REGINA – The federal government should delay imposing a national gun registry until pilot projects in provinces that support the new gun bill have proven it deters crime and violence, Saskatchewan politicians told the federal justice committee this week.
Rather than asking permission for Saskatchewan to opt out of a national gun registry, a united front of New Democratic Party, Progressive Conservative and Liberal politicians asked the federal government to wait until it had evaluated and tested
present gun laws.
“This pilot project, when combined with the results of the evaluation, could form the basis needed for future decisions based on fact rather than speculation or general statistics,” the Saskatchewan brief reads.
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It attacks the idea that registering all firearms would prevent domestic violence or protect police.
Greater vigilance
It suggests the federal government be more vigilant in controlling gun smuggling and more rigorously enforce safe storage requirements outlined in present gun laws.
The brief says a national registry “is an urban solution imposed on a rural and northern culture that is not experiencing a problem. This legislation has created an unprecedented attitude of persecution amongst firearm owners as law abiding members of our society.”
Skeptical of success
NDP justice minister Bob Mitchell and the PC and Liberal leaders support the position spelled out in the brief, but none were optimistic it would have much effect.
“I don’t believe going to Ottawa and suggesting something that (Mitchell) has already suggested … and having (federal justice minister Allan) Rock say that that isn’t an acceptable alternative, is going to be very effective,” said Saskatchewan Tory leader Bill Boyd.
Liberal leader Lynda Haverstock said “I’m not going under any illusions that somehow the group of us from Saskatchewan are going to make (the committee) throw out this proposed legislation.”
Mitchell planned to meet with Rock after the presentation, but had agreed not to talk about the gun bill because their differences are too great.
He said once the presentation is made to the standing committee, the Saskatchewan government will be effectively finished with its campaign against the bill, since all power rests in the hands of the committee, the House of Commons and the Senate.
Boyd said the NDP government should support his party’s attempts to pass provincial legislation which takes control of firearms laws out of federal hands.
