Letter: Crime control not gun control needed

Letter: Crime control not gun control needed
Date: Jul 25, 2006 8:40 AM
PUBLICATION: The Daily Gleaner (Fredericton)
DATE: 2006.07.25
PAGE: C7
SECTION: OPINON

Crime control not gun control needed

I have always been a passionate advocate for crime control rather than
gun control. To say the least, I was very disconcerted after hosting
meetings with our former MP for Tobique-Mactaquac, Andy Savoy, and gun
owners from our federal riding, and failing to cancel the money pit
Federal Gun Registry. I'm not blaming Mr. Savoy whom I felt was a good
MP and who achieved much for our riding but I do hold the former
government and leader responsible. We now have a new government, a new
prime minister and a new federal MP for our riding and it would appear a
new mandate to rid our country of this cash-guzzling, useless long gun
registry.

Although as a Liberal, many of my political beliefs do not correspond
with those of Conservatives, our new MP Mike Allen and I both strongly
believe that we need crime control, not gun control and that the long
gun registry must end as soon as possible. It is to this end that I was
invited to sit on the Tobique- Mactaquac Bill C-21 Committee to examine
and fine tune Bill C-21, designed to end the long gun registry in Canada
and take aim at crime rather than punish legitimate gun owners further.
I am exceptionally pleased to be a part of this process.

Personally, I have always believed that regardless of political stripe,
MPs or MLAs and their respective governments should recognize negative,
ill-conceived legislation and react to change it accordingly. Therefore,
Liberals, Conservatives, NDP and Bloc MPs should support cancelling this
registry which has gobbled up more than two billion tax dollars and had
little or no impact on crime. Please call your MP today to vote in
support of Bill C-21 this fall.

Ray Dillon
Keswick Ridge, N.B.