Friday, October 21, 2011

Canadians Get Some Good News


Long-gun registry to be shot down Thursday


NEWS CANADA


OTTAWA - The feds are taking aim at the controversial long-gun registry Thursday when they are expected to table a bill to scrap it.


The bill is expected to pass easily in the Conservative majority Parliament.


According to Sara MacIntyre, a spokeswoman for the Prime Minister, this bill is a "priority" for the government.


"It is one of our commitments. It is something we're moving forward on," MacIntyre said Wednesday. "It's a priority piece of legislation."


While the order paper notice only hints at amendments to the Firearms Act, a source close to the file told QMI Agency the bill is expected to fully repeal the requirement to register long-guns. It will also re-write the Firearms Act to specify only restricted and prohibited firearms need to be registered.


Also, according to the source, all long-gun registry records will be destroyed.


The long-gun registry was introduced in 1995 by Jean Chretien's Liberal government and while it said the program would only cost $2 million, costs ballooned to over $1 billion.


Gun control advocates and the country's chiefs of police have argued it provides valuable information to officers, and have also suggested it has lowered rates of domestic violence.


Critics, though, have blasted the registry as ineffective and wasteful, and say it does not improve public safety, but rather targets law-abiding shotgun and rifle owners.

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