Q&A Canadian Firearms Institute – www.itsnowornever.ca [2008 election] (October 11, 2008)
Name: Alan Mercer
Party: Libertarian Party of Canada
Province: Ontario
Riding: Scarborough—Rouge River
Q&A from Canadian Firearms Institute and My Answers:
“The gun registry is by no means complete. Only 7 million of the estimated 15 million guns that are in Canada (according to government import and export records) are registered.
“The firearms registration is redundant, in that firearm owners are already licensed and identified and those licences and addresses are available to the police.
“The firearms registration has demonstrated itself to be a slow, inaccurate tool that identifies only those firearm owners who are licensed and register their firearms. Millions of firearms remain unregistered: their location, make, calibre and owner all unknown. The one billion plus dollars that have been spent creating and maintaining this inaccurate data base could well have been spent on increasing our country’s police services, upgrading technology for law enforcement and developing new methods for combating crime.”
Do you support abolishing the firearms registration?
YES
Do you support re-allocating the money, now wasted on the Firearms Registry, towards fortifying – and rendering more effective – our policing services?
NO
Comments: Yes, I support abolishing the firearms registration. I believe that firearms ownership is a right. I don’t believe in any registration because I believe in the right of self-defence. I don’t believe in different classes of people. Police are servants of the people and should not be the only citizens with guns. I don’t believe the authorities should be monitoring the location of firearms. This is how totalitarianism is imposed. After the bank-bailouts and corporate rip-offs are complete and the public is angry with the inflation, the government in power will start looking up the names of gun owners.
I was thinking of answering “Yes” to the policing question but it’s not the right answer. It should be up to each citizen how their money is spent. Money could be better spent on policing if people feel they could be better served by the police in a specific way. Also they should be able to make that choice locally and individually about what kind of security they prefer and it would be great if they could have written assurances from police services about how they are going to improve their approach to going after real crimes – murder, sexual assault, burglary and other theft.
However, if the government is going to waste resources on victimless crimes that shouldn’t be crimes, then this is a deeper problem and I wouldn’t advocate more money be spent on policing by government while they continue those policies. The justice system should be responsive to the needs of victims, and criminals should have to make restitution – pay compensation – to their victims or to the families of their victims.
“Canada’s Firearm heritage is embedded in our culture and Firearms owners contribute over One Billion Dollars * a year to the Canadian economy through their activities such as hunting, purchasing hunting equipment, sports and target shooting, sports equipment, recreational vehicle purchases, and travel expenses etc. The firearms community contributes 1.2 Million dollars* to wildlife conservation programs and event annually.”
Will you actively support and protect this heritage?
YES
Comments: Yes, I will actively defend and encourage Canada’s Firearm heritage. The more of this type of positive economic activity the better. And there are so many other positive business and recreational activities that people could choose to add to that list if they were living in a more libertarian society with less taxes, regulations, licensing and central planning.
“The recent and notorious surge in “Gang Violence” is a creeping social problem fed by greed, easy money and criminal behaviour. People are killed and terrorized by these criminals. Our resources should be focused on solving these issues by implementing social programs at the geographic source of these troubled areas and increasing law and drug enforcement capability and technologies – rather than attacking our own trustworthy, hard working, voting citizens who also happen to legally own and use firearms.”
I agree AND I disagree
I agree with leaving law-abiding gun owners alone but I disagree with promoting the invasive drug war.
“If you would like to address the firearms community further, please include your comments below. We would like to know what you think.”
Just to comment more on the last question, I agree that law-abiding citizens should be left alone. Besides the fact that social programs should be voluntary, I would like to emphasize that we should not support a police state where infrared cameras are used to spy out homes for possible marijuana growth or where power usage is monitored! There are reports of this type of spying. Neither should we support harsh tyrannical innovations such as asset forfeiture, which is in violation of everything Canada is supposed to stand for. These attacks on civil liberties are not the kind of “creative energy” we need in Canada. Mandatory roadside drug testing was recently introduced and is another example of this. These invasions of privacy need to stop.
See Law Enforcement Against Prohibition at http://www.leap.cc/ We need to abolish the drug war. Drug prohibition is abusive and leads to higher profits for those who are willing to risk participation in the drug trade – because it is illegal – just as gangsters were empowered by alcohol prohibition. The lure of easy money is seductive to unstable young people in my opinion.
A genuine crime only exists when there is a victim. In a free society, young people would have more opportunities to prosper and live positive, fulfilling and responsible lives. For more information on libertarian ideals, see my website at . . .
October 11th, 2008
3 comments to Q&A Canadian Firearms Institute – www.itsnowornever.ca
January 27th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
Yes, I would support abolishing the firearms registration, and I would actively support and protect this heritage.
March 25th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
I BELIEVE THAT THE GOVERNMENT’S AGENDA IS TO TOTALLY DISARM THE PUBLIC. FURTHERMORE THE REGISTRY IS ONE OF THE MOST COSTLY VENTURES BY ANY GOVERNMENT AND A MAJORITY OF THE MEDIA (SPURRED ON BY THE GOVERNMENT)TO DUPE THE PUBLIC INTO THINKING THAT PERHAPS THEY SHOULD BE LIKE SHEEP AND FOLLOW (AGREE TO) EVEN BAD JUDGEMENTS MADE BY OUR LAWMAKERS IN OTTAWA. THEY WERE HASTY IN FORMULATING AND PASSING BILL C-68.
I HOPE A MAJORITY OF THE PUBLIC ISBEING EDUCATED AND WILL EVENTUALLY GRASP THE FUTILIY OF THE GUN REGISTRY BECAUSE THE LAW ABIDING FIREARMS OWNERS ARE NOT THE PROBLEM.
IT SHOULD BE TIME THAT THE TRUE FIGURE REACH THE PUBLIC AS TO EXACTLY HOW MANY GUN RELATED CRIME ARE COMMITTED BY THE LAW ABIDER. THERE ARE ALREADY FIREARM LAWS IN EXISTENCE TO LET THE POLICE KNOW WHO THE LAW ABIDING OWNERS ARE.
TOO BAD THE CRIMINALS DO NOT ABIDE BY THE LAWS IN EXISTENCE.
“WHEN GUNS ARE OUTLAWED ONLY OUTLAWS WILL HAVE GUNS”
April 13th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
YES I WOULD SUPPORT ABOLISHING THE FIREARMS REGISTRATION