Earlier this week, the Canadian Supreme Court decided in a 5–4 decision that the Federal government is entitled to destroy all of Quebec’s data from the long-gun registry (LGR), which was scrapped a while ago. While registry data from other provinces had been destroyed in November 2012, a protracted legal battle from Quebec challenged the Federal government’s decision to scrap Quebec’s data, since the province plans to proceed with a registry of their own.
When it comes to public safety, this is yet another step in the wrong direction for the Conservative government. While Harper is all too happy to lock up gun offenders and throw away the key, he adamantly refuses to use the LGR and strict gun control as a preventative measure. Canadians should be very afraid.
The LGR and the Canadian Firearms Act were introduced in 1995 as response to the gun control movement spurred on by the tragic shooting at the École Polytechnique in 1989.
Since the dissolution of the LGR in 2011, Canada has seen several horrific shootings — most recently the assault on RCMP officers in Moncton last year and the Parliament Hill shooting in January of this year. Both involved the use of long guns. Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, the Ottawa shooter, used a lever-action Winchester rifle, which would have been registered in the LGR. The rifle in question may have indeed been in the registry, but those records have since been destroyed.
I don’t want to argue that a long-gun registry should be established depending on the occurrence of highly publicized shootings. Stricter gun control measures should not be a reaction to tragedies, nor should a myopic focus on such tragedies be used as justification for why gun control doesn’t work.
The very least that can be asked of gun owners is to comply with safety regulations.
The facts in this case are indisputable. According to Statistics Canada, “the number of homicides involving long guns since the introduction of stricter gun laws in 1991” was down by 65 per cent in 2010. Since such laws were introduced, the rate of spousal homicides involving a firearm dropped by 74 per cent. When the long-gun registry was still in existence, police accessed it more than 17,000 times a day.
Conservative Public Safety Minister Victor Toews has said that the LGR “does nothing to help put an end to gun crimes, nor has it saved one Canadian life.” Clearly the Conservatives need to take a closer look at the numbers.
One of the main criticisms launched by the Conservatives was that the LGR was too expensive; Stephen Harper has therefore made the logical step (sarcasm heavily intended) to permanently destroy the whole thing, meaning that the over $1 billion in taxpayer money will have been completely wasted.
Guns don’t kill people, people kill people. I’m hesitant to wade into this shitstorm of hot air and rhetoric, but here I go. People use guns to shoot people. Whether or not the average gun owner wants to shoot someone is irrelevant; modern guns are tools that make homicide easier.
The very least that can and ought to be asked of gun owners is to comply with safety regulations. Here the tradeoff is clear: A small inconvenience and modest registration fee for gun owners in exchange for possibly one fewer innocent death at the hands of a gun. That’s a deal Canada should be willing to make.
