Waste of money.

[Jean-Francois Avon]

====== forwarded from Canadian Firearms Digest, V2 # 605 ==========
Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1998 10:22:34 -0600
From: "David BREWERTON" <brewerd at 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.