It has been 12 long years since I took an active interest in the firearms issue, which has been one of the most divisive and controversial political volleyballs in living memory.

Support for effective firearms legislation is not a left versus right issue on the political spectrum. Canadians want effective laws that will protect us by controlling crime.

For more than a decade, the federal government has done us no favours by operating the billion-dollar boondoggle gun registry. Portrayed as gun control by the previous government to win urban votes, the gun registry has morphed into a bloated and bureaucratic exercise that does nothing to deter the criminal use of a firearm.

The previous federal government spent one billion dollars of taxpayers’ money on a program that has become a symbol of government out of control. Canadians need to realize that laying a piece of paper beside a gun doesn’t prevent it from being used to commit a criminal act.

Gun registration has failed to save lives, improve public safety, or keep firearms out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them. In 2005 – after the gun registry was in place for 10 years – Canada had the highest homicide rate in nearly a decade. After spending all that money, Canada’s firearm homicide rate was the same as it was 20 years ago.

It is important to point out that supporting the gun registry is not akin to supporting gun control. On May 17, 2007, Auditor General Sheila Fraser said the previous government has spent nearly $1 billion to implement the gun registry, which is still not completed – more than half of the firearms in Canada have yet to be registered. The actual cost of the gun registry program may be forever a mystery.

Since I picked up the torch for firearms fairness in Canada more than a decade ago, I have met people who put safety and personal integrity above all else. It comes as no surprise that the anti-gun lobby in Canada believes itself to be on the side of the angels. They make the assumption that more gun laws will reduce violence, but the experience of other countries shows the opposite to be true.

We need to bring some common sense back into our gun laws. Let’s focus on fixing our justice system by getting tough on criminals, rather than spending time and money on registering firearms that are in the hands of law-abiding citizens.

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