the right to wear short sleeve shirts (bear arms)

[vagabonddreamer]

is the long gun registry toast???

[InAHurry]

http://news.ca.msn.com/top-stories/cbc-article.aspx?cp-documentid=22504801

By CBC News, cbc.ca, Updated: November 5, 2009 12:12 AM

MPs vote to abolish long-gun registry

The federal long-gun registry moved a step closer to being abolished as MPs voted Wednesday in the House of Commons to scrap the controversial program.

With support from 18 Liberals and New Democrats, the private member's bill passed second reading 164-137 and now goes to committee.

If passed, Bill C-391 would scrap the decade-old registry and destroy existing data within the system on about seven million shotguns and rifles.

The legislation was proposed by Manitoba Tory backbencher Candice Hoeppner.
"I think it's important that the Liberals and NDP allowed a free vote and that many of their members supported the private member's bill," Hoeppner said.
"It's step one. There's still a lot of work to do, though."

Because the proposed law was introduced as a private member's bill, opposition MPs were permitted to break from party lines and support it.
That secured support from New Democrats and Liberals from northern and rural ridings, where opposition to the gun registry is strongest.
"I favour a gun-control system, but I do not favour a gun-control system that makes criminals out of farmers and hunters,” said PEI Liberal MP Wayne Easter.

The Conservatives have long opposed the gun registry, brought in by the former Liberal government in response to the killing of 14 women at Montreal's L'École Polytéchnique in 1989.

However, there is unwavering support for the gun registry from such groups as the Coalition for Gun Control, the Canadian Chiefs of Police and the Canadian Police Association.
Wendy Cukier of the Coalition for Gun Control said firearm deaths. including suicides and murders of women, have declined during the time the registry has been in place.
Cukier, who watched the vote from the public gallery in the Commons, called it "appalling."
"It wasn't even close," she said. "It's horrifying and a lot of Canadians are going to wake up tomorrow and find out about this for the first time."

The mother of one of the slain Montreal students made a public appeal to the MPs this week, imploring them to preserve the gun registry.

Conservatives argue the registry has been a billion-dollar boondoggle, although a 2006 study by the auditor general found that eliminating the long-gun portion of the registry would only save taxpayers about $3 million a year.

In an annual report from Canada's Firearms Commissioner prepared by the RCMP, police said they used the registry more than 2.5 million times in 2007.

But Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan has not made the report public.
"Canadians don't need another report to know that the long-gun registry is very efficient at harassing law-abiding farmers and outdoors enthusiasts, while wasting billions of taxpayer dollars," Van Loan's office said in a release Wednesday.

With files from The Canadian Press
---------------

One can only hope.

I'd be interested in a couple of figures:
1) of the 2.5 million times (in 2007) the RCMP 'used' the registry, did they find what they were looking for?
2) how many long-guns were registered in 2007 vs 2009?

[frustrated1]

Was never sure who this was supposed to help anyway. Seems it was always just a botched attempt at a tax grab. Or a very expensive attempt at appeasing a lobbyist. Do we need to remind people how long handguns were supposed to be registered and how effective that had been? Pretty sure if the cops are going to a known drug house they don't check the gun registry first. And would also expect if they are sent to a farm they would assume there is a rifle there somewhere. Come to think of it, I would hope they are trained to assume there is a gun aimed at them in any unknown situation and take caution.

[Burbert]

@#$%^^&&***(((*&&^^%$%$###@, the gun registy, its the biggest pile of s--t that the government, has ever come up with. Talk about a shining example of how to NOT do gun control, just look at the Kanadian system. No wonder the Yanks don't want Kanadian sytle health care......

[Reitnorf]

If I'm not mistaken the women shot were shot with a registered weapon.... did it do them any good? This is somehow never mentioned in the media.

[wilagro]

The whole shebang was to cater to the Quebec lobby after the Mark Lepine massacre.

Terrible legislation, should have been done away with years ago.