ALMOST UNANIMOUS OPPOSITION TO GUN REGISTRY IN P

Recently while listening to the House of Commons debate on the Gun Registry Legislation, I became extremely upset with respect to the lack of knowledge demonstrated by our elected officials on this very important issue during the debate. The blatant lack of knowledge appears to be mainly one sided, coming from the Liberal ranks. I would like to think that our elected officials, when faced with such a major piece of legislation, would take the time to at least research the topic before standing up in the House and removing all doubt as to what end of the horse they appear to belong to. This piece of legislation will tear at the fabric of this Nation and creates common criminals out of people who are the salt of the earth while doing nothing to affect the real criminals. It is time the elected government of the day stop creating legislation based on small reactionary groups who are self serving, such as the one that was responsible for this piece of legislation.

I would like to think that I’m not a reactionary person but rather an individual who uses common sense when faced with major decisions. I would like to make it quite clear that I do not represent any such group. I’m just an ordinary individual who feels the government of the day has gone too far and are clearly demonstrating their Dictatorship once again. Based on the information presented during that debate regarding the percentages of Canadians in favour of the legislation and the percentage of gun owners who had registered their guns I decided to write a letter to the editor and placed it in the newspapers on P.E.I. Included in the same papers was a form for the residents of P.E.I. to complete and return to me for presentation to our elected officials.

The purpose of the form was to find out what the residents of P.E.I. had to say about the legislation in question. I encouraged both those in favour of and those against the legislation to respond so I could get some feeling on how the residents of this Province felt. The survey was conducted over a period of approximately six weeks. I decided not to contacts such groups as Wildlife Federations, Ducks unlimited, Enforcement Agencies, etc. as I did not want to be seen as weighting the results. I would also like to add that the form only appeared in the newspapers once. Based on the replies and comments I have received the majority of Islanders oppose this legislation. The following is a list of the major comments from the survey and attached is the complete list of comments;

Comments: – the only comment from the two in favour of this legislation was;

- this is an unprecedented waste of taxpayer’s dollars at a time when our health care needs a major infusion of money.

- numerous words of support for my concerns with this senseless piece of legislation that has no real benefit for the majority of Canadian citizens.

- the general feeling is that this is the first step in a hidden agenda to remove all weapons from Canadian citizens and one step closer to dictatorship.

It should also be noted that I tried for approximately one month prior to placing my article in the two Island newspapers to get our local M.P. Joe McGuire to meet with me regarding the possibility of holding a public forum on this issue, needless to say I never heard from him. I would also like to point out that we have four Liberal M.P.'s in P.E.I. of which two have indicated publicly they are against this legislation, one has indicated publicly that he is in favour of the legislation and the fourth is uncertain at this time.

Since this survey was conducted it has come to light that certain BB & Pellet guns are included in this piece of legislation requiring them to be registered under the Firearms Act. Does this now mean that our youth who fail to register such weapons will also become criminals in the eyes of the law?

I offer these comments to our elected officials in hopes they will be included with other such reports and ask our politicians to wake up and get rid of this senseless, incoherent, flawed and ineffective piece of legislation.

– a senseless law with no real benefit and will create criminals out of otherwise law abiding citizens

– Allan Rock felt this would make him a popular person with groups and Associations against firearms and who also contribute to the liberal coffers

– gross misuse of funds at a time when we have a real need in Health care, Defense and Law enforcement

– money should be spent on enforcing previous legislation instead of creating something that is impossible to enforce

– this legislation is believed to be the first step on a hidden agenda to remove weapons from all individuals

– complaints from individuals receiving their FAC’s with wrong serial numbers assigned to their weapons

– complaint from a lady who indicated that since applying for his FAC, her husband had passed away. when she received his card, she was surprised to find a picture of someone else on her husband’s card

An observation: Should this exercise by the Federal Government be allowed to continue and when it is deemed to be completed, the Government will still have no idea of how many guns are actually in the hands of Canadians.

GEORGE MANSFIELD'S LETTER TO THE EDITOR & QUESTIONNAIRE

Canadian Citizens who possess firearms and have failed to register them or provide the Central Gun Registry with a letter of intent to register by midnight December 31, 2002 are now criminals in the eyes of the law.

I believe it is the responsibility of our elected officials to meet with the public in their respective riding to discuss such an important change in legislation and also research the topic so that an informed decision can be made when required. It is quite obvious that the depth of knowledge of our elected MPs on this topic leaves a lot to be desired as was demonstrated when they voted to enact a law that serves no useful function.

The registration of long guns will do nothing to reduce the number of individuals killed or injured by such guns. Weapons used in the commission of crimes are usually of a restricted nature and purchased from sources other than licensed retail outlets. There is already legislation or regulations in place to control the following:

- requirement for all gun owners to have a Federal license to: ( possess a gun and/or purchase ammunition only ) or a Federal license to: ( possess or purchase a gun and/or purchase ammunition ).

I ask you as taxpayers, is it worth in excess of $1 billion dollars to know how many weapons I may or may not have. The Government would like you to believe that knowing this information will reduce the loss of lives by guns, according to police experts it won’t. They would also like you to believe that knowing this information would greatly assist the police when called out to a family dispute, not so as they are trained to always expect the worse, their lives depend on it. I believe you would rather see your tax dollars used to stabilize our health care costs I know I would.

This legislation has done nothing to increase the safety of individuals but has in fact made law abiding citizens common criminals and provided high paying jobs for a lot of retired civil servants already receiving sizable pensions out of the public purse.

Liberal MP’s for Prince Edward Island believe that all Islanders are in favour of the Federal Governments "Gun Registry Legislation". I ask you as taxpayers, is their belief correct?

Would you please complete the following and mail to the address below for presentation to our elected officials: