I rose in the House of Commons on September 28 to explain why I am supporting Private Members’ Bill C-391 to get rid of the long-gun registry.

Introduced by Candice Hoeppner, M.P. for Portage-Lisgar in May, Bill C-391 began second reading and a vote would send it to committee for debate as early as this fall. The Conservative Party of Canada has vowed to scrap the registry for over a decade because it does not contribute to public safety and is a virtual money pit for Canadian tax dollars.

The registry is an expensive and bureaucratic nightmare that has never saved a single Canadian life. What is even worse, the registry has once again been identified as a security breach by revealing firearms owners’ personal information in the public domain. The Canadian Firearms Centre (CFC) operated by the RCMP provided this information to Ekos Research Associates for a so-called “customer satisfaction” survey.

This breach of privacy with the CFC giving information to a polling firm places firearms owners in grave potential danger. Who knows where this top secret information could be leaked? Through Access to Information legislation over several years, I have found hundreds of registry breaches documented by the RCMP themselves during the past decade.

Meanwhile, pro-registry proponents continue to cling to the long-disproved notion that Canadian police run thousands of gun registry checks every day. Our party and firearms experts have explained time and again that every non-gun-related check of the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC) pings the registry and increases the count clock. The anti-gun lobby chooses not to hear us, even though nearly all of those so-called “registry checks” occur when police officers run simple licence plate numbers for minor driving infractions. Those registry ‘hits’ have nothing whatsoever to do with guns.”

Pro-registry supporters also cite recommendations from the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) to retain the registry. Unfortunately, the CACP endorsement ignores the real needs of front line police officers. That association is closely aligned with the Coalition for Gun Control, which is a well-heeled lobby group that wants every gun taken out of circulation.

The Canadian Association of Police Chiefs is a non-profit group that depends on donations to exist. The CGI Group is one of those generous donors, and that’s the same company that provides the software to the gun registry in exchange for a great deal of money.

We are closer than ever to scrapping the gun registry with Bill C-391, and our party will stay the course until the sun sets on this useless bottomless pit for taxpayers’ money.

-30-

The audio version of Garry's October 5, 2009 op-ed column can be heard by clicking here