Long gun registry dismantled by summer: O'Connor
Posted Feb 23, 2012 By Derek DunnEMC News -Now that the bill to end the gun registry has passed the House of Commons, Gordon O'Connor said the long-contentious issue should expire before the summer break.
"It has to go through the (Conservative dominated) Senate for three readings," said O'Connor, Carleton-Mississippi Mills MP. "I can't see it going past the summer recess."
Critics say the Conservatives could have moved more quickly on dismantling the registry, but it has been an effective tool to rally core supporters and drum up campaign donations.
But Bill C-19 hasn't been divisive in the rural-suburban riding. O'Connor's heard from a few angry rural long gun owners, but not anyone hotly opposed to ending the registry.
As for it serving to solve inner city gun violence, O'Connor said the registry was "basically a useless placebo" that interfered with hunters' right to own long guns, borne of a Liberal attempt to "appear to be taking action" after the 1989 Montreal massacre of 14 women by a gunman with a rifle.
"I don't think a tragedy like that is preventable," he said. "It's like what we've been saying for many years, a criminal or unbalanced person isn't going to register their guns."
Women's safety proponents say many of the Montreal victims could have been saved if guns were less pervasive, and that rural women are in greater danger if long gun sales are allowed to rise.
stats
O'Connor said he isn't aware of statistics showing rural women who've died from long guns is greater than by other means. But he suspects little will change.
"I guess anything's possible, I don't know the statistics," he said. "It's not likely to change the statistics. I don't think it will."
As for the government's plan to destroy all related records, a move Quebec plans to file a lawsuit to prevent, O'Connor said it shouldn't come as a surprise. He doesn't begrudge the Liberal government in Quebec doing whatever it needs to do to keep the records, but didn't indict he is worried about losing in court. His party has run multiple elections on a promise to abolish the entire program.
"It's not a shock to people: we are only doing what we said we'd do."
He favours destroying all records because they are, in his opinion, out of date and inaccurate.
As a strategic move that may have cost votes in Quebec, O'Connor doubts that is the case. He said rural people in largely progressive province are just as opposed to the long gun registry as elsewhere in Canada.
But he denies that quashing the program will relax the rules, saying an almost 100-year-old law restricting hand guns won't be affected.
O'Connor admits that his party is facing a very different scenario now that it has a majority. The Conservatives have to stand by its record come next election, and opposition parties are free to oppose as vigorously as they want.
The bill restricting refugee claimants ability to appeal, the bill to limit Internet freedoms in a bid to curb child pornography -which appears to have galvanized opposition from sectors -among other proposals, has O'Connor feeling the weight.
"It does mean a lot rests on our shoulders," he said. "We can't say we share it with other parties. They can oppose, oppose, oppose and influence public opinion. And we have to keep abreast of what's going on out there, too."
derek.dunn@metroland.com
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