Raise the Hammer

Media Release-Immediate

The Long Gun Registry-Register Gun Owners-Not Each Gun


Gun owners are uncomfortable about registering each of their long guns, not only because it’s costly and cumbersome for the government to do so, but because many of them remember what happened to Jews in Europe prior to and during World War Two. The Jews were ordered to register their firearms and these guns were then seized by the Nazi’s. Then began the holocaust when the Jews were rounded up and slaughtered.

The Canadian government like the German government also ordered the registration of long guns, the first attempt by the Canadian government to do so. Canadian troops returning to Canada after the war were greeted with an order by the federal politicians to register their sporting firearms without exception. Canadian veterans returning from the bloodiest war in human history told the Canadian government that veterans were not amused with this Canadian gun registry of sporting firearms. These veterans had put their lives on line in crushing the Nazi’s who had slaughtered millions of people and had required German citizens to register their firearms. The Canadian government of the day in its wisdom allowed that first long gun registry to die.

Much later there appeared on the Ottawa scene a politician who thought that he had a great idea. Allan Rock pushed through parliament a law that created a compulsory long gun registry that created criminals of owners of sporting firearms who in some way failed to comply with his complicated registry. And Mr. Rock promised that the cost of his registry would not exceed three million dollars.


I'm a registered legal gun owner in Canada. I've passed the exams and obey all the safety rules for gun ownership. I've passed criminal background checks. I have a licence that I must produce when the police check my residence or car to see that everything is legal. This licence must be renewed periodically. I must be registered as a gun owner before I can legally own a gun. No trap or skeet shooting or legal gun ownership until I’m registered as a legal gun owner.

This information pops up on every police computer in Canada and in every police car if I'm pulled over by the police or if they come to my house to see if the safety rules of firearm ownership are followed. All this is fine with me.

But then I must register my firearms on the long gun registry as well to be a legal gun owner. That information from the long gun registry also appears in the same computers and has cost nearly 2 billion dollars to date to compile and is constantly in a state of change. The long gun registry has been hacked several times and much personal information has disappeared. Such information is welcomed by criminals who probably did the hacking.

Legal gun owners are registered by their gun licence without this long gun registry and are immediately known to police at the click of a computer key. Great! Now let’s put the money from a redundant long gun registry into arresting gang bangers and other criminals. And in doing so, the police and society will have the full cooperation of the legal firearm community. Our federal government should allow this long gun registry to die. Continue to register the firearm owners but not the millions of legal firearms.


ERNO ROSSI
Tel: 905-835-8051
Port Colborne, Ontario.
erossi@cogeco.ca