[Molari]

Hi I am new here.


Wanted top know what the party's policy is in regards the current situation (a bill under consideration in the House of Commons to kill the gun registry)and why there is hardly anything heard about it from the party and other parties.

Bill C-391 was tabled last November by a Conservative MP and supported by all conservatives, but also by some members of the New Democrats and Liberals, has passed second reading in the House of Commons.

Inaction by all parties has allowed this bill to pass second reading.

If the private member's bill passes Third Reading and is endorsed by the Senate, it would basically kill the gun registry and free gun owners from the obligation to register their guns.

Jack Layton has said he supports control, but I am inquiring what actions does he plan to oppose c-391?

Will he be against free votes for the party on this issue and require the party line to vote against this bill?

Heidi Rathjen, who survived the assault 21 years ago by a gunman on the École Polytechnique, has stated recently, "This shouldn't be about politics, this shouldn't be about special interests or ideology, it should be about public safety ... and police across the country support this (registration) system."


Don't we all agree? What are your opinions?

Thank you for reading my post. Hope you all have a great day.

Kind regards

Molari

[Warthaug]

I am surprised that this post didn't garner a few replies - I'm also a newb to the forums, so maybe I'm feeding a troll...none the less, I'll play.

I'll state up front that I own firearms and do not believe that we should arbitrarily restrict law-abiding citizens access to them (criminals, the mentally ill, etc, are a different story). That said, I do agree with gun control to some extent, although I think the way our gov's gone about doing it is the wrong way.

Firstly, on the topic of crime, I think gun control is meaningless. Many of the gun crimes committed today are committed using weapons that are smuggled into Canada, or more rarely, stolen from law-abiding gun owners here. Regulating, even outright banning firearms will not have much of an impact on the criminal side, while depriving the law abiding. And likewise, I don't think that the police should be relying on the registries to determine who has weapons, for the simple reason that criminals are unlikely to register them. Prudence demands that they should assume all criminals are armed, and all situations dangerous, until proven otherwise.

The above aside, I do feel there is an important role for gun control, and a role that is all but unaddressed by the current system. Licensing is used throughout our society to (try,anyways) ensure that only competent people can use dangerous equipment. Be it aircraft, cars, explosives, or whatever, we use licensing as a method of ensuring minimal competency before we allow people to use these kinds of items.

While we do have licensing for firearms here in Canada I would like to see the system improved. The standards today are pretty sad - the mandatory "course" amounts to little more than a video and a few hours of your time. And if you're old enough to have gotten a FAC under the old law you didn't even need to show any form of competency. Its no wonder that every year we hear of firearm owners "accidentally" shooting each other, or morons who leave loaded guns where their kids can get at them, etc.

Of course, you can make the above complaint about drivers licensing as well...

Bryan

[ttruscott]

Heidi is wrong - the police do not support the registry. The professional lobby group, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police support the Firearms Act.

It must be noted that the software developer that developed and maintains the software that keeps track of gun owners and the guns registered to them is a company called CGI. CGI donates a considerable sum of money to the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, (a private, non-police lobby group), who in turn spend that money lobbying the public and government in support of Licensing and Registration. This ensures the money for software maintenance keeps flowing to CGI – follow the money.

The numbers of times the data base is used by the police are also grossly inflated because the software is set up to automatically check the data base any time the police use the system, even for a car license check.

No need to trust me on this. Check out "Dump the Gun Registry:" http://www.themarknews.com/articles/105 ... n-registry

("Parliament can regain Canadians' confidence by scrapping the failed gun registry, which, while useless to police, is a goldmine for internet hackers.")

by Garry Breitkreuz
Member of Parliament, Yorkton-Melville, SK, Conservative Party of Canada.

I'll believe that the police trust the registry when they leave their own guns in the car when checking a home because the registry told them that no guns were present.

[Politeman]

Long-Gun Registry

Are you a minority? Are you afraid that being different puts your way of life in danger? If your rights as a Canadian Citizen were being violated would inform your MP in Ottawa?
I think the majority of people would say yes.
What if you belong to minority that has been invisible to the voting majority for the last 100yrs. 1st nation’s people, trappers, people who fish and hunt? Does it matter what color your skin is? Does it matter what language you speak? What if you own guns? What if you cut trees down? Should you be discriminated against because you are not a Vegetarian?
I think the majority of people would say no!
I know politicians have a history of taxing anything they do not like. An annual renewal fee for each gun you own is a tax! Canadian tax dollars that are being spent trying to manage the gun registry is an unnecessary burden for Canadians. Billions could be redirected to more worthy causes. Our Federal Authority should have funding to enforce current laws for all illegal arms that are being smuggled in or out of Canada’s Borders. Let the provinces tweak the the gun ownership laws that existed before the registry, if need be.
I think these invisible minorities should be respected and left alone, even if some of them are straight white men over 40.
Now is the time to remind your MP to vote against the long gun registry. Please remember:

“The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects the citizen against the STATE and to protect minorities against parliamentary majorities.”