The gun registry a waste of money?... No Really?

It's a bizzare bunch of events not only as King Charest's government said it was considering a provincial gun registry to replace the one about to get sacked by the Feds, then they said they wanted money from the Feds to do it.

Hoeppner seems to be the only Tory to care to respond:

OTTAWA -- Provinces would be foolish to set up their own gun registry when the national database is scrapped this fall, said the Manitoba Conservative MP who led the charge against the federal long-gun registry last year.

“(The registry) has been proven to be a complete waste of money and a complete waste of effort,” Candice Hoeppner said.

“It doesn't combat crime, it certainly doesn't combat violent crime. The registry does nothing to stop individuals from acquiring or being able to possess a firearm.”

And those are the facts. If Quebec or Ontario, or Santa Claus wants a registry they can waste their own money.

Gun Registry Seperatism

The Quebec government, stubbornly, is considering passing a long-gun registry of it's very own if Ottawa turfs the federal one.

How quaint. How wonderfully "autonomous". The Feds don't want to continue the war against Canadian Red Necks then Hell! - we'll show those Anglophone Bastards and make up one of our own!

Quebec has every right to do whatever it pleases, but Quebequers would do well to pay attention the facts before they give King Charest their blessing to create a Provincial Registry:

• Since the registry's mandatory implementation in 2003, a grand total of a whooping 47 registered firearms have been used in homicides out of 2441 (less than two percent). It's obvious that criminals aren't stupid enough to register their firearms.(link)
• The registry was originally budgeted to cost a net 2 million dollars. In reality (although the total costs are unknown) actual costs are known to be well over 2 billion dollars according to most estimates. That's at minimum an average of 43 million dollars per registered firearm homicide. Putting it in other terms, that at least 36 RCMP officers a year per registered firearm used in a homicide that we could have hired (or 1700 RCMP officers total). The waste in money is staggering.
• The non-compliance rates have been absolutely horrendous. Regardless if you accept gun advocate numbers of a 70% non-compliance rate or the Liberals 10%, the fact remains that several extentions of registration deadlines were made for good reasons. 70,000 firearms at minimum remain unregistered in this country. This failure can't be ignored.(link)
• The registry has had no effect on homicide rates, total suicide rates, or any other indicator. Registry advocates will no-doubt point to declining homicide rates since the 1990s as proof the registry works. Yet these same statistics were already declining by similar amounts before registry implementation. Nothing has gotten any better since the registry was passed. The registry has been ineffective in the truest sense of the word.(link)

In short the registry has done nothing except to waste taxpayer dollars that could have been spent doing things that could have actually reduced crime. It's treated Canadian hunters living in rural areas like criminals by placing them on a national registry - a distintion reserved for among others child molesters.

I can understand the need to do something to respond to the horrible attack that happened at the Ecole Polytechnique in 1989. However the registry has done nothing to prevent further such attacks from happening.

A far better approach to avoid future similar school shootings, would be to invest in better mental health iniatives, and other crime prevention measures that actually work.

The Noble Fight Against Duck Hunters

The noble fight against duck hunters has found a new soldier:

A third New Democrat MP says he's changed his mind and will vote against a bill to do away with the long-gun registry.

Claude Gravelle, the member for Nickel Belt, says he wants the registry fixed, not killed.

His reason for his newfound enlightenment? He's perturbed at Tory "hardball" tactics.

“The mounting rhetoric and divisive debate egged on by Conservative MPs has convinced me that I needed to make a decision sooner, rather than later..."
(...)
“There are problems with the long-gun registry which could easily be fixed to address the concerns of hunters, farmers and First Nations communities..."
(...)
“Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, Conservatives had no interest in working collaboratively with other parliamentarians because they had intended all along to use this bill as a fundraising tool, and as a cynical way of dividing rural and urban Canadians.”

This is a weird argument for registry converts to use. I now support the registry, not because it's a good idea, or because I now believe in it, but because the other side is mean.

The other side suggests conspiracy theories like "cops just want to get rid of all our guns." How crazy is that? Just looney isn't it?

Except that really it isn't. I would bet dollars to pesos that if you took a poll of gun registry supporters and asked them whether banning all long guns was a good idea a good chunk of them would agree.

I don't see what's so shocking about this statement. It's like saying that someone who wants lower taxes really wants even lower taxes than that. In my case I'm guilty as charged.

These new converts to the Crusade Against Duck Hunters must know this. I refuse to think otherwise. Their logic makes no sense. My beliefs and my opinions in certain positions do not change based on the bad behavior of some fellow arguers.

This leads me to conclude that this MP and others are finding a convenient sword to fall on.

Yes it's the horrible mean Tories and their divisive rhetoric that changed my opinion. I wouldn't have supported the registry if those mean old Tories had just been a little more polite. See constituents - If I voted against the registry those damned crazies would win.

Baloney.