Does gun registration really work?

Canada has had some form of gun control since the 1800s especially as they relate to carrying them in public but I remember in 1956 when I was a scoutmaster, I took some of my boy scouts on a trip into the mountains next to Vancouver B.C and when we were heading home, we carried our unloaded unsheathed rifles onto the bus. No one appeared to be concerned. Those days are gone now of course. Such a thing could never happen in this day and age. If passengers saw someone carrying an unsheathed rifle onto a bus, the passengers would scramble out the windows as soon as they broke them.

First thing I will do in this piece is to describe what the laws are in Canada with respect to owning firearms.

There are three kinds of firearms in Canada. They are, non-restrictive, restrictive and prohibited.

Non-restrictive firearms are ordinary hunting and sporting guns (which includes long barreled rifles used for target shooting) Restrictive firearms are all handguns. Prohibited firearms include, handguns that have barrel lengths that are 4.1 inches or less. They obviously include snub-nosed revolvers. This also includes handguns that are designed to use 25 or 32 caliber ammunition. This does not include handguns that use 22 caliber ammunition that are often used for target shooting. Handguns that are designed to fit into the palm of one’s hand such as a derringer. Rifles and shotguns that have been shortened to make their total length 26 inches or less. Many years ago when I was guarding a very rare coin (now worth a million dollars) at a coin show, I had with me a silver-plated double-barreled shotgun that was 25 and a quarter inches in length. Many of the people appeared to be more interested at staring at the shotgun than at the coin that was on display. The prohibition also includes all fully-automatic guns including those that have been altered to fit that description. They also include any firearm that can discharge darts or other projectile that carries an electrical charge such as stun guns. Also included are rifles designed for snipers, any variant of an UZI pistol, any variant of an AK-47 assault weapon and any machine gun.

There are four kinds of gun licences. They are;

Possesion Only Licence: It means you can possess but not actually aquire a firearm. You can also purchase ammunition for your firearm. Possession and Aquuisition Licence: It means that you can keep the firearms you already own as well as aquire more and you can purchase ammunition for them. Restrictive Possession and Acquisition Licence: You can own most handguns and some restricted semi-automatic rifels and shotguns. Minor’s Licence (for those under 18) Such minors can use non-restricted firearms for target practice, organized competitions, hunting and being instructed in firearm use.

Most types of prohibited firearms are ‘grandfathered’ to their current legal owners but they cannot be transferred to non-grandfathered individuals. If anyone isn’t currently licenced to own such a prohibited gun, they cannot legally acquire firearms of this type.

The Liberal government in 1995 called for the registration of all firearms, including shotguns, rifles and handguns and not just those applying to restricted firearms such as assault rifles and automatic weapons. The skyrocketing costs of the gun control registry and the election of a minority Conservative government in 2006 has kept this issue in high profile in Canada.

The Canadian Firearms Registry is part of the Firearms Act and is managed by the Canadian Firearms Program of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). It requires the registration of all guns in Canada. It was introduced by the Liberal government of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and was implemented by successive Justice Ministers Allan Rock and Anne McLellan. This was an effort to reduce crime by making every gun traceable.

I doubt that crime will be reduced on the premise that every gun that is used in a crime is traceable. First of all, what criminal leaves his gun behind at the scene of his crime? Second, many guns such as hand guns have not been registered as they were obtained by criminals illegally. Since the government doesn’t fire bullets out of guns so that a record of the rifling can be established if a bullet if found at a crime scene, there is no way of establishing whose gun was used unless they have a suspect whose gun is registered.

Former Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner Julian Fantino is opposed to the gun registry. He stated his reasons in a press release in 2003;

"We have an ongoing gun crisis including firearms-related homicides lately in Toronto, and a law registering firearms has neither deterred these crimes nor helped us solve any of them. None of the guns we know to have been used were registered, although we believe that more than half of them were smuggled into Canada from the United States. The firearms registry is long on philosophy and short on practical results considering the money could be more effectively used for security against terrorism as well as a host of other public safety initiatives." unquote

A survey in August 2010 revealed that 72 percent of Canadians believe the long-gun registry has done nothing to prevent crime. Edgar MacLeod, former president of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police on the other hand has stated, and I quote;

"While the cost of the registry had become an embarrassment, the program works and provides a valuable service. In a typical domestic violence situation, investigating police officers rely on the registry to determine if guns are present. Onboard computers in police cruisers, or a call to central dispatch, alerts officers to any firearms registered to occupants of the house." unquote

During the first three months of 2010, the police had made a little over ten thousand queries with respect to individuals having firearms in their possession. This doesn’t mean that there were firearms in the homes of the people they called.

In actual fact, generally domestic calls are made by women and one of the first questions asked by the police is; "Are there any guns in the house?" That being as it is, it reduces the need to rely on gun registration to establish if there is a gun in the house.

The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police are strongly supportive of the gun registry, claiming that getting rid of the registry will make Canada less safe, and compromise the ability of law enforcement to deal effectively with gun violence. However, support for the registry among Chiefs of Police is not unanimous and I can see why.

It seems that most gun related deaths are caused with handguns that have never been registered because they were smuggled into Canada and are used by criminals. Admittedly, some long barreled guns have been used by persons committing murder but for the most part, that isn’t too common.

As the registration of long guns in the overall Canadian Firearms Registry only applies to common sporting and target rifles and shotguns, the potential repealing of such registration requirements would only affect 'non-restricted' classified firearms.

The initial outlay of more than $1 billion dollars to get the registry set up was an appalling waste of taxpayer’s money. It has been estimated that the cost each year to keep the registry operating is $3 million dollars. There has to be a better way to spend the taxpayer’s money than doing it this way.

As much as 92% of front-line police officers have complained that the registry really hasn’t done anything to protect them. There was a criminal in Alberta who had an assault rifle and while holed up in a barn, he murdered four RCMP officers. They knew that he owned guns but that knowledge didn’t save them.

As I said earlier in this piece, criminals don’t register guns and they are the ones who generally use them to commit their crimes.

Even if a rifle or shotgun is registered, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the owner won’t kill someone with it. By the time the police find out that the murderer has a registered rifle in his home, the victim or victims is or are already dead. Marc Lepine picked up an application for a firearms acquisition certificate in August 1989. He received his permit in mid-October. He bought a semi-automatic rifle in November and in December, he used it to slaughter 14 female students in Montreal’s Ecol Polytechnique. Even if his rifle was registered, does anyone think that the registration would have prevented that massacre? In fact, the registration of rifles and shotguns has not yet saved one life in Canada even though the registration has been in force since its inception in 1995.

The registry has to go. Like all things that don’t work, it should be thrown out with the trash. But what is needed? Let me make some suggestions.

1. Before an ownership licence is issued, the prospective owner must prove that he has taken a fire-arms training course and passed, he must show that he can place the rifle and its ammunition in a secure place that is under lock and key. (and I don’t mean a cabinet that has a glass door)

2. The penalties for possessing firearms (restricted or non restricted) without obtaining a firearms acquisition certificate should be punishable with a six month term in jail for first offence, a twelve month term in jail for a second offence and a two-year term in the penitentiary for a third and every similar offence thereafter.

3. The penalty for possessing a hand gun or machine gun without a licence to possess such guns should automatically be five years in the penitentiary for first offence and ten years for a second offence and every similar offence thereafter and each term to be with hard labour.

Since the beginning of 2004 until the end of 2009, as many as 1,003 persons in Canada have been murdered by someone using a firearm.

It is time to stop playing namby pamby with criminals, especially those who carry handguns and other prohibited firearms when they are unlicenced to do so. Hit these creeps where it hurts the most---their freedom. Of course, if they use the firearms while committing a crime, I will let your imagination tell you what you think I have in mind for them when it comes to sentencing.