OT Gun Registry

[MADMAX2]

O.F.A.H.) applauds the introduction of a new firearms bill by Garry Breitkreuz, M.P. Yorkton-Melville. The legislation proposes to eliminate the wasteful long gun registry and remove much of the onerous regulations associated with the act, while having no negative impact on public safety.

The bill proposes a number of changes to the Firearms Act, including: 1) Elimination of the costly, badly flawed and ineffective long gun registry; 2) Streamlining the licensing system; and 3) calling for a cost/benefit of the Firearms Program every five years to ensure that Canadian taxpayers are receiving benefit for money spent.

"We are strongly supportive of the legislation introduced earlier today by Garry Breitkreuz, who has worked tirelessly to help create a rational and cost effective firearms program that focuses the government's efforts on the prevention of crime, not the over regulation of law abiding firearms owners", said O.F.A.H. Executive Director Mike Reader. "Mr. Breitkreuz and the Harper government should be applauded for their ongoing attempts to focus the firearms debate on the real problem, the acquisition and use of illegal firearms by criminals, not the responsible use of firearms by hunters and recreational sport shooters".

The Breitkreuz bill is the latest firearms bill introduced in Parliament that seeks to scrap the long gun registry, which has cost Canadian taxpayers almost $2 billion and been strongly criticized by the federal Auditor General for its many inefficiencies and cost overruns. Created by a former Liberal government, the long gun registry was supposed to cost $2 million and enhance public safety, neither of which was achieved.

"Over the last few years, public opinion polls have made it clear that a majority of Canadians believe that this badly flawed system needs to be eliminated. There have been countless examples of police chiefs, police associations and front line officers across the country who have condemned the registry, preferring instead to see the money wasted on the registry spent on more police on the street, better border security and an improved court system. The reality is that criminals, who use illegal firearms to commit crime and create havoc on the streets of our communities, don't register firearms and aren't impacted upon by this expensive white elephant", said Reader.

With over 100,000 members, subscribers and supporters, and 655 member clubs, the O.F.A.H. is the largest nonprofit, charitable, fishing, hunting and conservation-based organization in Ontario, and the voice of anglers and hunters. For more information, visit www.ofah.org.

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[bigsy]

Lets hope this one goes through....

[MADMAX2]

Hopefully this will pass as stated the system now only targets law abiding gun owners!!and simply is not working!!!

[bob-s]

Keeping fingers crossed it will be scrapped--- ditto on above comments.

Bob.

[HW]

I would be suprised if it passes, given a minority government in power. Neither side seems all that willing to work together on Parliament Hill.

[mikej]

its got my vote

[fogducker]

about time..

[Canabow]

I hope they change it. What I would like to see is a full investigation as to where all the costs came from.

[VixChix]

The last few times I've had to call the line to register or transfer a gun, the service was really quite good. HOWEVER.... no matter how pleasant or efficient they become, the bottom line is that innocent gun owners are being made to pay while the registry does NOTHING to deter criminals. THAT is my biggest beef with the system. If I could see that gun crimes have been decreased because of the registry then I might be convinced to bear with it. They should also be registering spam knives, baseball bats, lengths of pipe, hunks of firewood, golf clubs, lengths of electrical cord, and so on... it's insanity to think that by getting us to register our firearms, crimes involving guns would somehow magically decrease!

[phoenixbc]

take a look at what is happening in vancouver right now 6 shootings in 7 days. 4 dead 2 wounded. wounded will not cooperate with police, how many of these were registered? I wonder.

[fletch]

Can't pass soon enough. Imagine if all that spent money had gone to actually helping catch, prosecute criminals, and removing all the illegal guns that criminals use. What a waste of hard earned tax dollars all with no effect on criminal activity what so ever.

[wheelie]

Just my opinion, I don't think it will make a big difference it will just get worse. Ontario goverment has already said they will take over the Ontario registry if federal goverment ends theres. Don't we all know what will happen then. Will be a total money grab then. Then some big wig will get a big bonus when he suggests that maybe reregister certain years and get more money. Personally I don't see an end to it.

Having a heck of a time getting my licence, my pol expired so sent form away. Mailed out my new pol forms Dec 22 on Jan.7th they sent out my new card and have not got it yet, told me on Monday to phone back in 6 weeks and they will issue a new one. Since, I wrote my pal and was suppose to get my exam back within 10 days and that took a month. Had to reregister my guns cause they said they didn't have them anymore. Gave them one serial and they told me it was wrong. So we changed that one to the right serial number, then had one gun I owned since I was a kid that they never got registered, but they did that one on phone just with my pol. It has been and is a real headache getting it all sorted out.

So hopefully one of the cards show up someday. I still hunt with my rifles, Got my registry papers and copy of exam and old pol licence and figure it is there screwup. The system certainly is still screwed up. Was hopeing they got it fixed but oviously not! Just makes me shake my head. They kept sending me extentions and then I just forgot about it. Moral of the story don't let your licence expire on you. Renew early! Happy Hunting!!! LOL

[mikej]

they possibily eliminate a huge federal waste of money and will replace it with a bigger provincial waste of money. sickening. what they need to do is spend the money putting more police on the streets that would lower crime rates and create more jobs as well as not punnishing us legal gun owners