NEWS RELEASE
August
7, 2003
For
Immediate Release
ONLY 39% OF CANADIANS THINK THE GUN REGISTRY IS WORTH KEEPING: NEW POLL
“The
more people learn about the federal firearms fiasco, the less support it
receives.”
Yorkton
–
Today, Garry Breitkreuz, Official Opposition Critic for Firearms and Property
Rights, released results of a national public opinion survey showing that Quebec
is the only province where support for the billion-dollar gun registry exceeds
50%. Support for the gun registry
was lowest in Alberta (27%), Atlantic Canada (28%), Saskatchewan/Manitoba (31%),
British Columbia (34%) and Ontario (38%). “The police cannot effectively
enforce our laws unless they have the consent of the governed,” declared
Breitkreuz. “The gun registry has
failed this important test twice in the last seven months.”
The
1,054 respondents in this most recent poll were asked a question very similar to
one asked in an Ipsos-Reid poll conducted for the Globe and Mail and CTV last
December. This update poll was
conducted by Dr. Faron Ellis with JMCK Polling of Calgary between July 16th
and August 2nd. The
margin of error is plus or minus 3.1% 19 times out of 20. The complete results of both polls can be found below.
“The
Liberals have put police between a rock and a hard place,” said Breitkreuz.
“Police take a solemn oath to enforce the laws of the land, but the
majority of Canadians think the gun registry is a bad law.
Consequently, respect and public support for police actions is diminished
when they crack down on gun owners who have never been and never will be a
threat to public safety.”
Sir Robert Peel’s Principles of Policing state: “The ability of
the police to perform their duties is dependent upon public approval of police
actions and police must secure the willing co-operation of the public in
voluntary observance of the law to be able to secure and maintain the respect of
the public. In an attempt to
address this enforcement dilemma, both the Canadian Police Association and the
Justice Minister’s User Group on Firearms have called for the
“decriminalization” of gun registry offences.
If
anyone should know whether gun registration is worthwhile, it is Toronto Police
Chief Julian Fantino. In January he
said: “I'm
very devastated by the amount of gun-related violence that we're experiencing
here in the city of Toronto; a tremendous increase over years gone by. The
difficulty of course is that we haven't yet come across any situation where the
gun registry would have enabled us to either prevent or solve any of these
crimes. So when you look at the amount of money that appears to have
been spent to put this gun registry together, I would have liked to have had
that number of dollars available to me to put on the street, in terms of police
officers to go after the criminals and the gunmen, and stem the tide and flow of
guns into our communities."
“The
more people learn about the federal firearms fiasco, the less support it
receives,” said Breitkreuz. “The
Liberals have repeatedly justified their billion-dollar boondoggle by saying the
public supports it, but this is no longer the case.
If they think this poll was bad, wait until the Liberals see the results
of our next poll in September,” concluded Breitkreuz.
August
4, 2003 - JMCK Poll: 39% of Canadians say gun registry should be continued
http://www.cssa-cila.org/garryb/publications/JMCKPolling-FirearmsActPoll-August202003.pdf
December
13, 2002 - Ipsos-Reid Poll: 43% of Canadians say gun registry should be
continued
http://www.ipsos-reid.com/media/dsp_displaypr_cdn.cfm?id_to_view=1692
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