Guns and circuses

Time to weigh in on a Canadian issue that is occupying so many political and media resources - the long gun registry.

Let's look at the facts as I see them (forgive any errors - my sources are limited):

• The registry was created to protect Canadians by making it easier for police to know if someone owns a long gun.
• It cost a lot of money to set up, but now its expenses are minimal.
• Most police forces insist they benefit from its existence.
• Gun owners don't like that they have to pay to register.
• Conservatives feel this is a first step toward the eventual restriction of weapons ownership in Canada.
• Some people don't believe the registry prevents any crimes - they demand proof that it works.
• People argue that criminals don't use registered weapons.
• Hunters and farmers don't like the cost or red tape and feel it impinges on their rights.
• Way back when, the leader of the Conservatives actually supported the registry, before it became a partisan issue.

Now for some opinion.

I don't think the Conservatives are pushing for the elimination of the registry because they actually believe it is wasteful. I believe they're doing it because the Liberals created it and the Conservatives had made an election promise to trash it. The Conservatives have already been accused by their party faithful of reneging on enough promises already, to allow another high-profile promise to be broken so close to potential election season could be their undoing.

What bugs me most about the vote on the issue is not that members of parliament are being whipped to vote the party line, but that members free to vote as they please (read NDP party) are in some cases voting using anything other than common sense - yes that is solely my opinion. Should members be entitled to vote with their conscience? Would they be truly be free to do so without consequence? Big questions.

I think that as long as the registry can be proven to be effective for the money being spent, it should be kept. Nobody has really gone out of their way to offer any proof that it works - so I'm not surprised at the lack of faith. If the registry is creating difficulty for gun owners then it should be modified to try and fix what's wrong with it. That hunters and farmers don't like it is not a good reason to scrap it, especially if it is doing what it set out to do. I don’t like having to register my car every year either. I could be completely off-base of course - as I don't even own a gun. So I digress.

More importantly, why are we wasting so much precious time arguing over such a trivial matter? We have much bigger rabbits to hunt. Our health system is deteriorating. It is quietly transforming into a two-tiered structure where the have-nots will no longer afford effective health care. The economy is still struggling while banks have returned to making record profits. Infrastructure is crumbling. Alternative energy and energy reduction is an after-thought. Arts are treated as an elitist luxury. Schooling is quickly falling out of economic reach of many people. Technology is being held back thanks to anti-competitive, protectionist laws, oligopolistic business environments and antiquated business models.

So how about we vote to save this registry, tweak it to make it better? No matter what the result, we need to move on to more important matters.

[Update] I wrote this post before the vote took place. It appears the vote saved the registry. No sooner than the vote was over did the Conservatives vow that they will make it an election issue. It doesn't matter to me. In the end, there are much more important things to fix.