Editorial: Gun registry shows how tough it is to eradicate red tape

It's a whole lot easier to kill a bad gun bill than it is to redo or eradicate it at a later date !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Editorial: Gun registry shows how tough it is to eradicate red tape
Date: Apr 18, 2006 7:53 AM
PUBLICATION: The Province
DATE: 2006.04.18
EDITION: Final
SECTION: Editorial
PAGE: A18
SOURCE: The Province
ILLUSTRATION: Colour Photo: Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl said
theTory government might starve the registry to death.
WORD COUNT: 218

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Gun registry shows how tough it is to eradicate red tape

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The news that Tory MPs are feeling ripples of discontent among their
supporters about their party's promise to abolish the federal long-gun
registry should come as little surprise. Experience has shown that it is
extremely hard for any national government to control a large,
mushrooming bureaucracy when it has taken root, yet alone to destroy it.
There tend to be too many interests with a stake in saving it -- or at
least feeding off it.

And that is the problem the new Tory government faces in killing off the
gun registry, which is wildly unpopular in rural ridings and appears to
be doing little if anything to curb urban gun crime. The billion-dollar
bureaucracy has grown too large to be easily dealt a lethal blow,
especially by a minority government.

Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl admitted as much when he told our
newspaper's editorial board that the Tories still intend to scrap the
registry, but that "discussions need to take place" first with
opposition parties. The Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon MP said that, if there
was no agreement, the Tory government might starve the registry to
death. Don't count on it. As Justice Minister Vic Toews conceded when
asked why long-gun owners are still being targeted: "The law is still in
place; we cannot tell people to ignore the law."

And it is very difficult to get rid of a law, once enacted. That is why
we must think long and hard before initiating any major government
program. The cure may be worse than the disease.