COLUMN: SHOOTINGS DON'T VINDICATE GUN REGISTRY

COLUMN: SHOOTINGS DON'T VINDICATE GUN REGISTRY
Date: Sep 18, 2006 9:04 AM
PUBLICATION: The Winnipeg Sun
DATE: 2006.09.17
EDITION: Final
SECTION: Comment
PAGE: C20
BYLINE: TOM BRODBECK
WORD COUNT: 513

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SHOOTINGS DON'T VINDICATE GUN REGISTRY

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It didn't take long for proponents of the failed long-gun registry to
try to capitalize on the bloody shootings at Montreal's Dawson College
this past week.

Some nut-bar with an illegal, automatic weapon opens fire on students at
the downtown college, and supporters of the registry suggest it's proof
we need to keep forcing duck hunters and farmers to register their
rifles and shotguns.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

I see the link.

I wish they could explain how registering a hunting rifle would have
prevented some lunatic from illegally owning and firing a prohibited
weapon. That would be a neat trick.

Canada has some of the strictest gun control around and has had for
decades.

Hand guns, for example, have been banned in Canada for generations,
unless they're used for specific purposes and under very tight
regulations.

There are strict licensing rules governing the acquisition of any
firearm, including a hunting rifle. And the federal government has been
expanding the list of prohibited weapons for years.

It's all done in the name of trying to reduce the number of firearms in
our communities, while allowing law-abiding citizens to own a limited
range of firearms for hunting and recreational purposes.

It's good policy and it's been endorsed over the years by all major
Canadian political parties. And while it does not eliminate all illegal
firearms from making their way into the country and into the hands of
criminals, it helps reduce the overall number in circulation.

Nobody wants to change that.

Different matter

But the long-gun registry is a completely different matter.

It doesn't do anything to curb the possession of illegal weapons. And it
certainly has no bearing whatsoever on the kind of weapon used in
Montreal on Wednesday.

The only thing the long-gun registry does is force licensed firearm
owners (yes, they would still have to obtain a licence to own a long gun
even if the registry was abolished) to register their legally owned
firearms every few years. What does that do, except pad the pockets of
overpaid federal bureaucrats and cost Canadian taxpayers hundreds of
millions of dollars?

The answer is nothing.

If you could legally own and register the type of firearm used at Dawson
College and if people were demanding those types of weapons be
prohibited, that would make some sense.

At least there would be a logical connection.

But the firearm used in Montreal is already prohibited, and the person
using it obtained it illegally.

It would make sense to demand that the federal government and police
agencies find better ways of cracking down on the importation of illegal
weapons into Canada.

You'll never get rid of illegal guns altogether, but we can do better at
trying to plug the pipelines that bring them into our country. We can
always do better.

But trying to make the link between the Montreal shooting and the gun
registry is ludicrous.

It would be as dumb as saying the Montreal shooting is proof that we
need to expand mandatory minimum sentences for gun-related crimes.

No sentencing scheme in the world is going to have an impact on the kind
of mentally disturbed person who would walk into a college cafeteria and
start opening fire. The guy obviously had a death wish. And there's
nothing in criminal law that could prevent that kind of tragedy in the
future.

SPURIOUS LINK

Trying to link the Montreal shooting to the long-gun registry is nothing
more than a cheap attempt by registry advocates to profit from it
politically.

There's a bill before Parliament that proposes to do away with the
registry. And opponents of the bill are trying to capitalize on this
tragedy for their own political gain, even though they know one has
nothing to do with the other.

It's pathetic, really.

The gun registry has cost taxpayers at least $1 billion -- and growing
-- and there's been no public safety benefit to it whatsoever.

Why anyone would want to continue to throw good money after bad on this
thing is beyond me.

The Montreal shooting doesn't change that fact one iota.