The last gun control debate likely to be heard in this Parliament ended last week with the two sides clearly ready to pick up the battle on the election hustings.
Garry Breitkreuz, a Canadian Alliance MP from Saskatchewan, denounced the federal gun registration law as a costly, ineffective attempt at public relations by the Liberals. He accused the Liberals of reacting to urban prejudices about guns.
Breitkreuz is the author of a private member’s bill that would see sections of the federal gun registration expire after five years if they are not found to be cost-effective by the federal auditor general.
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Breitkreuz, a fierce opponent of the legislation, has predicted that gun control will be one of the major election issues in rural Canada.
During debate of his bill, he said the law has created a divide between the people and the police who must enforce it by making three million gun owners potential criminals if they do not register.
“The consequences of this law is a breakdown of trust between the police and the average citizen in thousands of municipalities across this land.”
Nova Scotia Conservative Peter MacKay shared Breitkreuz’ ground.
“This (Liberal gun control bill) is completely off base, off target,” he said.
“It was arrogantly, ineffectively and wastefully put in place to distract from the real issue.”
MacKay said “this legislation will not change until the government changes.”
Ontario Liberal John Maloney, parliamentary secretary to the justice minister, laid out the Liberal arguments as he rejected the proposal for a five-year “sunset” clause for the gun registration bill.
He denied opposition charges that the registration system is a shambles, with several million gun owners still unregistered and the Dec. 31 deadline looming.
He said the system of pre-registration checks has caught more than 4,000 “potentially dangerous gun sales.” Because of police checks, he said, licence revocations are 20 times higher than the total of the past five years.
“It is through results such as this that the Canadian public knows the new gun control program will make their homes and their communities as a whole much safer,” he said.
“The choices laid out are clear. If (Breitkreuz’) bill were to become law and all Canadian gun laws are sunsetted, Canada would be left with no licensing, no registration, nothing. The adoption (of this bill) would put lives at risk and that is unacceptable.”
