One Life the Gun Registry Couldn’t Save…
November 4, 2009 · By Jonathan McLeod
…it’s own.
MPs voted by a clear margin Wednesday to repeal the federal long-gun registry, signalling for the first time since the program was adopted 14 years ago that it is headed for the scrap heap, despite police assertions that it saves lives.A private member’s bill, sponsored by Conservative backbencher Candice Hoeppner, had the backing of all the Tories, from Prime Minister Stephen Harper down, and enough opposition MPs to clear its first major hurdle of winning support in principle.
The bill passed by a surprising 164-137, winning more supporters than expected as 12 New Democrats, eight Liberals and one Independent cast their votes with the government.
The Gun Registry has been a supreme waste of tax money. That alone should be sufficien to kill it off (even if it has taken 14 years). This is pretty much a no brainer for conservatives and libertarians. What’s great to see is a number of MPs from left wing parties supporting it also.
The thing is (and conservatives and most libertarians will admit to this), sometimes it is necessary for the government to do things. Sometimes, they have to spend our money. It is for this reason that progressives, liberals and big government conservatives (and anyone else who supports lots of government intrusion in our lives) should be especially horrified by the Gun Registry. It has become such a punch line – such an emblem of wasteful, useless government – that it damages the credibility of the government. By extension, it hurts our cemocracy.
A frequent commenter and contributor at SDA, Vitruvius, wrote an excellent piece on the incredible cost of the gun registry. (_http://sagaciousiconoclast.blogspot.com/2004/02/guns-fraud-and-big-numbers-in-canada.html) Quoting:
“Corporations get sued for cost overruns on the order of tens of percent. Assuming my careful $10 million estimate is reasonable, the registry database is not 10 % over. It’s not 100 % over. It’s not 1,000 % over. It’s 7,500 % over.”
One certainly hopes this Bill makes it through the Senate, etc. and into law. The GR will surely become a political catch-phrase for waste and irrelevance.
bye bye chretien legacy…..
The registry achieved its objective of making friends of the corrupt Liberal party very rich while buying good media and votes. It is time to kill it. The crooked Liberals already have another wave of corruption ready to go for the next time they fall into power, they’ve gotten all they can out of this one example.