Monday, May 3, 2010

The cost of the long-gun registry

The cost of the long-gun registry | Canadian Taxpayers Federation

And here are the money stats:

  • There are nearly 7 million registered long-guns in Canada. Yet of 2,441 homicides recorded in Canada since mandatory long-gun registration was introduced in 2003, fewer than 2 percent (47) were committed with rifles and shotguns known to have been registered. (Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics).
  • Illegal smuggling by organized crime is by far the principal source of firearms on our streets. Indeed, the Vancouver police report that 97 percent of firearms seized in 2003 were illegal guns smuggled in from the United States, usually by organized crime (Vancouver Police, Strategic Plan 2004-08)
So in Vancouver, less than 2 percent of gun crimes were committed with registered weapons. So why then do the police chiefs want it? It doesn't help them do their job. It's a faulty tool that when relied upon will get someone injured, and that was BEFORE the Conservative government announced an amnesty.

I'll be frank, in my office, when a piece of mail or a letter goes out, it is logged in a book or noted in the file. If the letter does not reach its destination, the registry that logs pieces of mail sent doesn't help get the mail to where it is going, nor would it be looked at as definitive proof by the receiver that the mail was sent. In the end, all that matters is that the letter didn't get to the intended address, and that it needs to be sent again. Relying on the registry, like relying on the gun registry, creates a false sense of security and in the case of the gun registry, is bound to get officers killed.

In the end, officers should be trained that it shouldn't matter whether there are 100 guns registered at an address or none, they should still approach the situation with all the caution demanded of a potential arsenal, and go through the process to ensure that this isn't the case. In the end, the 2 Billion that has been wasted on this mess could just as well have gone to more police officers, better training and more prisons - it wouldn't have prevented Dawson College, it didn't prevent Mayerthorpe, it didn't prevent Spiritwood, and it doesn't help in Caledonia.

Name one place that is better for having the registry, other than the facilities of the people who programmed a $2 Billion database that gets searched 5000 times a day along with the rest of the roadside checks the officer's computers do.

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