----- Original Message -----
From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" <[email protected]>
To: "Firearms Digest Moderator (E-mail)" <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2003 2:04 PM
Subject: Column: 1 million firearms not yet registered
TRANSLATION FROM FRENCH TO ENGLISH
PUBLICATION: Progrès-dimanche
DATE: 2003.12.07
SECTION: Sports
PAGE: A77
COLUMN: Hunting and fishing
BYLINE: Blackburn, Roger
ILLUSTRATION: Photograph - In the Win a Trigger Lock contest organised by the Suicide Prevention Centre and Progrès-Dimanche, the winning contestant was awarded an elegant firearms storage compartment as well as a trigger lock. The winner, Gilles Bergeron from Métabetchouan, is shown here with Lieutenant Richard Barette, Alma station chief and René-Jacques Bélanger, head of the SQ permit unit.
1 MILLION FIREARMS NOT YET REGISTERED
Garry Breitkreuz, Alliance MP for Yorkton-Melville, Saskatchewan, takes every opportunity to open fire on Canada's firearms registration legislation. Recently, the Official Opposition Critic for Firearms said government reports reveal that hundreds of thousands of owners still have still not registered their guns.
According to the documents he obtained under the Access to Information Act, 1.5 million firearms have not yet been registered, and 645,921 handguns still have to be reregistered. According to the MP, these numbers are based on the current Liberal regime's low-ball estimates that few people believe anymore.
"Public safety would be far better served by putting thousands of police on our streets to fight real crime than by a billion-dollar bureaucracy trying to register all the duck guns in Canada," said the MP in a press release.
According to Garry Breitkreuz, the Department of Justice's own statistics show that as of July 5, 2003:
- Number of licenced gun owners that still have to register their firearms: 428,639
- Number of handgun owners that still have to re-register or dispose of their guns: 324,768
- Number of gun owners that failed to obtain a licence to own their guns: 355,000
- Number of owners of registered handguns that failed to get a firearms licence: 304,375
"If we use the Liberal government's 1976 estimates of the number of guns and the government's 1998 estimates of the number of gun owners, then we find that they have actually licenced fewer than 60% and gun owners and registered fewer than 40% of the guns in Canada. This is what taxpayers got for their billion dollars," said the MP.
"Convincing or forcing hundreds of thousands of non-compliant gun owners to comply is going to cost hundreds of millions more," predicted Breitkreuz. "Last month, polls showed that only 39% of Canadians still support the gun registry. Public support will drop even further when they hear about this most recent example of Liberal government incompetence," he said. The MP ended by saying, "It's time to give taxpayers and responsible gun owners a break, and put an end to this boondoggle."
Pointless expenditure
Since the firearms registration act came into force, crime statistics have not changed in the slightest. The current legislation on the transport and storage of firearms ensures public safety by making firearms inaccessible by having them stored in a locked compartment.
Do you think criminals have permits for their guns? Not on your life. They don't want the police to know what they have in their possession. Do you think that a gun owner who decides to shoot people down in the street will stop himself because his guns are registered? Crazy people will take their guns and do what they want, and the fact that their guns are registered will not make them any less crazy.
I hope the government will finally understand that there has been enough nonsense on this issue and it is time to backtrack before the registry costs another billion dollars.
---------------------------------------------
NEWS RELEASE
HOW CAN POLICE USE A GUN REGISTRY MISSING GUNS FOR A MILLION GUN OWNERS?
"Using the Liberal's 1976 estimates of the number of guns, fewer than 40% of the guns have been registered."
http://www.garrybreitkreuz.com/GUNS92.htm
From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" <[email protected]>
To: "Firearms Digest Moderator (E-mail)" <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2003 2:04 PM
Subject: Column: 1 million firearms not yet registered
TRANSLATION FROM FRENCH TO ENGLISH
PUBLICATION: Progrès-dimanche
DATE: 2003.12.07
SECTION: Sports
PAGE: A77
COLUMN: Hunting and fishing
BYLINE: Blackburn, Roger
ILLUSTRATION: Photograph - In the Win a Trigger Lock contest organised by the Suicide Prevention Centre and Progrès-Dimanche, the winning contestant was awarded an elegant firearms storage compartment as well as a trigger lock. The winner, Gilles Bergeron from Métabetchouan, is shown here with Lieutenant Richard Barette, Alma station chief and René-Jacques Bélanger, head of the SQ permit unit.
1 MILLION FIREARMS NOT YET REGISTERED
Garry Breitkreuz, Alliance MP for Yorkton-Melville, Saskatchewan, takes every opportunity to open fire on Canada's firearms registration legislation. Recently, the Official Opposition Critic for Firearms said government reports reveal that hundreds of thousands of owners still have still not registered their guns.
According to the documents he obtained under the Access to Information Act, 1.5 million firearms have not yet been registered, and 645,921 handguns still have to be reregistered. According to the MP, these numbers are based on the current Liberal regime's low-ball estimates that few people believe anymore.
"Public safety would be far better served by putting thousands of police on our streets to fight real crime than by a billion-dollar bureaucracy trying to register all the duck guns in Canada," said the MP in a press release.
According to Garry Breitkreuz, the Department of Justice's own statistics show that as of July 5, 2003:
- Number of licenced gun owners that still have to register their firearms: 428,639
- Number of handgun owners that still have to re-register or dispose of their guns: 324,768
- Number of gun owners that failed to obtain a licence to own their guns: 355,000
- Number of owners of registered handguns that failed to get a firearms licence: 304,375
"If we use the Liberal government's 1976 estimates of the number of guns and the government's 1998 estimates of the number of gun owners, then we find that they have actually licenced fewer than 60% and gun owners and registered fewer than 40% of the guns in Canada. This is what taxpayers got for their billion dollars," said the MP.
"Convincing or forcing hundreds of thousands of non-compliant gun owners to comply is going to cost hundreds of millions more," predicted Breitkreuz. "Last month, polls showed that only 39% of Canadians still support the gun registry. Public support will drop even further when they hear about this most recent example of Liberal government incompetence," he said. The MP ended by saying, "It's time to give taxpayers and responsible gun owners a break, and put an end to this boondoggle."
Pointless expenditure
Since the firearms registration act came into force, crime statistics have not changed in the slightest. The current legislation on the transport and storage of firearms ensures public safety by making firearms inaccessible by having them stored in a locked compartment.
Do you think criminals have permits for their guns? Not on your life. They don't want the police to know what they have in their possession. Do you think that a gun owner who decides to shoot people down in the street will stop himself because his guns are registered? Crazy people will take their guns and do what they want, and the fact that their guns are registered will not make them any less crazy.
I hope the government will finally understand that there has been enough nonsense on this issue and it is time to backtrack before the registry costs another billion dollars.
---------------------------------------------
NEWS RELEASE
HOW CAN POLICE USE A GUN REGISTRY MISSING GUNS FOR A MILLION GUN OWNERS?
"Using the Liberal's 1976 estimates of the number of guns, fewer than 40% of the guns have been registered."
http://www.garrybreitkreuz.com/GUNS92.htm
