Steven Mace
05-14-2002, 10:42 PM
May. 14, 2002. 12:37 PM
Deadline looms for gun registration
Critics says reminder letters won't convince holdouts to sign-up firearms
FREDERICTON (CP) — The Canadian Firearms Centre is preparing to send out reminder letters to hundreds of thousands of gun owners who have yet to register their firearms.
Dave Austin, spokesman for the centre which has its main call centre and registry office in New Brunswick, said about one-third of the almost two million Canadians holding gun licences have yet to register their guns.
"Reminder letters will be going out to those who haven't sent in registration forms later this month or early next month," Austin said Tuesday.
Guns must be registered by Jan. 1, 2003.
Penalties for not acquiring a licence can result in up to five years in jail and seizure of guns. Possession of non-registered guns can lead to charges under the Firearms Act or the Criminal Code.
But critics of Canada's gun control law warn that reminder notes probably won't have much impact on the thousands of angry gun owners who seem determined to flaunt a law they consider pointless.
The fact that Canadians have been slow to comply forced Ottawa to waive the registration fees last October in an attempt to get more guns registered.
The sign-up-for-free program is now finished and gun owners have to pay an $18 fee when registering by mail. However, they can avoid the fee by registering online.
Alliance MP Garry Breitkreuz said he believes the gun registry will have trouble convincing the holdouts.
"If they didn't capture these people during their stay-out-of-jail sale, then I don't know how many would still comply with the law," Breitkreuz said.
Breitkreuz said the Canadian government is about to criminalize hundreds of thousands of law-abiding citizens, while at the same time doing little to curb gun use by criminals.
He pointed to a recent Hell's Angels trial in Montreal where police confirmed that several firearms found in the home of convicted killer Maurice "Mom" Boucher were acquired legally.
It turns out the weapons, a handgun and three pump-action shotguns, were registered to an acquaintance of Boucher's under the old RCMP certificate system. They were not licensed to Boucher, and they had not been cleared by the gun registry.
But Breitkreuz said that, nevertheless, a dangerous person was in possession of dangerous weapons and registration could do nothing to stop the criminal activity.
"It underscores the fact that registration doesn't affect criminals and it won't affect what they do with their firearms," the Alliance critic said.
"It highlights what a complete waste of money this is. Why don't we put more police on the street? Then we could go after the people who are really committing the crimes."
Wendy Cukier, a spokeswoman for the Coalition for Gun Control and a professor of justice studies at Ryerson University in Toronto, said she's pleased with the progress made by the gun registry, pointing out that while a third have yet to register, two-thirds of gun owners have complied with the law.
She said there's strong evidence that Canada's gun control measures are already having impact as the number of gun-related deaths in the country is the lowest it has been in about 30 years.
"You discourage casual ownership," Cukier said of the registry. "It's often the guns that are forgotten and unattended in the basement that are the ones kids get hold of and are used in suicides or found in break and enters."
As well, she said licence refusal and revocation rates for the gun registry — roughly 4,000 in the past three years — proves that the system is identifying potentially risky gun owners.
She said gun control never carried a guarantee that it could eliminate criminal use of guns.
"Strengthening control means reducing the risk that guns will be misused. It doesn't guarantee they won't be misused."
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1021371457002&call_page=TS_Canada&call_pageid=968332188774&call_pagepath=News/Canada&col=968350116467
Steve Mace
Deadline looms for gun registration
Critics says reminder letters won't convince holdouts to sign-up firearms
FREDERICTON (CP) — The Canadian Firearms Centre is preparing to send out reminder letters to hundreds of thousands of gun owners who have yet to register their firearms.
Dave Austin, spokesman for the centre which has its main call centre and registry office in New Brunswick, said about one-third of the almost two million Canadians holding gun licences have yet to register their guns.
"Reminder letters will be going out to those who haven't sent in registration forms later this month or early next month," Austin said Tuesday.
Guns must be registered by Jan. 1, 2003.
Penalties for not acquiring a licence can result in up to five years in jail and seizure of guns. Possession of non-registered guns can lead to charges under the Firearms Act or the Criminal Code.
But critics of Canada's gun control law warn that reminder notes probably won't have much impact on the thousands of angry gun owners who seem determined to flaunt a law they consider pointless.
The fact that Canadians have been slow to comply forced Ottawa to waive the registration fees last October in an attempt to get more guns registered.
The sign-up-for-free program is now finished and gun owners have to pay an $18 fee when registering by mail. However, they can avoid the fee by registering online.
Alliance MP Garry Breitkreuz said he believes the gun registry will have trouble convincing the holdouts.
"If they didn't capture these people during their stay-out-of-jail sale, then I don't know how many would still comply with the law," Breitkreuz said.
Breitkreuz said the Canadian government is about to criminalize hundreds of thousands of law-abiding citizens, while at the same time doing little to curb gun use by criminals.
He pointed to a recent Hell's Angels trial in Montreal where police confirmed that several firearms found in the home of convicted killer Maurice "Mom" Boucher were acquired legally.
It turns out the weapons, a handgun and three pump-action shotguns, were registered to an acquaintance of Boucher's under the old RCMP certificate system. They were not licensed to Boucher, and they had not been cleared by the gun registry.
But Breitkreuz said that, nevertheless, a dangerous person was in possession of dangerous weapons and registration could do nothing to stop the criminal activity.
"It underscores the fact that registration doesn't affect criminals and it won't affect what they do with their firearms," the Alliance critic said.
"It highlights what a complete waste of money this is. Why don't we put more police on the street? Then we could go after the people who are really committing the crimes."
Wendy Cukier, a spokeswoman for the Coalition for Gun Control and a professor of justice studies at Ryerson University in Toronto, said she's pleased with the progress made by the gun registry, pointing out that while a third have yet to register, two-thirds of gun owners have complied with the law.
She said there's strong evidence that Canada's gun control measures are already having impact as the number of gun-related deaths in the country is the lowest it has been in about 30 years.
"You discourage casual ownership," Cukier said of the registry. "It's often the guns that are forgotten and unattended in the basement that are the ones kids get hold of and are used in suicides or found in break and enters."
As well, she said licence refusal and revocation rates for the gun registry — roughly 4,000 in the past three years — proves that the system is identifying potentially risky gun owners.
She said gun control never carried a guarantee that it could eliminate criminal use of guns.
"Strengthening control means reducing the risk that guns will be misused. It doesn't guarantee they won't be misused."
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1021371457002&call_page=TS_Canada&call_pageid=968332188774&call_pagepath=News/Canada&col=968350116467
Steve Mace