A vote by the House of Commons to consider eliminating the long-gun registry has brought back that highly-politicized issue to be kicked around for the umpteenth time. Gun control and BSE are perhaps two rural issues that seem to be immune to common sense and both have cost taxpayers billions of dollars.
Anti-gun registry proponents are trying to find a small victory in the decision, but political reality would favour endless procedural delays and grand standing by opposition parties with, of course, the Liberal-dominated Senate blocking passage of the bill if it ever gets that far.
Lobbyists on both sides, as expected, trotted out statistics that the existing long-gun registry is working very well, and of course, is not working at all. Just for transparency, I have owned long-guns, and went through the registry process to see what it was all about. All I saw was that a lot of people got jobs shuffling papers and punching computer keys, consultants got rich providing dubious advice, ad agencies and the media raked in millions in advertising profits. I didn’t get as much as a thank you for my effort and patience, perhaps I could have been given a window sticker stating, “registered gun owner lives here.”
I personally cannot get excited about registering guns or not. We register and license cars, fishing, marriages, mortgages and myriad other products and services some of which can be as dangerous as a firearm. The problem always was implementation which gets completely out of hand whenever you give a bureaucrat an unlimited budget and regulatory power to enforce a politically-charged mandate.
The Liberals who hatched the idea should be commended for their political deviousness. They were able to appear to be doing something significant on a issue that in reality they have no control over. They used the registry to appear to be strong on gun control to satisfy their city-based voters. Most city folks willingly swallowed that bit of political bull fudge. The fact that the folks forced into the long gun registry were not committing gun crimes in urban neighborhoods was willfully ignored, but that’s politics and all is fair when it comes to duping the voter in your favour.
In retrospect, it all could have been so much simpler but woe to the taxpayer when federal bureaucrats have power, it’s always their way or their way only. Suggestions were made at the very beginning that two things should have happened; only long guns purchased after the implementation date should face compulsory registration - that way the retailer would have had to do the paperwork. Second, those in possession of long guns before the implementation should have been offered a financial incentive to have them registered. It now appears that if gun owners were offered say $250 for each gun they registered, the process would have saved a billion dollars. I expect such a figure would have scared up a lot more guns than are registered now.
The method to register gun owners also seemed rather silly. Would it not have been simpler to just tie into the driver’s license computer system? That process weeds out folks that shouldn’t drive or fail a test. It could have been modified to provide registration info right on the drivers license. Again financial incentives could have been provided to encourage folks to register.
Of course, none of the above would have even been considered by federal bureaucrats being it would have reduced empire building and spending. Even if they had been given such advice, they would have found consultants of convenience to throw water on the idea. Besides it would have meant dealing with provincial governments - what do they know - after all they have only been in the registration and licensing business for 100 years.
It’s all billions of taxpayer dollars under the bridge right know and it’s not likely to change given the political situation in Ottawa. Of course, even in the unlikely event that the long-gun registry were discontinued, some future Liberal government would be sure to re-instate it just to make a political point. Only in Canada.