How And Why The Long Gun Registry Died

"When I say that we will crack down on crime, I don't mean that we'll crack down on farmers or duck hunters."

—Stephen Harper

I believe that when it comes to public safety nothing is more dangerous than a false sense of protection.

TRAGEDY WITH GUN REGISTRATION

The sad truth is that we can not stop most killers. You don't know what someone will do when they are on drugs or pushed to their limits.

On September 13th 2006 Montreal, Quebec, Dawson College: Canada's gun control laws gave a false sense of protection to Anastasia De Sousa.

Between 12:42 pm and 1:02 pm on that horrible day, Kimveer Gill killed Anastasia, himself and injured 19 others with a Norinco HP9-1 shotgun, Beretta CX4 and a Glock pistol. Kimveer was 25 years old and all three of his guns were legally registered to his name. This was a real wake-up call on how useless gun registration really is when it comes to saving someone's life.

With Canada's strict gun laws, Kimveer probably knew that none of his victims would have the ability to fight back, making Dawson College his killing zone.

If Anastasia had a gun, giving her the ability to save herself and eliminate the threat, she might be alive today.

"If somebody wants to kill people, they don't need a gun to do it"

—Ice T

WE'RE VULNERABLE

The human body is full of vessels, arteries and vital organs. This makes us very easy to kill. Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great, William the Conqueror, Hannibal and other killers before the 13th Century had killed millions of people before the invention of firearms. History provides all the evidence that people do not need guns to kill one another.

In Canada, nobody registers their knives, ice picks or other kitchen tools.

In the wrong hands a knife can be more deadly than a gun. Knives don't jam, misfire, make a loud bang when used or run out of ammo and you don't need to be trained to know how to use them. A half inch slash wound to the side of the neck with a blade can cut the carotid artery, and the internal and external jugular veins. Once those are cut the victim has two minutes to stop the bleeding or get to the ER.

On July 30th 2008 on a Greyhound bus, Vince Li killed Tim McLean with a hunting knife. Tim was horrifically murdered and no firearm was used. Everyone on that bus was unarmed. If someone on that bus had been armed, Tim might be alive today.

Canada's gun registry did nothing to protect Anastasia De Sousa, Tim McLean and hundreds of other Canadians from 1995 to 2012.

The registry did tell police if there was a registered gun in a house, no doubt, but not if there's a stolen, smuggled or black market gun in the house. A black market machine gun can do a lot more damage than a registered B-B gun ever could. RCMP and city police are trained to never depend their lives on the gun registry.

The registry did not make a difference in the criminal world. Criminals don't register their guns. That's what makes them criminals and they don't care what you or I have to say to them.

"Guns don't kill people crazy MOTHER F#%KERS kill people!"

—Origin Unknown

The term "Guns don't kill people. People kill people," is stating the fact that a gun needs a dangerous human operator to be a threat to someone. A gun is an object. It does not have a brain to have mental illness or fingers to squeeze it's own trigger. The real weapons in this world are people who are homicidal, everything else around us is a tool. As humans we are the deadliest creatures on earth.

THE MONEY

The long gun registry cost $50 for each long gun registered per year. With 30.8% of Canadians being gun owners, from 1995 to 2012, that was over $2,000,000,000 ($2 billion) total, cutting down on RCMP and city police budgets. In that time the registry did nothing to stop criminals from killing people.

On June 28th 2002 the country put Stephen Joseph Harper in office as leader of the Conservative Party. When Harper took power in 2006 he had a goal in mind to expose the long gun registry for what it was and eliminate it, but without a majority at the time there was little he could do about it, aside from fighting the Liberals with NDP leader Jack Layton backing him up.

Later in 2010 Layton betrayed Harper and the Canadian people on this issue by changing his mind and deciding to fight to change, but keep the registry. The Canadian gun owners and tax payers who hated the registry did not take this well and had enough of this harassment and endless waste of money. With Michael Ignatieff's power and Layton's betrayal, Harper was Canada's last hope to kill the Long Gun Registry. In the 2011 federal election Harper promised to get rid of the long gun registry for good if the voters gave him a majority.

At the end of the election Harper's Conservatives got the majority with 166 seats, Layton's NDP: 103 seats and Ignatieff's crushing defeat with only 34 seats. Michael Ignatieff stepped down and gave up leading the Liberals.

With Harper armed with the majority he needed, having Ignatieff out of Canada's House of Commons and Layton deceased, Harper got to the final vote on C-19 Long Gun Registry right after he returned from China.

Back in Canada Stephen Harper, Candice Hoeppner, the Conservatives and even two NDP members passed their vote on C-19 (getting rid of the long gun registry) and winning with 159 votes over 130 on February 22nd 2012.

On April 5th 2012 Canada's Long Gun Registry officially died and in the following November the records of the Long Gun Registry were destroyed completely. Quebec's provincial government tried to save them for themselves but, failed and now the records of the Long Gun Registry are gone.

However the Handgun Registry that started back in 1935 still lives on

Germany: 1928 To 1945

"To conquer a nation you must first disarm the citizens nothing drives the people harder than the sudden fear of death "

—Adolf Hitler

With the German Mennonite Resolution against slavery in 1688 I have great pride in having German ancestry from both my grandmothers. However, the first half of the 20th century in German history, is not something I'm proud of.

Back in 1918 Germany was paying the price of their defeat from World War I. The country was in high debt, causing high unemployment and almost all of the good and high paying jobs belonged to the...