Letter: Former cop says drop the gun registry
Date: Jul 27, 2006 8:21 AM
PUBLICATION: National Post
DATE: 2006.07.27
EDITION: Toronto
SECTION: Letters
PAGE: A17
BYLINE: Sergeant Bob Cottingham (ret’d)
SOURCE: National Post
WORD COUNT: 257

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Former cop says drop the gun registry

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Re: In Defence Of The Gun Registry, letter to the editor, July 24.

As a former police officer who spent 25 years working in Alberta, the
last six as a detective in the criminal investigations section, I solved
a lot of crime through good old-fashioned police work, as well as
interviewing perpetrators and obtaining lawful confessions. I also
solved crimes through the collection of DNA and the comparison of
fingerprints using cost-effective, established police databases. I also
accessed these databases to find information on suspects’ names,
criminal records and descriptions, which resulted in hundreds of
successful arrests.

Not once, however, during my career do I recall using the gun registry
to solve a major crime. Simply put, the vast majority of criminals use
firearms which don’t come close to being included in this bureaucratic
jumble of information. Letter-writer Wendy Cukier may also be
disappointed to know that I observed that most front-line officers have
little faith in the gun registry, and see it as another bloated and
failed attempt by the former government to appease its constituents.

As loyal police officers, most of us went along with our police
associations’ decisions, when they supported the registry in its
infancy. But then we saw that the registry only encroaches on our
law-abiding citizens and has little effect on most criminals using
firearms. I suggest that the courts use the existing firearms laws to
punish illegal gun users more severely. A drop in gun related crime will
surely follow.

Sergeant Bob Cottingham (ret’d), Lethbridge, Alta.