gun registry

[cowman]

I find it simply amazing that there are people who still think this total boondoggle has some value?
The Conservatives have been musing about quietly scrapping the thing and there are all these Liberal and NDP mps saying no it should be debated in Parliment! Sure why not waste some more time and money on about the dumbest thing the government ever tried!
It is pretty apparent that the whole thing was not only a waste of time and money but internal documents now showing up clearly show that the Liberal government knew it would NOT control illegal guns! The fact was it was nothing more than a sop to goofy feminists and the creation of a police state!
Why waste time debating this garbage? Kill it tommorrow.

[Horse]

This one I can agree with you as we at least have some facts and figures to work with. As for the various police forces that want to keep it I think that is because that makes one more stick to hold over our heads in what is fast becomimg a police state.All we need now is a tin pan general and away we go.

[wilagro]

cowman: AGREED

[carebear300]

I agree as well, good riddance to bad rubbage. The only thing now is to make sure that the conservatives get back in for a second term or the liberals will re-enact it on us.

[cowman]

Boy, that is scary...when wilagro and Horse actually agree with me!

[Horse]

When you start thinking for yourself instead of letting Ralph do it for you all kinds of good things could happen ha ha have a nice day.

[ivbinconned]

More ammo for gun lobbyNew report pegs cost of firearms registry at 'well over $2 billion'
By DOUG BEAZLEY, EDMONTON SUN




A pending report by Canada's auditor general is expected to put a price tag of well over $2 billion on the national gun registry program, according to a spokesman for a government MP.

"That's what we've heard - well over $2 billion, maybe closer to $3 billion," said Dennis Young, a researcher in the office of Conservative MP and former Opposition registry critic Garry Breitkreuz.

Official Ottawa is holding its breath for a possible May release of the A-G's report, which the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper is billing in advance as a damning investigation of waste and mismanagement in the registry program - originally forecast to cost just $2 million.

If the report lives up to its billing, it could give the Conservatives the political ammo they'll need to cancel the program over the objections of Liberal, Bloc and New Democrat MPs in a precarious minority Parliament.

"I do not intend to hold a vote unless it's clear that we can win that vote," said Harper yesterday, referring to a possible Commons vote on killing the registry.




In the meantime, said Young, registry opponents are frustrated over the amount of money the feds are spending to enforce gun laws which may soon be amended or dropped.

About 400 so-called "reference" cases are being heard in federal courts across the country.

Almost all of those cases involve people who bought or acquired short-barrelled handguns after the federal government announced their intention to ban those guns in 1995.

"The feds said that if you already owned one of those guns, you'd be 'grandfathered' under the law so you could keep it. Which was absurd, of course," said Young.

"So before the law took effect, thousands of people went out and acquired these guns and registered them. The government was in a bind - they said they'd seize the guns, but they were legally registered."

Young said that because of a delay in new government regulations grandfathering those guns under the law, many had lapsed registrations and couldn't be grandfathered. Many of those gun owners are now using reference hearings to appeal government orders to get rid of or deactivate their guns.

"It's nuts, just nuts that we're pursuing these (references) at the same time as we're making plans to change the law," said Young. "Court costs could be as high as $8 million.

"People have told us it's going to be difficult (to change the law). We don't think it's difficult at all."

City lawyer Rod Gregory represents a handful of clients appealing to keep their short-barrelled guns. He said the hearings are going to be costly - especially since the Crown plans to fly legal experts from Ottawa into Edmonton to testify.

"I doubt the Crown is going to suspend those cases until they get some direction from the minister. But my clients would probably be willing to wait," he said.

"It only makes sense not to waste taxpayers' money if we don't have to."