Long Gun Registry in Canada Worked Extremely Well

The Winnepeg Free Press reports on what all reasonable folks already knew.

Advocates for gun control could only shrug with resignation Wednesday as Statistics Canada reported fewer murders with rifles and shotguns -- one day after Ottawa issued a death warrant for the controversial long-gun registry.

The agency's annual study of homicide rates found the number of murders committed using firearms slid seven per cent from 2009 to 2010, continuing a downward trend that's been taking place over the past three decades.

Shootings still accounted for most of the country's slayings at 32 per cent, but the number of murders committed with rifles or shotguns had tumbled to one-fifth of what they were 30 years ago.

In spite of the opinion of Police Chiefs and leading gun control groups in Canada, the Conservative government has succeeded in destroying the long-gun registry. Even as mis-managed as it was fiscally, the positive results were undeniable. 

"The evidence has been quite clear, and in fact compelling, that stronger controls on firearms generally have impact on public safety," she said.

"We've seen murders with rifles and shotguns in particular plummet as we strengthen controls over those."

Rifles and shotguns, once blamed for the majority of firearm-related homicides and most commonly used in domestic violence cases, have been the weapons most tightly regulated under the registry, she added.

In order to accomplish this sleight-of-hand legislation, they used an argument we're very familiar with in the States.

"We don't want laws that target law-abiding citizens, hunters and sports shooters. We want laws that focus on the criminal and those who use firearms illegally," Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said Tuesday in announcing the bill to abolish it.

Many times we've covered this. Gun control laws aimed at the law-abiding are necessary to help them hang onto their guns. I've outlined them here, and I defy anyone to say these initiatives would not significantly cut down on gun flow to criminals. Registration is just one part of it.

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