Stephen Taylor has a little good news;
I’ve just learned that the government will be tabling legislation in the Senate to scrap the long-gun registry. Current legislation is already on the order paper in the House of Commons, introduced by Conservative MP Gerry Breitkreuz as a private members bill (C-301) whereas the legislation in the Senate is a government bill.
Private members bills usually have a tougher time reaching the stage of Royal Assent and thus government legislation will be given a higher priority and indicates that the government is interested in moving to eliminate the long-gun registry as soon as possible.
Update - many of our commentors aren't so convinced. Nor is the Canadian Shooting Sports Association.
"Bill S-5, only removes the requirement to retain registration certificates. It does not shut down the gun registry," said Tony Bernardo, Executive Director of the Canadian Institute for Legislative Action. "By including a statutory requirement to report all transactions of non-restricted firearms to the Chief Firearms Officer, and by having to receive approval for that transfer, the Bill proposes to morph the registry to a paperless system." He added, "As the Chief Firearms Officer is a police official in most jurisdictions, the collected information regarding the buyer, seller and the firearm, will simply be retained as 'police files.' A registry by any other name..."
As the Chief Firearms Officer is provincial in jurisdiction, a system of sharing transfer information from CFO to CFO must be in place to facilitate inter-provincial transfers. The maintenance of thirteen interconnected registries, combined with the time required to transfer many thousands of firearms per day, will increase the cost of operation of the long gun registry tenfold over the current system.
"Bill S-5 may rid the Conservatives of their Gun Registry commitment but Quebec will maintain it's beloved registry and Canadian taxpayers will once again be required to fund another giant white elephant disguised as public safety," stated an unnamed source in the government of Canada.
"Bill S-5 is bad legislation, pure and simple, no matter what branch of government introduces it. It is simply a re-hash of the failed Bill C-24 that died on the Order Paper because of its lack of quality. Any Canadian who cares about where their money is being spent would do well to ignore this legislative disaster and support Bill C-301," added Bernardo.
More - Brian Lilley has a different take - "the long gun registry is already dead."
which means Dalton McGuinty should be pushing through legislation to enact a long gun registry for Ontario. What the Feds give, Dalton takes away.
Excellent. Doesn't have a hope of passing with Taliban Jack, Gilles Deceit and Iggy Pop lining up against it, but it's proof that this government listens to ordinary Canucks.
Don't really think Iggy would force an election over saving the long-gun registry
See kids? They -do- listen.
We hired Mr. Harper to run this show, we need to give him some room to do it. If charging in on a white horse worked, he'd be doing it I'm sure.
Now get on the blower to your MP and talk this up.
It won't happen. It would be counter to the global plan to disarm the world and impose a one world socialist feudal system.
Disarm the population, not the police, military, criminal, or ACORN.
Just us poor little sheep.
One can really hope they are successful in abolishing this huge waste of tax payer's cash, but I fear John is right
That's wonderful news and I hope that the gun registry will be history soon. This would be a good time to send letters to your MP's letting them know you support this legislation.
Let P = 36, where P is the "par" percentage of voters who vote Conservative, let i represent a given leaked Conservative initiative.
By ranking a given leaked Conservative initiative on a scale of 1 to 10 in terms of coolness, we can roughly calculate, backwards, the Conservatives' internal poll numbers, giving us the equation:
P - i = c
where c is the current internal polling number.
Example: I'd give this one, a full repeal of the registry, a 9, easy. This gives us:
36 - 9 = 27%. Does this compute? It's been a bad week/month/quarter for the Conservatives, looks about right to me.
Very Very smooth move by harper. Re-introduce debate about the long-run registry, force Iggy to make a tough decision.
If iggy votes this down, he will do a lot to frame himself as the egghead urban elite, and against the rural farmer.
Considering this doesn't have a hope in hell of ever passing, it's nothing more than posturing. An election must be near, either this bill will trigger it OR die on the order table after a successful non-confidence motion for something that's flown below the radar.
Well, the Conservative party better have one of the big western priorities accomplished by the time the next election roles around if they expect to get my vote. This might be good enough, if it passes.
And anybody who is about to blather on about the precious majority, or how it would be worse with whomever, STFU! I do not want to hear it. I care nothing for your crying and impotent moaning. I am not getting what I voted for right now, so what does it matter if it is Liberals or Conservatives not giving me what I want?
*
this is great news.
any word on when the fiberals will be
giving us our two billion dollars back?
*
Second reading of this bill has been postponed until the 4th of may. Gary will use this time to gather support. Iggy and Jack**s have already told their MPs to vote their conscience, and ther are enough rural Lib and Dipper MPs that will vote with the government as the registry is intensely unpopular in rural canada. This Bill actually has an excellent chance of passing, unfortunately it seems there is a move afoot to remove some of the portions of the bill dealing with ATTs and prohibited handguns. These portions of the bill deal with issues that have been outstanding for 10 years. During this time the Justice department has spent millions targeting innocent target shooters and collectors this needs to stop. As far as I know the Bill is not a confidence motion so there is no chance of the government falling. In the meantime, if this bill, or pricipled government in general means anything to you, I urge you to contact your MP, as well as Iggy and Jack and tell them to pass the Bill as written(no ammendments). How Iggy votes on this Bill will be the litmus test on Iggy`s attitude towards western Canada. Does he really believe it is time to stop treating the west as a neccesary evil? We shall see.
I guess it would matter if the 97% non-compiamt... O why bother.
Get ready for the screams and the demonstrations, especially in Montreal.
Has Wendy Kookier's head exploded yet?
"I am not getting what I voted for right now, so what does it matter if it is Liberals or Conservatives not giving me what I want?"
Kevin that's something Terrell Owens would say. Personally I'd prefer to get screwed a little bit as opposed to getting screwed a lot.(no homo)
"Cut the grass and the snakes will show"
This is an excellent maneuver. There is no down side for the Conservatives, but if forces the Liberals to make a move.
Now it's Iggy playing chess with PMSH. I wonder if Iggy will let PMSH move him around the board, or if he has a few traps of his own, and can dictate the game.
This no news at all. C301 is dead in the water. Will likely be withdrawn, and will certainly fall if voted on.
The opposition choked on the the other housekeeping amendments in the bill, in part because the RCMP is actively trying to rewrite the rules for semi-automatic non-restricted firearms (like the Ruger 10-22, and many of the firearms favoured by trap and bird hunters).
The bill is being replaced by senate bill s-5
http://tinyurl.com/dz46f9
which amends ONLY for non-restricted (long gun)registry only.
However, it doesn't eliminate a registry, just the federal one. The provincial CFOs still have to approve the transfer of any long gun and in order to do so, the gun must be identified to ensure it is in fact eligible to be unregistered. Anyone who believes the CFOs will not create their own database of transferred un-registered long guns is dreaming in technicolor. THAT can be accomplished with any basic database program, including the one in Open Office.
"Get ready for the screams and the demonstrations, especially in Montreal."
Sadly, I think you're right. It would be a wonderful province in which to be an intellectual, you can say anything no matter how politically correct and the English media won't notice and the French media won't care, as long as you stay away from a very few topics, and one of them is gun control.
Has anyone counted if there are enough votes for this to pass? I'd be very happy if it does, I just assumed a majority were against it but may be wrong.
Your semi-auto hunting firearms will be hit.
There is a thin-line with civilian firearms ownership that keeps scoundrels at bay.
Civilian firearms owners are that line that quietly keeps tyrants and enemies of Canada at bay.
As proof of concept the the recent pleading guilty of hitman Gallant of biker war fame in Quebec to no less than 27 murders, and the ongoing drug gang war in BC, underscore the complete and utter vacuity of the long gun registry.
The correct response is to go after those committing the crime, not the duck hunter, sport shooter or big game enthusiast.
I rather suspect that every farmer across Canada will be delighted to bag the odd Canada goose that lands in his wheat field or dispatch the fox raiding the hen house. Oh wait...the long gun registry was the fox in the hen house!
Cheers
Hans-Christian Georg Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group "True North"
OK, there's one angle I haven't considered, the gang problem in Vancouver and elsewhere is getting to be a huge problem, so huge that the government *might* want an armed populace to discourage brazen daylight shootings, which are becoming more common. At the very least the problem may shift some urban voters against gun control. All of those immigrants, are we sure they want gun control? Maybe opinion has shifted.
Excerpt from http://adaugeoindex.blogspot.com/:
"Two thumbs up to Prime Minister Stephen Harper for renewing his efforts to scrap the Federal Gun Registry. This $2,000,000,000 (that is two billion but the zeros really drive the point home) waste of time, effort, and money that has had no positive effect on crime in this country is the epitome of big government squandering taxpayer money and oppressing the innocent. Law abiding farmers, hunters, and sportsmen targeted by the gun registry are not those responsible for the gangland style violence in Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, and Toronto. Imagine what effect that $2 billion would have had if it were used to hire more police officers, invest in advanced crime fighting technology and on expanding our justice/prison system to more effectively deal with those we do catch. Well we didn't; instead we went after Grandpa Keith in Zehner, Saskatchewan for having a shotgun to kill coyotes that hasn't been used in 20 years. Ridiculous!"
Excerpt from http://adaugeoindex.blogspot.com/:
"Two thumbs up to Prime Minister Stephen Harper for renewing his efforts to scrap the Federal Gun Registry. This $2,000,000,000 (that is two billion but the zeros really drive the point home) waste of time, effort, and money that has had no positive effect on crime in this country is the epitome of big government squandering taxpayer money and oppressing the innocent. Law abiding farmers, hunters, and sportsmen targeted by the gun registry are not those responsible for the gangland style violence in Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, and Toronto. Imagine what effect that $2 billion would have had if it were used to hire more police officers, invest in advanced crime fighting technology and on expanding our justice/prison system to more effectively deal with those we do catch. Well we didn't; instead we went after Grandpa Keith in Zehner, Saskatchewan for having a shotgun to kill coyotes that hasn't been used in 20 years. Ridiculous!"
Kevin (i want it my way) Lafayette..Cry us a river Kevin then pick up your toys and stomp off home. With that attitude you will likely be happier on Jack or Iggy's side anyway.
"and indicates that the government is interested in moving to eliminate the long-gun registry as soon as possible"
Never gonna Happen. Too many Leftoids have their sporting arms ban = crime control mantras at stake....if the world spins as it always has after the registry is scrapped...no blood running in the streets from mad duck hunters ... it will invalidate the whole fascist agenda to disarm responsible civilians by blaming them for crime stats.....and they just can't have that.
I think getting rid of the long gun registry is a mistake. They should keep it, but simply make participation completely voluntary.
That way, the hippies and commies who are so stridently in favour of it, are still free to register all the guns if they want.
See? We all win!
I see a lot of people on here today saying "this will never happen."
Yeah. Not with that attitude, for sure. What's it going to cost you to make a phone call and/or send an email to your MP?
This is a participatory democracy. Thems as participates wins. Thems as goes home sulking loses.
Pick your side, gents. The Conservatives may not be all things to all people, Stephen Harper may be a stiff in a suit, but you know what? If you kick these people hard enough, they will do what you say. Just to get away from your boots.
Why should the f-ing Lefties get it all their own way? Why should they be the ones MPs are afraid of p1ssing off?
I think they should be afraid of US for a change, eh? I think they should be waking up in a cold sweat at 3AM from nightmares about what WE are going to do to them at the polls next time out. Liberals and Conservatives the same. Iggy needs put on no uncertain notice, keeping the registry will get him defeated in an election.
So phone them up and kick their ass, or forever give up your right to WHINE that you have to register your d@mn shotgun.
The Phantom
They are already afraid of US if by us you mean the Greater Toronto Area. And quite simply, the GTA wants the registry and target shooting bans and fluffy pink bunnies for everyone. It...ain't...gonna...happen.
CBC is reporting on this.
"It had been backing Bill C-301, introduced by Saskatchewan Conservative MP Garry Breitkreuz (Yorkton-Melville), a rabid opponent of the gun registry."
This is a quote by the unbiased CBC. A Rabid opponent? I think CBC is an Rabid news organization and needs to be put down, before it infects anyone else.
"Soldiers...with guns...in our cities. We are not making this up."
This was not targetted at Calgary, Regina, Moosejaw, or Winnipeg. Politicians (Dion excepted) know their audience and the Libs and Cons know Toronto.
How is Ignatieff going to handle voting against the registry and still suck up to the West he loves so much?
He's been handed a doozie by Conservatives on this one. He's been trolling for votes in Quebec, sucking up big time and Quebecers are for the registry. He's in a lose and lose situation.
Liz
Word in Alberta is Iggy is probably going to take a seat or two/three out of Alberta in the next election. Whoopee. I'm 54 and don't recall any Liberal party tailoring their campaign around Western vote trolling at the expense of Southern Ontario and Quebec (Trudeaumania notwithstanding). And please recall the last time we were chortling and rubbing our hands with glee was when he supposedly put the Libs in a lose/lose situation over party funding. Call me a cynical westerner but I'll believe it when I see it.
I don't think conservatives are the only ones that hunt. Time to be inclusive in the club. TO is a wasteland but northern Ont. and Que most likely feel the same. Got lots of moose in the maritimes.
A poll on this question that is already going horribly wrong. Lefty listeners voting 69% in favour of the legislation to side with the Conservatives:
http://www.news1130.com/
This bill will be a government bill, introduced in the Senate, and there are no Bloc or NDP there.
If libs defeat it there it will hurt Iggy in the west and a few other areas. Pass it in the Senate, and what will the lib caucus do, if it is a free vote. Layton will vote no and lose his seat in Edmonton and probably some in BC. Pass the bill in the House and PMSH gets the credit for keeping a promise. And where will Iggy get three seats in AB.
IMO the Liberals have nothing to lose by going along with the Conservatives. The gun registry was never about crime or philosophy, it was always about skimming moderate votes in Ontario away from the Conservatives/Alliance. The Liberals knew that it would be easy to mislead the aforementioned people into thinking a vote for the Conservatives was a vote for gun toting hicks.
Umpteen gun murders and 2 billion dollars later the results speak for themselves, the Liberals would look silly for digging in on this one. I predict some form of the bill will pass giving PMSH and Iggy a boost in the credibility department; therefore, stalemate.
This will force the Conservatives party into a position if they didn’t do this purposely themselves. They should start thinking of their core voter base about now. Not Quebec. There the past . The West is the Future of economic Canada.
This is good news & I don't even own guns. I may want to in the future or not. Its about the right of Choice, over social engineering lies. To blame all on poverty or duck hunters. The Idiocy that crooks will turn in guns is laughable. This is so useless & costly it hasn’t even stopped hot break ins, indeed its accelerated them to a not distant danger for normal people today. The Police can‘t be everywhere. Nor it seems do they call anymore unless its to arrest you or give a fine. If a pet government fad group is involved, they will arrest you, not the malefactors. This may even bring back some real law enforcement. It will sure make me sleep better knowing the public has the freedom to not be considered a felon, just because they own tools that can kill if needed. So far the only benefactors have been psychos stealing whole collections of guns from government lists. With Canada now not even allowing its Olympic shooters to stay in Canada.
As well, its done nothing to stop the real gun abusers. Criminals.
JMO
Iggy takes 1-2 in Edmonton and 1 in Calgary.
Revnant Dream
I agree with most of your points. However, I just think the Libs have done too good a job in selling the IDEA (as opposed to the reality)of the registry to Eastern Urban voters. I've always noticed how many people in the media and comment sections of eastern newspapers use the term gun CONTROL instead of gun REGISTRY when discussing this legislation and I think the Libs have been successful in branding it as such. Orwellian groupspeak it may be but most Canadians are in favour of some form of gun CONTROL in some simplistic concept or form ie criminals shouldn't have guns. The Libs are desperate for a wedge issue and playing upon urban Canada's visceral fear of guns and gun violence at the expense of the Conservatives might be too good an issue to pass up.
All that and the fact that I'd end up having to read and hear about Marc Lepine ad nauseum are perhaps reasons enough that this bill shouldn't and probably won't go through. Of course, If Harper wins a majority it's a whole new ballgame.
Looking for reaction on the Conservative's Senate Bill in Tarawnnastan area by reading CBC.ca's article and accompanying readers comments was very surprising - almost every comment is in favor.
This bill does NOT repeal the registry, despite its name. It merely makes it paperless.
http://www.cdnshootingsports.org/2009/04/Senate_April_Fools.html
Every conservative should be absolutely OUTRAGED by this betrayal. I know I am.
"Iggy takes 1-2 in Edmonton and 1 in Calgary"
the only seat in Calgary that would go Lib is when
Kennedy Glans takes it and then crosses the floor
never trust a hyphen or a lieberal , she is the closet lieberal to end all closets. even Scooter Brison would run from that closet.
Pay attention people! Somebody's trying to pull a bait-and-switch on us!
Skip has it right:
"This no news at all. C301 is dead in the water. Will likely be withdrawn, and will certainly fall if voted on.
The opposition choked on the the other housekeeping amendments in the bill, in part because the RCMP is actively trying to rewrite the rules for semi-automatic non-restricted firearms (like the Ruger 10-22, and many of the firearms favoured by trap and bird hunters).
The bill is being replaced by senate bill s-5
http://tinyurl.com/dz46f9
which amends ONLY for non-restricted (long gun)registry only.
However, it doesn't eliminate a registry, just the federal one. The provincial CFOs still have to approve the transfer of any long gun and in order to do so, the gun must be identified to ensure it is in fact eligible to be unregistered. Anyone who believes the CFOs will not create their own database of transferred un-registered long guns is dreaming in technicolor. THAT can be accomplished with any basic database program, including the one in Open Office."
this bill sucks, C-301 is much better, Gary should have dropped the 10 year licence, but kept the rest which is inline with what all the other departments do to streamline the red tape. It was clear that if well presented c-301 was likely to pass, enough rural Libs and Ndp MP indicated they would vote for it. the crap about making things to easy for restricted and prohib gun owners is crap. I have a gun i can't take to the range, yet the gun beside it is almost exactly the same and I can shoot it anywhere.
I'd love to see the long-gun registry bite the dust but on the other hand I'd hate to see a whole bunch of support for the idea from the Liberal side of the isle.
Problem is, if the Liberals see that there is support from enough members to dump the registry it would be just like the Lieberals to whole heartedly support the measure so they could make in-roads in Western Canada.
I'd really prefer that this would all happen under a majority Conservative government. That way only Conservatives could take proper credit.
Now is the time in the comments where we juxtapose (or is this just text replacement?)!
Never gonna Happen. Too many Leftoids have their Kyoto Fantasies = Saving the Planet mantras at stake....if the world spins as it always has after the Radical Green Agenda is scrapped...no Worldwide Catastrophe from Global Warming... it will invalidate the whole fascist agenda to Bring Western Economies To Their Knees by blaming them for Normal, Uncontrollable Weather and Climate Variations.....and they just can't have that.
This is absolutely shameful for PVL. I can't believe he's pulling this on us. Kate, this is very, very far from good news - this is a sham of a bill designed to put the issue to bed without actually doing anything of substance. Hell, it'll probably increase registry costs.
If anyone thinks that this new Senate bill, S-5, does firearm owners any favours, they need to actually read the wording of the bill. It does eliminate the federal long-gun registry but then includes a legal requirement to obtain approval from the Chief Firearms Officer for all transactions of non-restricted firearms. Although the formal registration system kept by the Canadian Firearms Centre may be gone, the same information will very likely be maintained by the CFO regarding the detail of the firearm as well as the buyer and the seller. Still a registry and the CFO ends up with even more control.
As well, all of the additional items in the Breitkreuz bill, C-301, are gone. There have been no favours done here: all political smoke and mirrors.