On Jan 4, 4:47 pm, "peter skelton" <
skelto...@yahoo.ca>wrote:
>
>
>"SaPeIsMa" wrote in message
> news:kc7lrn$n57$4...@dont-email.me...
>
>>"peter skelton" <
skelto...@yahoo.ca>wrote in message
>> news:kc7kna$gjh$1...@dont-email.me...
>
>>>"JohnJohnsn" wrote in message
>>> news:c5666546-c9de-4122...@b11g2000yqh.googlegroups.com...
>
>>>> On Jan 4, 3:37 pm, "Jeffrey Hamilton"
>>>> <
bberesf...@cogeco.ca>wrote:
>
>>>>> The majority of American males are NOT lunatics, but to give the potential
>>>>> for further mass murder to some mindless, gun worshiping NRA addicts,
>>>>> could result in the further deaths of thousands upon thousands of innocent
>>>>> Americans, "is just too much of a risk" !
>
>>>>"Why is it that every time a lunatic uses a firearm to commit an
>>>> atrocity the gun-control fanatics want to punish the millions of gun
>>>> owners that DIDN'T do it?!?!?
>>> --Me, Dec. 18, 2012
>
>>>> BTW, Jeffrey; wanna tell us just how well that gun registration
>>>> program up there in Canuckistan worked out for ya? :)
>>
>>>> Oh; that's right: it DIDN'T!!!
>
>>> <s>
>
>>> That, of course, is a flat lie. We have our paranoid
>>> "there's a conspiracy to take our guns" twits too. The
>>> registry cost far too much, but it became, very quickly,
>>> a useful tool for the police. They, and the majority of the
>>> population, supported the registry.
>>
>> They supported a dishonest sales pitch thrown at them
>> at a time they were vulnerable.
>
> You seem rather ignorant of the facts.
>
The "facts" seem to show you to either be: 1) bone ignorant; or 2) a
gun control quisling/troll:
Why the long-gun registry doesn’t work — and never did
Gary Mauser, Special to National Post, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada |
Dec 11, 2012
In March, Stephen Harper’s government reversed decades of increasing
restrictions on civilian firearms, scrapping the controversial long-
gun registry on grounds that it was wasteful and ineffective. Gun
laws, the prime minister correctly said, should focus on criminals
rather than law-abiding citizens such as farmers and hunters.
Some claim that this Conservative policy flies in the face of a
mountain of evidence, and even represents an assault against reason.
Canadian voters seem divided on this issue, as well as some basic
related questions: Are firearms in the hands of ordinary citizens a
serious threat to public safety? Is registration an effective approach
to controlling misuse? How useful was the long-gun registry to police?
This article will answer some of those questions.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gun laws generally tend to be passed during periods of fear or
instability, and only occasionally reversed afterwards. In 1913, for
instance, a fear of immigrants prompted Ottawa’s first serious handgun
legislation, requiring civilians to obtain a police-issued permit to
acquire or carry handguns. Non-British immigrants found it difficult
to get a permit.
Fearing labour unrest as well as American rum-runners, Ottawa mandated
handgun registration in 1934. In 1941, concerned about possible
Japanese sabotage, the government prohibited all
“Orientals” (including Chinese) from owning firearms. (After the war,
these restrictions were rescinded.) Terrorism in Quebec swayed opinion
in the 1960s and ’70s, spurring Ottawa to limit handgun permits for
“protection” to a handful of people, such as retired police and
prospectors. In 1977, a Firearms Acquisition Certificate (FAC) was
required to obtain ordinary rifles and shotguns. (The police decided
to refuse an FAC to anyone who indicated a desire for self-protection.
This is shocking given that in a typical year, tens of thousands of
Canadians use firearms to protect themselves or their families, mostly
from wildlife.)
The 1989 École Polytechnique massacre in Montreal prompted the
Mulroney government to introduce Bill C-17 in 1991, prohibiting a
large number of military-style rifles and shotguns. FAC applicants
were now required to provide a photograph and references, and to
submit to police screening. (Typically, vetting involves telephone
checks with neighbours and spouses or ex-spouses.)
In 1993, the Liberals brought in additional changes to gun laws,
passing Bill C-68 in 1995 (the Firearms Act). Over half of all
registered handguns in Canada were prohibited. No evidence was
provided that these handguns had been misused.
The heart of the Firearms Act to this day is licensing: Owning a
firearm, an ordinary rifle or shotgun became a criminal offence for
those who do not hold a valid licence. In addition, the 1995 law
broadened police powers of search and seizure, and expanded the types
of officials who could make use of such powers, and weakened
constitutionally-protected rights against self-incrimination. To
coincide with the “National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence
against Women,” the Firearms Act became law on Dec. 5, 1995. However,
it took until 1998 to issue licences and require buyers to register
long guns. In 2001, all gun owners were required to have a licence
and, by 2003, to register all of their rifles and shotguns.
Not everyone complied. An estimated 65% of firearms owners registered
at least one rifle or shotgun, and no more than half of all long guns
ended up in the registry. Opposition was intense and has never abated.
Grassroots anger helped to fuel the rise of the Reform Party, and
contributed to the elimination of the Liberals as a political force in
the West. Despite their mutual antagonism, three opposition parties
(Reform, Progressive Conservative and New Democrat) united against the
legislation. Only the Bloc Québécois voted with the Liberals.
In 2002, the auditor-general revealed that the Firearms Centre had
grown out of control. Despite political promises that the program
would not cost over $2-million, costs were expected to exceed $1-
billion by 2005. By 2012, this had ballooned to $2.7-billion. The
auditor-general uncovered irregularities including mismanagement and
corruption. Her findings stimulated a parliamentary revolt. In 2003,
Parliament imposed an annual spending cap. The auditors’ reports led
to RCMP investigations of Liberal insiders and contributed to the fall
of the Liberal government in 2006.
To this day, it has been claimed that the registry is important in
protecting women. But in fact, there is no convincing evidence that
registering firearms has been effective in reducing either homicide
rates overall, or spousal murders in particular. Even though homicide
rates have been gradually falling since the 1970s, a wide variety of
researchers have been unable to find solid evidence linking gun laws
to this decline. Changing demographics, not firearms laws, better
explain the decline in homicides involving long guns over the past 20
years. It is difficult to argue that Canadian gun laws are effective
when homicide rates have dropped faster in the United States than in
Canada since 1991.
Another argument is that strict laws are required to monitor
potentially dangerous gun owners. However, in my Senate testimony, I
presented Statistics Canada data to show that anyone who has legally
obtained a gun is less likely to be murderous than other Canadians.
This should not surprise anyone: Firearms owners have been screened
for criminal acts since 1979; and since 1992, they have been stripped
of their firearms in cases where they commit a violent crime.
(Ironically, Canada does not currently have in place a coherent system
that tracks violent criminals on probation or parole — instead
choosing to track law-abiding, licensed duck hunters, farmers and
recreational sport shooters.)
A third claim is that long guns are the weapon of choice in domestic
homicides, and that registration can help to identify the perpetrator.
(This is related to the aforementioned claim that guns promote
violence against women.) In fact, the long-gun registry and licensing
are rarely needed by police to solve spousal homicides for three
reasons: (1) in almost all cases, spousal murderers are immediately
identified; (2) firearms are not often used to kill female spouses;
and (3) the firearms used by abusive spouses to kill their wives are
almost all possessed illegally. Statistics Canada data show that just
4% of long guns involved in homicides were registered.
In a typical year, there are almost 600 homicides and 60 female
spousal murders in Canada. On average, long guns are involved in the
deaths of just 11 female spouses. It is knives, not long guns, that
are the weapons used most often to kill women. Statistics Canada found
that most spouses (65%) accused of homicide had a history of violence
involving the victim. None of these spouses could legally own a
firearm.
Every home has a variety of objects, such as hammers or kitchen
knives, that can be used for assault or murder. Creating expensive
bureaucracies to register one or more of these items does nothing to
protect vulnerable women.
A fourth assertion is that the long-gun registry is an important tool
for the police because they use it 14,000 to 17,000 times daily.
Besides mistaking frequency of use with usefulness, this claim is
disingenuous because it confuses the long-gun registry with the
Canadian Firearms Registry Online (CFRO). Almost 98% of the queries to
the CFRO concern licensing, not the long-gun registry. The firearms
registry contains only gun-specific data, such as the make or model.
The statistics show that police recover registered long guns in just
1% of homicides. During the eight years from 2003 to 2010, there were
4,811 homicides; 1,485 of those involved firearms; only 45 featured
long guns registered to the accused. In none of these few cases have
the police been able to say that the long-gun registry provided the
identity of the murderer.
A fifth contention is that the registry tells the police who has
firearms. This is false. Neither licensing nor the long-gun registry
contains information about unregistered firearms. The most dangerous
criminals have not registered their firearms. Trusting the registry
can get police officers killed. When police approach a dangerous
person or situation, they must assume there could be an illegal
weapon. For this reason, experienced police officers have testified
that they do not find the registry helpful.
A sixth claim is that the data in the long-gun registry are too
valuable to be destroyed. Unfortunately, the many errors and omissions
in the registry vitiate its utility. The RCMP testified to the auditor-
general that they could not rely on it in court. Recent information
shows that many errors remain despite the best efforts of the Canadian
Firearms Program. Immense problems similarly have been reported
concerning the accuracy of the South African firearms registry and the
now-abandoned New Zealand long-gun registry.
The RCMP has reported error rates between 43% and 90% in firearms
applications and registry information. An Access to Information
request discovered that 4,438 stolen firearms had been successfully
reregistered without alerting authorities. Apparently, the thieves had
resold the firearms to new owners who (unsuspectingly) had
subsequently registered them. This is a classic database problem:
garbage in, gospel out. The irregularities stem from multiple causes
inherent in any registration system.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The evidence shows that the long-gun registry has not been effective
in reducing criminal violence. Nor is the Canadian experience unique.
No international study of firearm laws by criminologists or economists
has found support for the claim that restricting access to firearms by
civilians reduces criminal violence. And so ending the long gun
registry is consistent with the basic principles of good fiscal
management. Arguably any government program that fails to achieve its
objectives should be shut down.
In abolishing the long-gun registry, the Harper government was acting
in accordance with the available evidence. It is the government’s
opponents, whose ideological belief in the unproven efficacy of gun
control blinds them to fact, who are out of step with the available
evidence.
-30-
Gary A. Mauser is a professor emeritus at the Beedie School of
Business and the Institute for Canadian Urban Research Studies at
Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C. A longer version of this
article appears in the current issue of The Dorchester Review
magazine.
--
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/12/11/gary-mauser-why-the-long-gun-registry-doesnt-work-and-never-did/
Just even more proof that gun control is both selectively
discriminatory _and_ has racist roots!
So, Petey: are you bone ignorant; or merely a gun controller troll?