NOTE:
Versions of this article also appeared in The Ottawa Sun, Calgary Sun and
Edmonton Sun
PUBLICATION:
The
Toronto Sun
DATE: 2004.08.25
EDITION:
Final
SECTION:
News
PAGE:
37
ILLUSTRATION:
photo of GARRY
BREITKREUZ "Missing so many guns"
BYLINE:
BILL RODGERS, OTTAWA BUREAU CHIEF
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A
MILLION GUNS UNREGISTERED
BACKLOG
AT FIREARMS CENTRE BLAMED IN REPORT
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MORE
THAN a million guns remain unregistered in Canada 18 months after a
government-imposed registration deadline, a document from the Canada Firearms
Centre confirms.
The
total number of valid firearm licence holders who still haven't registered a gun
stands at a whopping 406,834.
The
admission is proof of "massive non-compliance and incompetence," fumed
Conservative MP Garry Breitkreuz, who obtained the latest numbers through an
Access to Information request.
The
document, released yesterday, shows almost 620,000 firearms remain to be
re-registered and there are more than 78,000 applications to register or
re-register caught in processing or a backlog of the Firearms Information
System.
The
Firearms Centre, however, denies there's a backlog and says processing of
applications occurs within days. It couldn't explain why its own information
refers to a backlog.
Breitkreuz
repeated his party's call for the Martin government to cut its losses and scrap
the controversial registry.
"It
has never been used to solve a crime or to prevent a crime or to improve the
ability of the police to do their work. It's only the bureaucrats who are
defending it," he said.
Thomas Vares, a spokesman for the Canada Firearms
Registry, insists the program has been largely successful, with more than 6.8
million of 7.9 million prohibited, restricted and non-restricted guns now
registered across the country.
"That
breaks down for licensing and for registration to a compliance rate that's
approaching 90%," he said.
Breitkreuz isn't buying the positive spin, saying
those stats demonstrate a failure in the management of the program. "It is
simply not credible for the Liberals to claim that their billion-dollar registry
is of any value whatsoever to police when it is missing so many guns."