Long-Gun Registry Closer to Being Abolished, says MP Allen

November 06, 2009

TOBIQUE-MACTAQUAC – Mike Allen, Member of Parliament for Tobique-Mactaquac, is pleased that the Conservative government is closer to fulfilling its long-standing promise to eliminate the long-gun registry.

On Wednesday, Nov. 4, a private member’s bill passed second reading 164-137, and will now go to committee for study.

“So many of my constituents have been waiting for years to see the registry done away with,” Mr. Allen said. “I was very pleased that 18 Liberals and New Democrats joined with the government in supporting the bill.”

Bill C-391, which was proposed by Manitoba Conservative MP Candice Hoeppner, would scrap the wasteful and inefficient registry. “The registry is not cracking down on crime like the Liberals promised it would when they introduced it,” Mr. Allen said. “Instead, it unfairly targets law-abiding farmers and hunters.”

While the news is good for long-gun owners, there is a lot of work to be done before the registry becomes a thing of the past. The bill still needs to go to committee and third reading in the House of Commons and then through a similar process in the Senate.

“It’s important for the opposition MPs who supported the bill on Wednesday to continue to do so within their parties as it makes its way through Parliament,” said Mr. Allen. “The challenge is that both the Liberal and NDP leaders support the registry, and their parties are already coming up with ways to keep it in place.”  

He cautions that there is still a lot of work to be done.

“On a regular basis, I hear from farmers, hunters, widows and others who just want to hang onto their grandfather’s long-guns,” he said. “There’s no need for these people to have carried the stress and worry of receiving a strongly worded letter from the RCMP regarding the seizure of their long-guns.”