PUBLICATION:              GLOBE AND MAIL

DATE:                         2004.12.07

PAGE:                         A18

SECTION:                  Editorial

EDITION:                    Metro

WORDS:                     459

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End the gun registry

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What will it take to persuade Prime Minister Paul Martin that the enormous cost and the bureaucratic headaches of administering the National Firearms Program far outweigh any perceived benefits? Liberal MP Roger Gallaway, who supported the gun registry when it was launched in 1995 but grew critical as costs soared out of control, wants a separate vote on funding for the computerized program when the House of Commons votes on spending estimates Thursday.

Mr. Gallaway's goal is clear: to cut off $80-million in funding for the program for the rest of this fiscal year, which would effectively shut it down. "Everybody supports gun control," he said. "The question is: Can we support this version of it?" Unfortunately, Mr. Gallaway is unlikely to rally enough support within his own party ranks to succeed. At best, he will have a dozen Liberal MPs on his side, and probably fewer. Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan, who administers the program, has reportedly likened Mr. Gallaway's initiative to the actions of MP Carolyn Parrish, who was ousted from the Liberal caucus. If true, that is not a message other Liberals would treat lightly.

The Conservatives remain opposed to the registry as a colossal waste of resources and an unnecessary intrusion into the lives of law-abiding Canadian firearm owners. But the Bloc Quebecois and NDP will side with the majority of Liberals.

The program's supporters regard the registry as indelibly linked to the Ecole Polytechnique massacre in Montreal. Indeed, it had its roots in efforts by the Mulroney government to toughen gun-control laws after 14 female engineering students were shot and killed at the Polytechnique. The 15th anniversary of that tragedy was marked yesterday.

When the Liberals assumed power in 1993, then-justice-minister Allan Rock produced new firearms legislation of his own, with the gun registry as the centrepiece. It became law in 1995. At the time, the Justice Department calculated that the cost of licensing people to own guns, and then registering each firearm, would be a modest $2-million -- the difference between projected expenses and fees collected from gun owners. But the costs of setting up the program climbed into the stratosphere and revenues fell far below expectations, mainly because of the complexity of the rules and the refusal of several provinces to co-operate. In December, 2002, Auditor-General Sheila Fraser published an audit itemizing the ballooning costs -- $1-billion by 2005 -- and a litany of managerial and other problems.

This mess cannot be salvaged. Mr. Martin should take the fiscally and politically prudent course and persuade diehard supporters of the registry, including Ms. McLellan, that there are better ways to spend the money and to make us more secure from gun crimes.