The Occasional Report, Gun Control Options

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One of the many facets of Canadian society that we take pride in is a lack of the gun culture that exists in the United States, but there has always existed a small section of our society that wishes for such a thing and recently they scored a huge victory in Parliament. The governing Conservative party has finally succeed, after years of trying, in passing a bill to scrap the long-gun registry. Of course as a minority government they did this with the help of MPs from the other parties (8 Liberals and 10 NDP, all from mostly rural ridings). This move comes after years of protesting the registry for going over budget and claims of ineffectiveness. While claims of budgetary problems were correct, at least during its start up, the claim of ineffectiveness is a troublesome sell considering the registry's strongest supporters include the Canadian Chiefs of Police and the Canadian Police Association as well as a recent report prepared by the RCMP that claims in the year 2007 over 2.5 million enquiries were made by police into the registry.

It is a sad loss for public safety, gun control, and common sense that we are set to lose this important tool just so rural hunters can stock up on shotguns and rifles and help us join the American gun culture.

(Interesting Fact: On the most recent episode of CTV's Question Period the Conservative Party was the only political party that refused to send a member MP to debate the merits of the bill they introduced to eliminate the registry, interpret that as you may)