, riddled with errors and has totally and utterly failed to reduce violent crime, homicides or suicides and, consequently, has failed to save any lives.  And, for the last year, Police Chief Julian Fantino has been telling anyone who will listen that the gun registry has not helped Toronto police solve a single homicide.

 

If the Liberals really want to control the costs of the gun registry, they should make the entire $100 million a year being wasted on the program subject to a free vote just like Liberal M.P. Roger Gallaway is demanding.  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.

 

Minister McLellan’s May 20th announcement included three major planks, the first of which was to further streamline the licensing renewal process.  This doesn’t make any sense when every threat of violence in Canada is already being entered in the Firearms Interest Police database and the police already investigate each of these reports.  Police routinely remove all firearms (registered and unregistered) from the homes of potentially dangerous individuals and have authority under the Criminal Code to ask the courts to ban them from owning firearms for up to five years. 

 

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 by the Liberals.  Consequently, they are protected by the Privacy Act, don’t have to report their change of address to police or open their homes up for “inspections” like law-abiding gun owners are required to do.  The Liberals also conveniently fail to tell Canadians that 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 Liberal’s licencing scheme has ever been.

 

Minister McLellan also proposed to eliminate fees for the registration and transfer of firearms.  Conservatives have always been opposed to taxing law-abiding gun owners for simply doing what they are forced to do by the law.  If the gun registry really is the public safety program the Liberals say it is, then it follows that the public should pay for it – all of it.  We’re already hearing rumours from Anne McLellan’s people that the Liberals are going to make up for the revenue shortfall simply by raising renewal fees for firearms licences.

 

Finally, the third major plank in Minister McLellan’s announcement was to “continue to consult with Aboriginal people.”  This promise is just another Liberal slap in the face for First Nations people.  Ten years ago, Allan Rock failed to consult with Aboriginal people before he introduced the firearms legislation as is required by several treaties and the Constitution.  Canadians will never know what would have happened if the Liberals had simply obeyed their own laws.

 

Obviously, the Liberals just don’t get it, so it’s time for voters to send the Liberals a clearer message – one that they can digest while sitting on the opposition benches for the next four years – SCRAP THE GUN REGISTRY.

 

For more information contact: Garry Breitkreuz, M.P. - Campaign Office, 522C Broadway
Street East, Yorkton, Sask., Phone: (306) 783-0170 Fax: (306) 783-0171

Re-Elect Garry Breitkreuz Website: www.reelectgarrybreitkreuz.com