Politicos differ on gun registry

Politicos differ on gun registry
By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby Now assistant editor
Published Jan. 26, 2003

While many Canadians are becoming increasingly worried by the growing costs of the federal gun registry, Western Canada's longest serving member of Parliament believes it is an idea that should not be forsaken.
Svend Robinson, the NDP MP for Burnaby-Douglas, says his position on gun control has been consistent since he first entered parliament more than 23 years ago - he supports a strong, effective and low- cost registry of all firearms in Canada.
"The real tragedy around gun control is the incompetence of the Liberals in implementing Bill C-68," Robinson told the Burnaby NOW. "They've made the task of those who support the principles of effective gun control much more difficult.
"They've bungled it totally and handled it in an incompetent and fiscally irresponsible manner, and I think that people are confusing the Liberals' bungling with the principles."
When the facts are made clear, Robinson believes a majority of Canadians will still support the need to register weapons.
Robinson said local RCMP officers have told him that they need to know if guns are present when they respond to calls inside residences. And local women's shelter workers have also expressed concern about the ease with which some people can hide weapons.
"I've looked at the statistics, and in countries where there are effective gun control laws the number of deaths from firearms is dramatically lower than in the United States, where there's a constitutional right for high school students to bring guns into schools.
"I think it's not unreasonable to ask people to pay a modest sum to ensure these lethal weapons are registered so law enforcement authorities are aware of who has them."
A politician with a slightly different take on the gun registry is former NDP member Lee Rankin, who was a candidate for the federal Liberal party in the 2000 election and is now a TEAM member of Burnaby city council.
Rankin believes the registry just might stop spending so much money if it focused exclusively on restricted weapons and handguns instead of having long guns and rifles to deal with.
"I think the registering of all weapons, including hunting rifles and sport rifles, is of dubious benefit in terms of criminal justice issues," said Rankin, who split from the NDP in 1999 during a dispute over the civic politics.
Rankin said Canada already has strong laws to restrict the use of high-powered and concealed weapons. "We need better interdiction at the border, and more prosecuting of people who break the laws. That's the real problem," he said.