LETTER: Wrong, an inaccurate registry puts officers at risk

LETTER: Wrong, an inaccurate registry puts officers at risk
Date: Jun 1, 2006 9:03 PM


-----Original Message-----
From: John Howat [howat@xtra.co.nz]
Sent: June 1, 2006 5:08 PM
To: cdn-firearms-digest@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca
Subject: Re: Cdn-Firearms Digest V9 #479


>Tories rebuff pleas to keep gun registry
>
>CANADIAN PRESS
>
>
>
[clip]

>For example, he told a news conference, offices routinely check [the
>registry] when responding to a domestic violence call to see whether
>anybody at the address is listed as a firearms owner.
>
>It's true there are some errors in the computer files, Francoeur said,
>"But it's better for a police officer to work with incomplete and
>imperfect information than with no information at all."
>
Wrong, an inaccurate registry puts officers at risk in those
circumstances. Police check their records which could show that no guns
are registered at that address. They approach with that belief and are
confronted by a stolen gun!
There is no way a police officer can approach any serious domestic
violence situation in the belief that there are no weapons in the house.

In fact it is not the registry that provides the best information in
similar crime incidents - it is the witnesses who report the incident.

--
John Howat
New Zealand