Canadian Pols Cling to Their Billion-dollar Gun Registry Fiasco

It’s been called a fiasco, critics say it doesn’t work and, as NewsMax has been reporting, it has cost a staggering $1 billion so far, but Canada’s government officials continue to support their badly flawed gun registration law.

Writing in the Internet’s General Firearms and Shooting Information Page, one critic charged that statistical proof shows that registration has not, and will not, reduce the criminal use of firearms or save a single life, but Canada’s federal government refuses to admit that it made a huge misjudgment in implementing the law.

The critic noted that six of Canada’s 10 provinces refuse to prosecute anyone failing to comply with the registration law, which in 1995 the government claimed would cost a mere $2 million yet to date has cost $1 billion.

Moreover, he wrote, audits are turning up huge overruns and gross mismanagement. "This is money that could have and should have been spent on law enforcement," the writer observed.

Yet new Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin indicated that, while he will overhaul the federal gun registry, he still backs the former Liberal government's very costly gun registry legislation despite its problems, according to Canada’s Globe and Mail.

"It's clear that there have been problems, there have been huge costs, and we have to review all that," Martin told the newspaper. He admitted that costs associated with the system must be contained. However, Martin added, he continues to support the gun registry legislation.

Critics like the Canadian Alliance have called on Martin to cancel the program outright

In a statement, the group said: "While minister of finance, Mr. Martin signed the cheques for the billion-dollar gun registry boondoggle, hiding from the flawed realities of the program. It is time Mr. Martin pops out of his hole and cancels this faulty program," the statement read.

A senior government official told the Globe and Mail that the gun-registry legislation is not "a meaningful law." Most provinces and territories, including Alberta and British Columbia, have refused to comply with the legislation, which came into force last year, the newspaper reported, adding that only one person has been convicted under the law for failing to register a gun. Moreover, there are estimates that more than 1 million guns are not registered, the newspaper observed.

Experts say that the whole scheme is a fiasco, noting that the level of compliance with the law is far below what advocates expected.

They explain that the deaths per thousand has not dropped in any category except suicides by firearms, which the gun grabbers brag is a success, ignoring the fact that suicide deaths by hanging increased by a corresponding number as deaths by firearms decreased.

In other words, those determined to kill themselves and deprived of a firearm simply hang themselves, leading to the question: Will rope registration laws come next?

Gary Mauser, writing in Simon Fraser University News, said: "Handguns have been registered for more than 60 years in Canada, but handgun crime is increasing. At the same time that homicides have been declining, handgun homicides have increased from about 25 per cent to more than 50 per cent of gun homicides. The Solicitor General admitted in Parliament that handgun registration has never been useful in solving a crime."

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