The reasons that we have the gun registry, to help take innocents out of harm’s way. One of the reasons that all Health and Safety Organizations in Canada, the Canadian Chiefs of Police, and the RCMP, all said that the gun registry saves lives. With the passing of bill C-19 this will no longer be possible. And Bill C-19 is a leap backward: verifying a firearm purchaser’s license becomes voluntary, there are no provisions to reinstate the requirement for business to keep records of firearm sales, and a tool widely used by police to remove guns from dangerous or suicidal people is removed. Canada will become an unrestrained free market for guns, just like the United States.
Dear Editor:
RE: Conservatives’ Crime Agenda Doesn’t Include Safeguards For Guns (LINK, Dec. 24, 2011)
One thing is very clear. If Derek Jensen had been reported to police for the escalating verbal abuse and physical violence to Tabatha Stepple, particularly after… “He put his fist through their window, punched a huge dent in the rear driver’s side of his car, told her he killed her dog… Last weekend, after he broke their window, he slammed her against the wall in his room…”[i], his ‘babies’, his guns, would have been taken away and just perhaps, four families would be celebrating Christmas this year instead of mourning their children.
A total of 4,612 registered firearms were removed from the possession of individuals whose licenses were revoked due to public safety concerns between October 31, 2008 and January 4, 2011 as reported by the Public Safety Minister Vic Toews in response to a question in the House of Commons.[ii] The reasons for revocation due to public safety concerns included: reported prohibition or court order, 3,887; reported potential risk to others, 547; reported potential risk to self, 399; reported unsafe firearms use and storage, 224; reported violence, 198; reported drug offences, 15; and providing false information, 3.
This is one of the reasons that we have the gun registry, to help take innocents out of harm’s way. One of the reasons that all Health and Safety Organizations in Canada, the Canadian Chiefs of Police, and the RCMP, all said that the gun registry saves lives. With the passing of bill C-19 this will no longer be possible. And Bill C-19 is a leap backward: verifying a firearm purchaser’s license becomes voluntary, there are no provisions to reinstate the requirement for business to keep records of firearm sales, and a tool widely used by police to remove guns from dangerous or suicidal people is removed. Canada will become an unrestrained free market for guns, just like the United States. [iii]
Perhaps it should be more than just Quebec making trouble over the destruction of the long-gun registry.
Ward M Eagen
Toronto, Ontario
Comments are closed.