Canadian Gun registry

[Bryan]

Canada has been trying to have all firearms registered, here's a funny story about how successful it is so far...

Canada's billion-dollar gun registry employs 1,800 bureaucrats, who spend their days tracking down duck hunters and farmers. By comparison, Canada hired only 130 additional customs officers to protect our borders after Sept. 11.
Here are a few more eye-rolling facts about the gun registry, mostly unearthed by a Member of Parliment from Saskatchewan.

* Internal audits show that government bureaucrats have a 71% error rate in licensing gun owners and a 91% error rate in registering the guns themselves.

* The government admits it registered 718,414 guns without serial numbers. That means either the bureaucrats forgot to write them down, or the guns didn't have serial numbers in the first place. That's as useless as registering a vehicle simply as "a blue Ford Explorer."

* To these gun owners, the government has sent little stickers with made-up "serial numbers" on them, that gun owners are supposed to stick on their guns. And everybody at the gun registry is praying that criminals who steal those guns won't peel off the stickers.

* Some 222,911 guns were registered with the same make and serial number as other guns. That's not just useless-it's dangerous. If someone else with a "Blue Ford Explorer" is involved in a hit and run, you'll be the one getting a knock on the door by the RCMP.

* Out of 4,114,624 gun registration certificates, 3,235,647 had blank or missing entries-but the bureaucrats issued them anyway.

* In the beginning, the government's firearms licenses had photographs on them just like driver's licenses do. But after hundreds of gun owners were sent licenses with someone else's photo on them, the government
decided to scrap photos on the licenses altogether, rather than fix the problem.

* Private details about every gun owner in the country are put on one computer database, called CPIC. That's valuable information to a peeping tom-or a criminal. The CPIC computer has been breached 221 times since the mid-1990s, according to the RCMP.

* In August of 2002, the gun registry sent a letter to Hulbert Orser, demanding he register his guns, and warning him that it's a crime not to register his firearms. Orser died in 1981.

* Garth Rizzuto is not dead, but he's getting older - he applied for a gun licence 21/2 years ago. He hasn't been rejected. They're still "processing" his application.

* Some 304,375 people were allowed to register guns even though they didn't have a licence permitting them to own a gun.

* On March 1 of 2002, bureaucrats registered Richard Buckley's soldering "gun". That's right, a heat "gun" used for welding tin and lead. No word yet on Buckley's staple guns or glue guns.

* Some 15,381 gun owners were licensed with no indication of having taken the gun safety courses-one of the main arguments for licensing.

* Despite the billion-dollar taxpayer subsidy, gun-owners must still pay $279 for the required licenses, registration, photo ID and other costs to register a single gun. That's as much as a gun costs in the first place. It's a tax - a tax on rural Canada.

* The government spent $29 million on advertising for the gun registry - including $4.5 million to Group-Action, the Liberal ad firm now under RCMP investigation.

[Tankus]

"all" firearms in West Aust are registered and licensed.....i say "all" cos there are always the odd few that have been stolen and the serials number removed etc etc....
it is an offence to have an unlicensed firearm, and can affect your ability to hold a firearm license.

we have a seperate unit oddly enough called firearms branch *lol* who license the firearms and conduct investigations into the reasons a license applicant wants/needs the firearm, and also investigate the theft of firearms, and stripping and relicensing.
They do regular checks of armourers and specialist sporting stores that are licensed to trade in firearms and ammunition.

what i find strange is......as a police officer i am licenced (under section 9 of our police act) to carry and use a firearm. However....off duty i dont have a firearms licence and im not licensed to carry or use!!!!

[oscarmitre]

Bryan

That is plain ineptitude. It is indicative of some real problems in administration. Which ever government set that up needs a decent kick in the arse. I know some excellent administrators here who would be able to show them how it's done. And I'm not trying to be insulting or a smartie, it's almost as if it were set up to fail.

[metallicat]

It was the Liberal Party led By Jean Chretien. The amount of money wasted is astronomical, but of course they will just be voted back in during the upcoming election.

[corporal716]

How did they go about it when they started this licensing program? Did they go door to door looking for guns?

[metallicat]

How did they go about it when they started this licensing program? Did they go door to door looking for guns?

I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to it at the time because I don't own firearms, so don't quote me. I believe it had a lot of advertising and publicity, and I seem to remember booths set up in mallls where people were supposed come down on their own to get it done. There were deadlines setup, and large outcries...didn't work and no it is a huge fiasco.

[oscarmitre]

It was the Liberal Party led By Jean Chretien. The amount of money wasted is astronomical, but of course they will just be voted back in during the upcoming election.

And before everyone starts chucking hand grenades - the Liberal Party, as I understand it, is a conservative-style govt in Canada just as the Liberal Party here in Aus is conservative. The NDP (?) is like our Labor (without the "u") Party, social democratic party, I think.

[jonesg11]

And before everyone starts chucking hand grenades - the Liberal Party, as I understand it, is a conservative-style govt in Canada just as the Liberal Party here in Aus is conservative. The NDP (?) is like our Labor (without the "u") Party, social democratic party, I think.

I'm going to throw a grenade here. The liberal party of Canada is not conservative it is LIBERAL!!!! The NDP is MORE LIBERAL!!

[metallicat]

Well said Jones, lol. The NDP is like Ralph Nader, stealing valuable votes away from the liberal party ;)

[jonesg11]

Pretty much, and recently stealing candidates as well. Since most folks are stuck in their beliefs either the Liberals have become more left wing or the NDP is too far right for their former candidates, LOL!

[metallicat]

But the stupid thing is, the liberals stole a conservative candidate...how in the hell does that happen? That is a complete 180...unfortunately, I can't remember the guy's name but you probably will.

[jonesg11]

Scott Brison, not conservative in the least, he was a red tory the whole time just like Joe Clark. Since the new conservative party wont endorse their ideals they just changed to where they belonged all along.

[metallicat]

I wasn't familiar with his policies at all, it just didn't make sense to me when it happened.

You hear Peter Mackay saying he wants Don Cherry to run? He would have a shot...and who knows if that would spark more conservative votes in Ontario.

[jonesg11]

It might, or it would make a lot of people mad since they hate him. The funny thing is that even when he turned down the offer he was truthful about it. He said that he didnt think he would have a big enough position to actually be able to do anything, and that he didnt want to take a pay cut, lol. An honest man, hmm maybe thats why he didnt want to get into politics.

[metallicat]

I didn't know he officially turned it down...oh well, things are actually looking up more and more this year.