Gun Registry

[Raymond]

Waahoo, good riddance to a useless and costly piece of crap we tax had to pay for.
Raymond

[j.krug]

This is very good news and a good first step. There are still many changes that need to be made to our ridiculous gun control laws. I think I'll by a new shotgun to celebrate.

[MADMAX2]

Ministers from the Harper government are set to celebrate the official end of the oft-maligned long-gun registry this morning following the passage at third reading late Wednesday of C-19, the Conservatives' bill to not only end the registry, but destroy all the data it contains about registered gun owners across Canada.

But while Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government celebrates in Ottawa, the Quebec government is poised before a Montreal judge Thursday, armed with 68 pages of legal arguments filed Tuesday in an attempt to block the destruction of the records.

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, his parliamentary secretary, Candice Hoeppner, and Quebec Minister of State Maxime Bernier spoke to reporters in Ottawa on Thursday morning and confirmed the process to begin destroying the registry's data would begin this afternoon, when the bill is expected to become law.

Bill C-19, the Act to Amend the Criminal Code and the Firearms Act, passed at third reading in the Senate just after 5:30 p.m. ET Wednesday, by a vote of 50-27. The legislation is expected to receive royal assent on Thursday afternoon, the final step in becoming law.

[ComfyBear]

Long-gun registry in Quebec court as bill set to become law


Ministers from the Harper government are set to celebrate the official end of the oft-maligned long-gun registry this morning following the passage at third reading late Wednesday of C-19, the Conservatives' bill to not only end the registry, but destroy all the data it contains about registered gun owners across Canada.

But while Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government celebrates in Ottawa, the Quebec government is poised before a Montreal judge Thursday, armed with 68 pages of legal arguments filed Tuesday in an attempt to block the destruction of the records.

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, his parliamentary secretary, Candice Hoeppner, and Quebec Minister of State Maxime Bernier spoke to reporters in Ottawa on Thursday morning and confirmed the process to begin destroying the registry's data would begin this afternoon, when the bill is expected to become law.

Bill C-19, the Act to Amend the Criminal Code and the Firearms Act, passed at third reading in the Senate just after 5:30 p.m. ET Wednesday, by a vote of 50-27. The legislation is expected to receive royal assent on Thursday afternoon, the final step in becoming law.


In anticipation of its passage, the Quebec government filed arguments in court, seeking an injunction if C-19 becomes law to protect the registry's data until such time as a judge can consider Quebec's position that the federal government's actions are unconstitutional.

Data destruction 'unconstitutional'

Quebec Justice Minister Jean-Marc Fournier said Tuesday that more than a million long guns would disappear from the radar screens of law enforcement agencies in Quebec if the data is destroyed.

"In 2010, we [seized] 2,500 guns from people who owned those guns, because they were dangerous [to] themselves or other people," Fournier said.

The province believes that it has a right to the data because it helped collect it and claims that its destruction is unconstitutional.

Quebec has long demanded relevant registry information be transferred to the province, so it can create its own list. It says starting a new registry from scratch would be prohibitively expensive.

"What we want is to have all the information that is pertinent, for our own registry," Fournier told reporters on Tuesday.

Quebec's opposition parties support the preservation of the gun registry, but Parti Québécois justice critic Bernard Drainville accused the Charest government of waiting too long to make its move.

The injunction, filed in Quebec Superior Court, asks for the registry to be preserved until a judge renders an ultimate decision.

Feds believe data must be purged

C-19 seeks to eliminate the requirement for gun owners to register their long guns and other weapons that are not restricted or prohibited. It also provides for the destruction of records that are currently held in the Canadian Firearms Registry, a measure that caught many off-guard when the bill was introduced in October.

Opposition MPs were angry that the government is destroying the data, saying the records should remain intact for police or the provinces to use in the event they want to establish their own registry once the federal one is gone.

The government wants to scrap the registry because it says it is a waste of money, ineffective at improving public safety and preventing crimes and it targets law-abiding gun owners instead of criminals. Getting rid of the registry means getting rid of the information in it, the government has said in defending the move to destroy the data.

About 7.1 million non-restricted firearms were registered in the database as of September.

[DirtyGun]

Temporary Injunction granted regarding the Quebec data. As for the rest of the data...buh-bye...destruction to begin after midnight tonight.

It's over folks!!!

Seventeen years ago, my Grandfather stated that C-68 and the LGR were the beginning of the end of his ability to possess firearms in Canada legally. Well Grandpa...the war ain't over...but we've gained some ground back! Somewhere, you're smiling.

[Doe Master]

So Ryan will anybody be able to get any info about me from the quebec data . Or is the rest of Canada`s data to be destroyed ?
Wow we are getting rid of gun registry and California is bringing it in .

[VixChix]

Just in time for the Gun Show/Sale at Elmira Rod & Gun this Saturday morning!

[Pydpiper]

Awesome, simply awesome.

[joe171]

Lady`s and Gent`s
That`s only the first step
What about PAL

Joe

[bugs]

Licensing will be a whole new issue I bet! I think people should take a course because people like me who werent raised with guns need to learn before purchasing one but not sure about the rest

[swiftfox]

It finished. pasted royal ascent today. Watched the l0;00 PM CBC news.. Quebec has launched a complaint but as of 12:01 Friday am there is no longer a long gun Federal registery. YES!!!!


Swiftfox

[Farmer]

I can only hope that all the data is destroyed . I fought long and hard for the 1st - 3 years to try to help stop this Liberal mess . Letters to the editor , cards from OFAH by the thousand - I think they sent me 3000 cards for people to sign in opposition to C68 . Man did I hand out a #$%* Load of them .

Letters to union leaders of the CAW --- the local and the national ----<< still waiting for Buzz to respond to that one . >>> Letters to my MP. Letters to every single member of the Senate at the time . I even wrote letters to the Liberal association , they sent me back propaganda of how much good this waste of money was . Good riddance to bad rubbish .

The Liberals can now thank them selves for being to big for their britches -------- they could not bring themselves to say they were ----wro-----
wron------- w-------wrong !!!

[j.krug]

Yes this is a great day for sure but as mentioned before there is still much work to be done and many more battles to be fought!

I did celebrate last night and toasted this great event with a couple pints of Iron Spike Blonde. I figured the "Iron Spike" was a somewhat symbolic "first nail" in the C68 coffin.

Cheers boys and girls...cheers!!

[VixChix]

I have absolutely no problem with a mandatory course and an evaluation as currently exists for the PAL. I think that's a reasonable requirement.

My greatest objection to the gun registry was the colossal waste of taxpayers' money which could have been used in far better ways to prevent crime.

Soooo...... Anyone want to buy my Mossberg 500?

[Big58cal]

Found a good article in the Washington Examiner about ya'll Gun Registry........

Ask Canada -- gun registration won't make D.C. safer

http://tinyurl.com/7gdtasj

Some interesting snippets from the article:

Beginning in 1998, Canadians spent a whopping $2.7 billion on creating and running a registry for long guns -- in the U.S., the same amount per gun owner would come to $67 billion.

From 2003 to 2009, there were 4,257 homicides in Canada, 1,314 of which were committed with firearms. Data provided last fall by the Library of Parliament reveal that murder weapons were recovered in fewer than one-third of the homicides with firearms. About three-quarters of the identified weapons were unregistered. Of the weapons that were registered, about half were registered to someone other than the person accused of the homicide.

In only 62 cases -- that is, nine per year, or about 1 percent of all homicides in Canada -- was the gun registered to the accused. Even in these, the registry does not appear to have played an important role in finding the killer. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Chiefs of Police have not yet provided a single example in which tracing was of more than peripheral importance in solving a case.

Note that the data provided above cover all guns, including handguns. It isn't just the long-gun registry -- there is also no evidence that Canada's handgun registry, started in 1934, has ever been important in solving a single homicide.

I'm not going to say that all of this is totally accurate, but John Lott (one of the authors) is pretty respected in the field and known for getting his facts right.