By Bev Shipley, MP

Yesterday our Conservative Government's long battle to end the wasteful and ineffective long gun registry suffered a brief setback.  The setback came as a result of the Liberal/NDP/Bloc Coalition marshalling their forces to narrowly pass a motion, (153 to 151) by Liberal Mark Holland that stopped further consideration of my colleague Candice Hoeppner's bill to scrap the registry.

Today the Opposition Coalition continues to criminalize law abiding farmers, hunters, and sportsman.  That is why our government will not rest until the long gun registry is finally scrapped.

That is because our Government understands what a majority Canadians like those in Lambton-Kent-Middlesex understand; which is that the long gun registry has and continues to be a $2billion waste of taxpayer’s money - money that could be better used to support victims of crime.  We know there is no evidence that the long gun registry has ever prevented a single crime.  We also know that the long gun registry duplicates the licensing of every single gun owner in Canada, and we know that those who commit crimes with guns do not obtain either a license, or register their guns.

I also want to explain to the Opposition Coalition the difference between the long gun registry
and our licensing process - something they apparently do not understand.  Every person in Canada who wants to purchase a firearm must have a license before they can do so.  To get a licence a person must complete an application and pass a firearms safety course.  They must have a police background check, and they must have the consent of their spouse or any previous spouse.  Only then can they purchase a firearm. None of that would have changed under our effort to scrap the long gun registry.  Our government believes in gun control.  We do not believe it is necessary to make criminals out of law abiding citizens which the gun registry does.  Nor do we believe it is necessary to spend millions of taxpayer dollars for police and police chiefs to enforce an ineffective program.

Our efforts this time came up short because 20 Liberal and NDP members who voted with us to scrap the long gun registry flip flopped. These 20 MP’s campaigned to scrap the long gun registry.  They said it served things like it “served no purpose” and they claimed their constituents agreed with them. I can make no judgement on what they did.  I will leave that to their constituents.

To all my constituents who supported our efforts let me quote our Prime Minister, Stephen Harper who, following the vote said, "Opposition to the long gun registry has never been stronger, and we have never been closer to abolishing the gun registry and Canadians from the regions will never accept being treated like criminals. We will not rest until we scrap the gun registry once and for all."