Editorial 7-19
Alberta gun registry a non-starter
With the newly minted Harper Conservative majority government now up and running, the days of the controversial national firearms registry certainly appear to be numbered.
After years of fighting what it calls a wasteful and unnecessary public expense, the Tories are moving forward with their oft-stated promise to repeal the registry.
The brainchild of former Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien and his colleagues, the registry requires all gun owners to register their rifles and shotguns or face heavy fines. The registry garnered both support and opposition across Canada throughout its 16-year existence.
While it remains anyone's guess whether the registry will be missed in other provinces, the very vocal opponents of the registry in Alberta will no doubt be glad to see it go.
Yet now that the national registry is about to become history, talk has already started about whether provinces and territories should create their own registries.
Last week reports surfaced that the government of Quebec is considering the formation of its own registry along the same lines as the national registry.
In reaction, the federal government was quick to say provinces can do as they please when it comes to forming their own registries within their own boundaries.
“Quebec or any of the provinces are free to move forward with any proposals within their jurisdictions," said Public Safety Minister Vic Toews.
“Canadians gave our government a strong mandate to end the long-gun registry once and for all and that is exactly what we intend to do,” he added.
As one of the strongest supporters of the national registry over the years – in part in reaction to the horrific gun massacre of 14 women at Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique in 1989 – it is not surprising that Quebec wants to put its own registry in place as soon as possible.
If the taxpayers of Quebec believe a new registry will be worth the trouble and the expense, then they should feel free to move forward with a registry of their own.
Yet the chances of an Alberta government being willing or even able to put a similar registry in place without creating a firestorm of protest, particularly in rural communities, is remote in the extreme.
The bottom line is that while Albertans are no different than other Canadians in wanting their communities to be free of gun violence, the long and bitter fight against the national registry would make any attempt to implement an Alberta registry a non-starter.
Hopefully the Alberta government will give the idea of a provincial gun registry a pass, concentrating instead on providing police with the resources they need to target criminals, not law-abiding gun owners.
