This Wednesday September 15 is the National Day in Support of the Long Gun Registry.
As a member of the Crime Prevention Council, I supported our motion in favour of the Gun Registry. I am bringing forward a motion to Regional Council on Wednesday to support the police and our Crime Prevention Council.
The police are a pretty conservative, law and order, bunch. If they support the gun registry, there has to be some pretty compelling reasons, and there are if you follow the links below to Chief Torrigian’s op ed and the Police website about the registry.
Nurses support the registry. Emergency doctors support the registry.
I’m going to take another tact, as the nuts and bolts reasons are clearly laid out in the links.
There are a lot of registries around that are used by governments and even various organizations to keep up standards. Restaurants need licenses, even hot dog stands do and Public Health has a list or registry of all the food establishments in the Region and inspectors check them for health violations. Even my dog is on a registry with the city. He has a dog license and they keep a list that includes dog gender, number of dogs in a home, whether spayed or neutered and if his rabies shot is up to date.
But the best analogy I think for having a gun registry is cars. Cars can be dangerous, they need skill to drive,yet no one is fussing that we shouldn’t register our cars and renew our driving license. On my ride-along with the police,the constable accessed that list on his computer when we stopped a car with a burned out bulb. Turned out the registered driver was a known felon and dangerous. Good info for the constable going up to his car window.
Why should guns be any different? They can be dangerous and they need skill to use. Our police need this tool.
Chief Matt Torigian had a good op ed in the Record. http://www.therecord.com/article/772801
Here is a press release from the Waterloo Region Crime Prevention Council from Exchange Magazine http://www.exchangemagazine.com/morningpost/2010/week37/Tuesday/091410.htm and the Council’s position, http://www.preventingcrime.ca/documents/POSITION-LongGunRegistry.pdf
About a year or two ago, I did have some concerns about the cost of the registry but that has been cleaned up. I was very impressed by the following ten reasons to support the Registry by the police. Top ten myths http://www.truthsandmyths.ca/top-10-myths.html
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Jane Mitchell's Blog 
With all due respect, Councillor Mitchell, the ‘cars must be registered, therefore guns should be registered’ argument is quite off base. Let’s take a few things into consideration with that analogy:
If cars were regulated like firearms, the following would be true:
– – All classic sports cars, subcompact cars or cars capable of operating in
excess of 120 km/h would be prohibited. Cars that look like they are
capable of exceeding 120 km/h would also be prohibited by adding them to
the list of prohibited vehicles. Persons owning such cars prior to the
enactment of the “Automobile Act” would be allowed to keep them. But they
would not be allowed to drive them on roads. They would require a “special
authority to drive” to take them to a provincially certified track to
drive. The government, by virtue of a legislative screw-up, would never be
permitted to grant the special authority.
– – All coupes, by virtue of being two-doors, would be banned from driving
on roads and would be restricted to use of provincially regulated tracks.
To take your two-door car to the track would require an authorization to
transport to the track. You would have to take a designated route to the
track. If you deviate from the route, you could face serious criminal
charges.
– – If you own a car, you would have to store it in a locked garage. If you
do not own a locked garage, you would have to drain the fuel tank after
arriving home, and lock the doors. You would have to store the gasoline
separately from the car, and in a safe manner. You would also have to
follow this regimen if you parked at the mall or at work. Failure to
adhere to this could result in serious criminal charges.
– – Failing to get a sticker every year on time would result in serious
criminal charges (instead of a fine or a suspended ticket).
– – Any infraction of the Highway Traffic Act would be a serious criminal
offence.
– – To get your license you would, in addition to passing a safe-driving
course and exams, provide three references who would vouch for your
ability to drive. You would have to get approval from all your sexual
partners who have stayed in your home, as well as any former employers.
– – Upon receiving your license, you will be allowed to purchase a car, but
not on a Sunday, and sales between individuals, as opposed to businesses,
cannot occur on the weekend.
– – If you do not receive your license renewal on time, police will show up
at your door to demand that you turn over your car for destruction. You
could also face serious criminal charges.
– – If you argue with your spouse, or are going through a divorce, and your
spouse makes any claim of criminal action, police will seize your car and
destroy it.
– – If you are convicted of any criminal offence — even putting a penny on
a railroad track (Section 456) or having a poker night (Section 201) —
your car would be seized and destroyed.
– – If you violate any of the regulations listed above or committed any
criminal offence, you would have all your cars seized and destroyed, and
you would be prohibited from owning a car for 10 years.
— Every time there was a serious accident or a hit and run, grandstanding
and shamelessly uninformed politicians would demonize car owners as
dangerous, wife-abusing rednecks who cannot be trusted, and call for a
total car ban.
That, is the truth behind comparing the registration of vehicles to the registration of long-guns.
I do have the utmost respect for Chief Torigian’s position on the matter and find that he has been one of the better spoken members of the CACP. However, I’ll have to disagree with the assertion that the registry is a valuable crime fighting tool, since it has not prevented one firearms related death since its inception. The registry came about due to the terrible massacre at L’Ecole Polytechnique. However, the registry did absolutely nothing to prevent Mr. Gill from shooting up Dawson College.
I’ll have to agree to disagree with you on your views of the registry. For a rebuttal to your post on the ‘truths and myths’ website, I suggest you follow it up with more reading here: http://www.cdnshootingsports.org/2006/08/ten_myths_of_longgun_registry.html
Kind regards,
Ryan Simper