A new private members bill has been brought forth to the House of Commons to hopefully repeal the failed long gun registry in Canada. The Bill brought forth by MP Candice Hoeppner (Portage-Lisgar), is Bill C-391, it would call for the dismantling of the Canadian Firearms Center, central database of all registered non-restricted long guns. (which includes, most rifles and shotguns). The removal of the Long Gun Registry has never been more important after the RCMP released sensitive information regarding firearms owners to the research and polling company Ekos.
The RCMP chartered Ekos to perform a customer survey of firearms owners to see if they are satisfied, when it comes to the registry, registration and how they deal with the RCMP. The irony of it, is we firearms owners are not customers, if it were not for mandatory licensing we would be criminals......but I'm getting off topic. I have sent my MP Paul Szabo an email asking for his support, to remove the long gun registry,
Good day. Thank you for taking the time to read my letter, I writing to you as a resident of Mississauga South. Earlier this year, I emailed you to see if I could count on your support for the proposed private members Bill C-301, that was brought forth by MP Garry Breitkreuz (Yorkton—Melville). The private members Bill would have called for the dismantling of the long gun registry, the binding of ATTs to the licenses of firearm owners and many other provisions that would have reduced the bureaucratic nightmare in which 2 million law abiding Canadians must endure. Sadly, It appears that Bill C-301 will not proceed forward as it was made into a hot button issue by misinformed media, as well as members of all opposition parties. A more palatable bill has been brought forth by MP Ms. Candice Hoeppner (Portage—Lisgar) which still calls for the dismantling of the Long Gun registry, but will not include many of the the hot button issues that were contained within Bill C-301. Bill C-391 is an important piece of legislation, especially in light of the recent Ekos Poll of Canadian Firearm owners, in which the RCMP provided sensitive information to a 3rd party consulting company, that was contracted by the RCMP without the approval of the office of the Minister of Public Safety. As promised by the Liberal government of the day, Canadian Firearm owners information would NEVER be handed out to a party outside of the government. The long gun registry needs to be removed, because in the wrong hands it can be misused, as it has been shown, either by the RCMP providing information out to a 3rd party company or the many well documented security breaches of the long gun registry, in which private information on firearms owners may have been stolen. Please support Bill C-391, and ensure that it is passed into law. Thank you again for your time. Matthew Robert Capranos Mississauga-South Mississauga, Ontario
Sadly after reading his replies during the debating of Bill C-391 in the House of Commons on Monday, I do not think he will be supporting it
Mr. Paul Szabo (Mississauga South, Lib.): next intervention Mr. Speaker, the bill seeks to eliminate the long arms registry that was set up by Parliament in law. Back in 1994, when the issue of the registry was first put forward, one of the things the Conservative members failed to mention was that the crime committed using long arms was actually greater than crime by handguns. How could it have been greater? When we had a system where there was nothing to require the safe storage, training, registration and so on, all kinds of problems were happening. In fact, long arms were being stored by the front door and if there was a problem they would get the gun and go ahead. If the mover of the bill says that the registry has done nothing to reduce crime, her own facts say that in fact now long arm crime is away down. Therefore, obviously it worked. Then she concludes that it is not helping to alleviate crime so we should get rid of the long arm registry. If we follow that logic, then she must also say that we need to get rid of the handgun registry because clearly the registry is expensive, wasteful and does not do anything. That is not the truth. When police officers and public safety officers who have access to the CPIC system go into a situation where they are not sure whether there is a risk, that tool is available to them. I intend to complete my speech the next time we deal with the bill but I do want to say that the member has raised selective facts. If she wants the bill to be passed, she needs to put it all on the table. It needs to be true, full and plain and the member needs to be accountable for her words. We will see.
With C-391 passing through the second reading it is now off to committees for review, amendments and if it can navigate it's way through and if there is not election. The third reading and voting on the Bill could happen before the winter recess.