THE VEHICLE REGISTRY HAS A HISTORICAL PROVEN WORTH, IS ACCEPTED BY EVERYONE, AND IS VERY SIMILAR TO THE GUN REGISTRY!

I have many “law abiding” friends here in Alberta who obey “the law” and register both their cars and their guns and believe strongly in both systems.

Why can’t you supposedly “law abiding” GunNutz members do the same?

On a more personal note, a very good friend of mine tragically lost his sister many years ago. She was shot to death on their farm by a jealous abusive husband whose should never have been allowed to continue to own a shotgun. (this was many years before the gun registry)

For this reason I would like to share the following that was sent to my by a relative from Guelph, Ontario

GUELPH MERCURY – JULY 3, 2009, LETTER

Dear Editor – I am writing in response to a recent letter stating that the gun registry had not solved or prevented a single crime. As a psychiatrist in a rural area where guns are prevalent, I have invoked the gun registry at times where it is necessary, to either get someone’s guns removed or prevent them from getting guns because of mental illness. I am sure this has prevented tragedies but, unfortunately, none of those events make headlines. I practised psychiatry in Prince George, B.C., before the gun registry was available, and it was difficult then to have guns removed. There have been some 22,000 licences denied to date, and a recent Ottawa Citizen article reported that the number of firearms surrendered and confiscated since Nov. 1 is 8,281 — 74 per cent of which were nonrestricted shotguns and rifles. The same article reports that the reason for these confiscations is usually that the individual has threatened or use violence. So, are we really comfortable with allowing these people to arm themselves by removing the mechanism which allows authorities to locate and remove firearms, the long-gun registry? It is impossible to truly measure the prevention of suicides, accidents and crimes. However, we can measure rates of all these over time. We know the incidence of gun deaths and injuries are at their lowest levels in more than 30 years. Since 1995, the rate of homicide with rifles and shotguns has dropped by 50 per cent, and gun-related murders of women have fallen by two-thirds. The gun registry is an inconvenience for hunters, farmers and other gun owners, but it helps people like me and the police prevent tragedies. Since gun owners are only required to register their firearms once per gun, it is a minor inconvenience that is having a major impact on gun crime, suicides and accidents, perhaps more than any other intervention we have.b The registry needs to be preserved. Dr. Barbara Kane, Prince George, B.C.

My suggestion wasn’t directed to someone who doesn’t “know how the political system is SUPPOSED to work,” it’s directed towards you – a person who doesn’t know how the Canadian political system ACTUALLY works.

Being an IT professional, let me explain something to you – I personally can type 100 words per minute. For me to send an e-mail correspondence to every member of parliament takes less than 5 minutes with next to no effort. For this reason, the relevance of e-mail correspondence is next to meaningless.

I hand write at about 20 words per minute, and for me to send the same personalized, hand written letter that would have taken me 10 minutes to type as an e-mail, then takes me about 30-40 minutes to write, plus the time to photocopy a copy for each MP, plus the time it takes to put the letter into an envelope and the time it takes me to drive to the nearest mailbox. A task that, compared to sending an e-mail, takes a great deal more effort.

If you are an elected official, what does it say about the author of a correspondence if they deliberately take the time and effort to send you a physical, paper letter, written by their own hand, and send a carbon copy to all your peers? It says that someone out there took the effort, despite the availability of more convenient means, to attempt to communicate with them.

If you are that elected official, who than do you think is more emotionally committed, and therefore more deserving of your time? The hack who spent 10-15 minutes throwing together an e-mail and sending it to a 200 person distribution list, or the genuinely concerned person who took 1-2 hours of their own time and effort to contact you and your colleagues with a physical, paper artifact? I’d say the 10-15 minute person warrants a canned response, while the 1-2 hour person gets the interview (or personalized response)

After all, an e-mail can be disregarded as easily as pointing a mouse and pressing “DELETE,” (the same way you could just as easily delete this post in your blog). A paper letter has to be either crumpled up and thrown in a trash bin, or walked to a disposal room and put into a shredder. I will say in my personal case, I write an e-mail weekly, and send a paper letter monthly to someone out in Ottawa, telling them it’s time to turf the gun registry (including many of the details I in turn relay to bloggers and media sites online)

You probably know the social network that brought me to your blog, and I can honestly say I know of dozens of others who, like me, devote HUGE amounts of their personal time contacting their elected officials via e-mail, fax, snail-mail, and personal visits to their constituency offices (in our case, asking them to abolish the gun registry). We spend a lot of our personal time debating the responses we get back.

Many of us have even been part of organized rallies with many of us meeting them face to face, vigorously protesting with them against political policy we think is unjust (see the Coalition Government of Dec 2008). Correct me if I’m wrong, but it’s this kind of political action by grassroots movements of passionate supporters that got Obama elected, was it not?

You’re in a yelling match with the rest of us, and quite frankly, you’re article is making a big fuss about the fact that we’re vastly out yelling you. Just to prove my point, you’ve inspired me with the contents of the next hand written letter to my MP – I’m going to ask him for 5 minutes of his time to explain to me personally his stance on the gun-registry. He’s pretty good getting back to me, usually about 3 weeks. It may take me an hour to write and send, but I am quite confident respond in short order (he always has in the past).

Attacks? Since when is well-informed opposition an attack? I’m used to that rhetoric.
But, I guess CGN is busted. Oh me Oh my, whatever will I do? I’m not sure why Alberta Gord mocks the most informative pro-firearms site in Canada simply because of it’s chosen moniker, though… we’re just using what the gun grabbers call us, and “taking it back”… not unlike certain musicians’ use of the “n word”.

CGN is a wealth of information, not only on firearms politics, but all areas to do with firearms, from hand-loading recipes to collecting military surplus arms, firearms law to upcoming gun shows… I challenge you to find another single collective with as much hands-on knowledge of this subject matter.

Bear in mind that there are a little over 47000 on-line members of CGN. There are millions of firearms owners in Canada. The ones that don’t participate on CGN are just as adversely affected by our current laws as those of us who do. Trust me, I wish that every firearms owner was a member. Thanks for the plug… our numbers increase with every media mention. Happened when uber-left NOW Magazine cast aspersions our way, and again when the G&M did an article on bill C-301. Operators are standing by.

Are CGN’ers Vocal? Yes. Knowledgeable? Certainly.
Organized? Hardly. Independently opinionated? Bet your sweet a$$. But just think of the message we could get out if we had taxpayer funding, Gord. You know, like the anti-gun lobbyists get? Do posters here know that the Coalition for Gun Control was actually paid taxpayer dollars to lobby the Liberal gov’t for more funding for gun control? A paradox is not just two piers, it would seem.

Wait for it…. next Gord’ll be trotting out the good old “powerful NRA-backed Canadian gun lobby” deceit. (FYI: there is no such animal, Elizabeth, just individual Canadians, using not a nickel of US money.)

Turning to vehicles, Alberta Gord… what keeps you safe behind the wheel? … When you’re doing a dime over the posted speed limit between Red Deer and Olds, is it the training you took to learn to drive, or the safety features of the car? Don’t tell me it’s the little piece of pink paper tucked away in the glove box between the owner’s manual and the Kleenex. Really? Does that registration paper have telekinetic control of your car? My little piece of pink paper must be defective, in that case, because if I let go of the wheel, my truck pulls…. to the right, naturally. That is all the gun registry is. Little pieces of paper, linked to an overpriced central database. Worthless.

Consider yourself pwned by your own words “Conversely, every frivolous negative argument used by opponents of the Gun Registry sound ridiculous when applied to the Vehicle Registry!”

Andrew E.
And yes, I’m a CSSA, NFA, NRA, OFAH, NWTF, DU, and CGN member.

Gordon Gordon Gordon.

Are you seriously going to try and compare gun control to cars?

Really?

I mean that has been tried and disproven so many times it is laughable.

Pathetic even.

The vehicle registry???? How so? I thought it was just about taking an object and registering it in my name and then I can carry some extra papers around with me. How exactly does it prevent me from getting hammered and driving around once I have done the necessary registrations? It’s a piece of paper, it has no influence on my actions.

“You must register the vehicle and obtain a license plate for it. And you must have valid insurance to operate the vehicle”

Yes, true if you intend to abide by the law. Cos if it was working so great as you pretend it does, how come there are so many people driving without licenses and/or proper insurance?! Again, you are expecting that a piece of processed tree and metal will influence my actions.

“Police can trace vehicles stolen or involved in accidents.”

Yes, if it is indeed registered and the VIN intact. If that is not the case, well… maybe next time, eh.

“If you operate your vehicle irresponsibly, i.e. drive under the influence, cause death, or have numerous violations of the Traffic Act, your License and right to operate a vehicle can be taken away.”

And given back to you in no time as long as you pay the necessary fees and possibly wait the required amount of time. Revolving door, anyone? Then again, people drive without licences/ insurance daily, so… yeah. Works great. Kudos.
Also it can only be taken away from you if you actually get caught. See, that’s the thing with laws. If you choose to ignore them, they are non-existent until you get caught red-handed.

“Conversely, every frivolous negative argument used by opponents of the Gun Registry sound ridiculous when applied to the Vehicle Registry!”

Aaaah yes. Let me ask you, Gordon, let’s pretend you own a Porsche. You love it, take care of it, register it, all the good stuff. Let’s say some drunk in a Porsche drives around and causes a mess and the politicians decide to ban that specific brand of car and confiscate and destroy all existing models in Canada, nevermind restricting cars to be able to only drive 30km/h now because of what this one person did, would you still be in favor of the vehicle registry when they come knocking on your door, to take your car? Or would you ask them: Why do you blame and punish me for something someone else has done? Why do you not spend the money on programs to help people with alcohol and drug problems? Why do you restrict and destroy my property, an object instead of taking care of the root problem: people and their actions?!

See, that’s what just doesn’t seem to click with so many of you gun control people.
Laws are fine and dandy if people decide to abide by them.
Criminals DO NOT care about the law. That’s why they are criminals. They take part in criminal acts/ behaviour which means they are breaking the law, ignoring the law. How hard of a concept is that?
You make a law, someone will break it. Ok, that’s life. Now comes the flaw: Instead of punishing the law-breakers severely, making an example out of them, more laws are being added (cos the first worked so well, right} which then will only affect the law-abiding cos only the law-abiding abide by those laws! Meanwhile the criminal, the law-breaker, s/he laughs and goes home after telling the judge s/he is so sorry for his/her actions and will never do it again.

But oh well, you folks keep on believing that processed trees and computer data will influence someone’s actions and make Canada a safer place.
Maybe one day you guys and gurls will join the rest of us in real life. Til then, good luck and keep your cell charged… after all calling 911 is the only acceptable option in the fight against crime. Or so they say.

Please don’t get discouraged because of all of the negative posts.

You see, there is a well organized gun lobby at work that attacks anyone who favors the registry. Check out CanadianGunNutz.com (a rather fitting name)to see how organized they are.

The other sad thing is that the Reform/Conservative party used misinformation and fear tactics against the gun registry to gain votes in past elections.

Now that their poll numbers are dropping it appears the same misinformation and fear tactics used in the past are being recycled. This is morally wrong!

For your info, Elizabeth, and for the info of the “GunNutz”, a very informative and factual “Stats Canada report on Homicides in Canada 2007” can be found at http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85-002-x/2008009/article/10671-eng.pdf .

Particularly interesting are pages 8,9,10, and 22 in the report. The data shows that long gun homicides have declined since the Registry.

The report also shows that the rates per 100,000 population are highest in MP Garry Breitzkreuz’s western Canada, especially in Manitoba.

Is it not paradoxical that areas of Canada populated by “law abiding gun owners”, who believe there should not be a registry, have the highest homicide rates!

Personally I am not “anti-gun! I am “pro Gun Registry” and believe it is as useful a program as the Vehicle Registry and that all Canadians should support it. The human and monetary resources invested in the Registry must not be wasted!

I find it incomprehensible how those who register vehicles without complaint or concern cannot do the same with their guns!

Every positive reason for having a Vehicle Registry can also apply to the Gun Registry.

It is intended to keep vehicles out of the hands of unsuitable drivers.

You must pass a test to get a license to drive. You must register the vehicle and obtain a license plate for it. And you must have valid insurance to operate the vehicle.

Police can trace vehicles stolen or involved in accidents.

If you operate your vehicle irresponsibly, i.e. drive under the influence, cause death, or have numerous violations of the Traffic Act, your License and right to operate a vehicle can be taken away.

Conversely, every frivolous negative argument used by opponents of the Gun Registry sound ridiculous when applied to the Vehicle Registry!

It penalizes law abiding vehicle owners. Criminals will not register their vehicles. The registry has not prevented a single traffic death. The cost is astronomical. With the money wasted on the registry we could hire more traffic police and fix potholes. Etc, etc.

I urge Conservatives and their “GunNutz” supporters who oppose the Gun Registry to do the right thing. Get in their registered vehicles, check to make sure their license plates, insurance, and drivers license are current, and go register their guns!

KEEP UP THE GOOD FIGHT ELIZABETH!

If you are watching the goings on in Canadian Politics then you know FULL WELL why Gary was a no show.

It was due to the outright LIES of the NDP and Liberal MPs which was picked up by the CBC and Toronto Star.

For you to try and make Gary out to look bad as a result is frankly shameful!