====== forwarded from Canadian Firearms Digest, V2 # 605 ========== Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1998 10:22:34 -0600 From: "David BREWERTON" <brewerd@shaw.wave.ca> Subject: FedUp II rally To the Editor, Halifax Herald: Regarding your "Sticking to their guns" article. I would like to correct a few inaccuracies in your piece. 1> "..to join about 8,000 others at the Fed Up II Rally.." - the RCMP estimate was 30,000 people, one of the largest if not THE largest rally ever on Parliament Hill. 2>"The new law, Bill C-68, will come into effect on Dec. 1, two months after it was first scheduled to be implemented." NO, this is the FIFTH extension of it's implementation date, now totalling three years. 3>"Ms. McLellan said the delay was at the request of Ontario law enforcement officials and not due to problems with the federal government's new system." FALSE, only 8 days before the law was scheduled to go into effect, gun dealers and Police departments still do not have the information on how to comply with the law. Confirm this with the Provincial Firearms Officers - they don't have the information yet. The fault is Federal. I asked gun dealers here and confirmed this with them, they still have nothing from the Federal government. 4>"Ms. McLellan said the program is still expected to cost about $185 million over the first five years" NO, they've already spent $135 million (that they'll acknowledge) THIS YEAR ALONE, and $250+ million so far in 3 years before registering a single firearm and they claim $60 million annually to run it. That's impossible since the current handgun registration system costs just under $100 per gun to register and with estimates (RCMP) of up to 25 million guns in Canada, that's $2.5 BILLION to do the job. Add to that the $200 million the Canadian Police Association must have to upgrade it's computer system to use the data from this system, the price is now somewhere around $3 Billion. That would help a lot of Hep-C victims and cancer patients. 5>"The minister also denied the government has a secret agenda to confiscate everyone's guns and use the registry to let the police know where to find firearms." False, since the goverment has already announced that they're turning 58% of the legitimately owned handguns in Canada into prohibited firearms and confiscating them without compensation. (Also illegal under the Charter of Rights) As for the Police access to the information - that was the main selling point by the Liberals to get the Canadian Police Chiefs to agree to support it. They were to have this information before going into a house to be prepared for any eventuality. They've now been informed that the system won't give them that information. The support of main line Police officers doesn't exist either. 85-91% of officers surveyed in several provinces (where their leaders would allow the survey to be done) say that they don't support the law. Please, lets keep the facts straight on this. There are 7 million people in this country who own firearms (RCMP estimates) and they're all voters and taxpayers. The utter waste of some $3 Billion on something with early estimates of a minimum 50% error rate (from the Ministers Select group of firearms experts) that will do nothing to combat crime since criminals won't register their guns and 90% of firearms crime (RCMP figures) is done with unregistered handguns which have had mandatory registration since 1934, cannot be tolerated. The NFA put together a system of firearm owner licensing some 30 years ago that would take care of most of what the government theoretically wants to accomplish with a very low cost. They refuse to consider it. The existing handgun registry has an estimated 30-45% error rate and even the courts refuse to accept data from it in court since it's so inaccurate. The Federal government can't even get their figures straight, since their numbers don't match either the RCMP or StatsCan figures for crime rates. They were caught inflating RCMP crime figures by 900% to strengthen their case in the Alberta Court of Appeal. They used the argument that even if a firearm was present at a location (locked in a gun safe and not involved in the crime) then it was a firearm crime. That's like saying that if there's a domestic dispute in a home and there's a car in the driveway then it's an automobile accident. That doesn't wash with me, I don't know about you. Please, lets keep the facts straight so that your readers can make an accurate assessment of the news, not a distorted one.