Letter: Abandon gun registry for useful programs

PUBLICATION: The Windsor Star
DATE: 2005.01.07
EDITION: Final
SECTION: Editorial/Opinion
PAGE: A9
BYLINE: Chris Rumbold
SOURCE: Windsor Star

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Abandon gun registry for useful programs

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Re: Barbara’s Yaffe’s Jan. 3 column, Gun Registry Off Target. Canadians don’t need rhetoric. At this point, they need hard data. Given that the majority of gun-related homicides in Canada are committed in our cities by known criminals using unregistered handguns, it seems completely absurd and illogical that the federal Liberals have squandered more than $1 billion on a program to register the serial numbers of deer rifles and duck guns.

It was reported just last week that the New Zealand government has abandoned its plans for a national gun registry. I suspect after seeing the fiasco our government has created, the New Zealand government decided to save itself the embarrassment and its people the expense.

Rather than wasting more resources on this program, the Liberals should scrap the long-gun registry and divert the $100 million needed to run it each year into programs that have a proven track record of saving lives — such as putting more police on the streets and improving health care.

Chris Rumbold
North Vancouver, B.C.