PUBLICATION:  The Edmonton Sun 

DATE:  2002.10.17

EDITION:  Final 

SECTION:  Editorial/Opinion 

PAGE:  10 

SOURCE:  BY MIKE JENKINSON, EDMONTON SUN 

COLUMN:  Editorial 

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HANDGUN HORROR

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The shooting of an ex-cop during a botched robbery at a gun shop last week has thrown into stark relief - once again - that Canada's boondoggle of a firearms registration program simply doesn't work. Phil Harnois was shot in the thigh a week ago after two men wearing balaclavas burst into his gun shop at closing time, brandishing handguns and demanding more guns. Phil and his wife Dianne dove for cover and one of the robbers fired a single shot that hit Phil in the leg.

What's so terribly frustrating about this crime is the fact that Canada has had handgun registration since 1934 - as pointed out in a recent press release from Canadian Alliance MP Garry Breitkreuz (Yorkton-Melville, Sask.), who also notes that handguns account for a disproportionate amount of firearms homicides in this country.

Pulling figures from the Statistics Canada report, Homicides in Canada, 2001, Breitkreuz notes that handguns were used in 64% of firearms homicides, and 74% of those handguns weren't registered, despite the fact that the RCMP have been registering handguns for 69 years. In fact, notes Breitkreuz, handgun use in homicides has increased from 49.8% in 1991 to 64.3% a decade later. Not surprisingly, during the same period, the number of homicides committed with rifles and shotguns has decreased.

Why, wonders Breitkreuz, have the Liberals spent almost a decade - and who knows how much money - trying to register every duck-hunting rifle in Canada when almost two out of every three homicides is committed with a handgun? This question is even more acute considering that 64% of people accused of homicide have a criminal record, according to the homicide report, and about half of those with a criminal record had been previously convicted of violent crimes.

We shouldn't be surprised by any of this, of course. The federal government has repeatedly pushed upon Canadians the belief that registering firearms - be they handguns, shotguns or whatever - will reduce crime and make Canadians safer.

Yet common sense tells us that simply isn't the case. We register dogs, but no one thinks that will stop dogs from slipping their leashes or vicious ones from attacking children. We register cats and they still poop in your yard. We register vehicles, but we still have stolen cars, drunk drivers and horrible traffic accidents. We register marriages but we still have divorce, adultery and spousal abuse.

The Liberals can waste as much money as the public will allow them to in their futile effort to register every gun in this country. It won't do a thing to reduce crime.