Licensing:
A Cancer of the Soul

In a National Post Editorial on 27 February 2009 entitled "Drop the political pacifier?" Conservative Party MP Garry Breitkreuz wrote:

Bill C-301 will scrap the long-gun registry, improve efficiency and reduce costs without having any negative impact on public safety. ... .

Drop the political pacifier? How about dropping the hypocrisy and political revisionism?

Mr. Breitkreuz' current attempts to re-write history clearly intends to confuse those who are not knowledgeable of the facts.

It was the Firearms Act introduced 14 years ago - not some revisionist, newspeak 'long-gun registry' - that may well have cost taxpayers Two Billion dollars. The major expense of the Firearms Act is NOT the long-gun Registration provisions, but rather the Licensing provisions.

Licensing of responsible firearms owners remains the largest expense today; and will, if not repealed, continue to be the largest expense in the years to come. All these facts are very well-know by gun-owners' faux champion Mr. Breitkreuz.

As the media informs us each week, public safety has not improved since the passage of the Firearms Act. Regulating responsible citizens has never, can never, and will never, be able to control the criminal element amongst us.

Politically, the Conservative Government has used long-gun registration as the red-herring to divert attention away from other, more onerous provisions within the Firearms Act. It is the entire, expensive, useless Firearms Act that needs to be scrapped, not just the long-gun registration section.

Mr. Breitkreuz knows this better than anyone in Government. We await an honest voice from those we elect, not the hypocrisy of a pacifier.

Kevin Staines
Surrey, British Columbia
28 February 2009