Letter: Support for gun registry based on inaccurate data
Date: Jun 7, 2006 7:49 AM
PUBLICATION: The Windsor Star
DATE: 2006.06.07
EDITION: Final
SECTION: Editorial/Opinion
PAGE: A9
BYLINE: Larry Whitmore
SOURCE: Windsor Star
WORD COUNT: 266

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Support for gun registry based on inaccurate data

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Supporters of the controversial gun registry have resorted to inflated
and outright false claims to justify keeping it alive. Access to
Information requests have revealed many of the key points used by
anti-gun activists, including the Chiefs of Police Association and the
Coalition for Gun Control, are misleading at best and distort the true
facts.

For example, the registry is accessed 6,500 times per day by police.
Access to Information data indicates that whenever a police officer
retrieves information from the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC)
database, it automatically produces a “hit” on the firearms database,
even if it is only a licence check for a parking ticket.

There is no way to determine how many of the 6,500 “hits” are actual
requests for firearms information.

Police need the information on the registry to determine if a home they
are entering has firearms. The firearms licensing information will still
be available for the police to check whether an individual at an address
has firearms.

The government is continuing with that facet of the Firearms Act. In
reality, police will approach every home as having a potential firearm,
whether legal or illegal.

Up to 50 per cent of firearms used in crime are stolen from legal gun
owners. All credible, documented studies indicate that the vast majority
of firearms recovered from criminal acts are smuggled (from 83 per cent
to 97 per cent depending on the study).

The Firearms Act has been a huge waste of valuable resources and has
proved to be a dismal failure in preventing violent crime.

Some people are unable to comprehend that public safety is not
compromised because people commit crimes with guns. It is compromised
because people commit crimes.

Larry Whitmore
Windsor