[Brian Gough]

From the Toronto Star commentary page, Sat. Dec. 10, 2005

View From The West - Murdoch Davis in Winnipeg

" Handgun `ban' is the gun registry all over again

Liberals just out to hustle votes


So, this is what it comes to for Paul Martin and the Liberals — in a tardy response to the Summer of Guns, they will make illegal that which is already illegal, and ban handguns, except where they don't.

It's a real "son of a gun registry." And it will be as ineffective in protecting Canadians from violence as the registry, in which the Liberals made illegal that which had previously been legal — unregistered rifles or shotguns — even though they had nothing to do with the targeted crime.

If the cost multiplier that affected the registry applies again, this could cost $2.9 gazillion, give or take a hundred million. Let us pray.

Too often, anyone who doesn't support weapons laws is dismissed as a right-wing nut, overly fond of guns. I am neither. What I am is an advocate of sound public policy, where what gets examined is the likely effect of a proposal rather than its stated aims.

Too often in our public discourse, a person who challenges a proposal is assumed to be in favour of what proponents claim they will reduce. Effectiveness goes unexamined. We end up with programs with lofty goals but little effect, or far more costly than merited.

When then-justice minister Allan Rock was selling the long-gun registry, he spoke to the editorial board of the Edmonton Journal. He said police handling domestic violence complaints always had to prepare in case the home held weapons, but the registry would give them certainty.

When I pointed out that police would still always have to anticipate unregistered weapons, the minister's response was a steady stare and silence. The point was unassailable. After the meeting, an aide shook his head and asked: "Why do you like guns so much?" I could see the costly boondoggle coming and wanted to debate that, but it was hopeless.

That Prime Minister Paul Martin is advocating a sort-of ban on handguns and blaming the spate of gunplay on a leaky American border (isn't that the same border as ours?) is all politics. There is an election on.

The rifle and shotgun registry was all politics, too. It grew out of reaction to the murder of 14 Montreal women by Marc Lepine. Lepine was crazy, which is tough to outlaw. What he did, and the repeater weapon he used, was already illegal — banned, even. That didn't matter much in the debate on the shotgun registry, just as for some it won't matter now that what killers in Toronto did this summer, and the guns they used, were already illegal. Martin got what he wanted — top broadcast and newspaper play, a few days running.

It's difficult to believe this is well thought out. It was not in the anti-crime legislation before Parliament. Tightening the border was in Liberal literature in the last election, yet is suddenly a priority?

Tuesday, the 16th anniversary of Lepine's crimes, was marked across the country with candlelight vigils by people the Liberals see as voters motivated by this issue. The sister of a victim called for a further crackdown on guns. Deliberate leaks of Martin's ban followed, in time for Wednesday night newscasts and Thursday papers.

Liberal officials say the ban means that when police see a person with a handgun, they will know it's illegal. That's as absurd as Rock's registry claim. Even the rare person with a handgun permit faces storage and transport rules so strict that only someone with X-ray vision could see a gun legally in public. There are no instances of police under-reacting to gun sightings.

Among the flaws in the long-weapon registry is that it makes non-compliance a Criminal Code offence, not just against a lesser law. That's because only through the code can Ottawa regulate such matters; otherwise, it's provincial jurisdiction. (That's why analogies to registering cars are bogus — failure to register a car isn't criminal, and if it never leaves your property, you don't have to register.)

But policing and enforcement are provincial, too. And as registry costs soared, most provinces directed authorities not to enforce it. Headlines describe Martin's ban as "sweeping," but the broom is ragged. Ottawa has to negotiate with provinces.

Initial Western reaction has been widely incredulous, and provincial leaders already lean to opting out again. Patchwork criminal law enforcement isn't good for Canada. Don't be surprised if the money for law enforcement that was announced with the ban is used to induce the provinces. Such bribes have become how we define national standards.

It all assumes, of course, that Martin wins re-election — what this is really about. The handgun ban is meaningless and the border issue isn't new. But by raising them, Liberals can hope to get responses from Tory Leader Stephen Harper — who still speaks of ending the wasteful long-gun registry, not adding more ineffective laws — that they can use to portray him as one of those nuts who is overly fond of guns.

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Murdoch Davis is a writer and editor who has worked in Edmonton, Victoria, Winnipeg and Toronto. He is editor of The Beaver magazine. "

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