The elimination of Canada's national firearms licensing and registration system for rifles and shotguns will make Canada less safe.
- Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair
The Conservative Party may get away with its drive-by shooting of the long gun registry, thanks to 20 rural Liberal and New Democrat MPs riding shotgun in the getaway car.
So while both Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff and NDP leader Jack Layton opposed a Conservative MP's private member's bill to eliminate the registry, their gutless unwillingness to rein in their MPs allowed a key vote to pass last week.
It was 12 NDP and eight Liberal MPs - including two from B.C. - who joined the Conservatives to easily pass the bill in principle.
The vote came despite overwhelming opposition to eliminating the registry from the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, community organizations and polls showing two-thirds of Canadians support the registry.
Bill C-391 would end registration of rifles and shotguns from a database police across Canada access over 10,000 times a day.
And - unbelievably - it would require the destruction of eight million existing firearms records!
But while the Liberals and NDP were gutless in allowing a "free" vote of their MPs, it was shameful Conservative Party attack ads targeting rural Liberal and NDP MPs that likely pushed the vote over the top.
The radio ads and flyers were based on National Rifle Association tactics in the United States to pressure British Columbia Liberal MP Keith Martin and NDP MPs Nathan Cullen and Alex Atamanenko in their constituencies to vote to kill the registry.
The radio ad script is outrageous, claiming that the vote would "scrap the long gun registry and protect our local way of life" but that "political bosses in Ottawa" want the local MP to keep the registry.
While the ads may have worked on some MPs - Martin and Cullen voted to kill the registry - Atamanenko bravely stood up to the Conservatives, voting no.
Despite claims that the registry unfairly discriminates against rural gun owners, the reality is that access to firearms is a key factor in domestic homicides.
And while the former Liberal government was incompetent in setting the registry up at great cost, its annual budget is now just $8.4 million.
And if the Conservatives hadn't waived the registration fees it would have paid for itself.
Give Toronto police chief Bill Blair the last word: "We believe that the gun registry provides police services across this country with the information they need, first of all to help us keep communities safe, and also to keep police officers safe."
There's still time to save the long gun registry - tell your MP to keep it when it comes back for a final vote.
News, views and attitude Bill Tieleman
Despite claims that the registry unfairly discriminates against rural gun owners, the reality is that access to firearms is a key factor in domestic homicides.
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