Steve Janke: Well, the truth is more complicated, as it always is.

Gun registry successfully kept guns out of the United States

"The people for and against the long-gun registry have been tossing allegations back and forth about how effective the registry has been in fighting crime. Often this takes the form of statistics. For: An average of 5,000 queries a day are made by law enforcement agencies. Against: Virtually all the queries are automatically generated by local police computers whenever any kind of information is accessed, including outstanding parking fines.

The problem is that it is hard to really understand how useful the registry is when you look at broad collections of numbers.

So I decided to focus on one particular event, chosen at random, described by the Coalition for Gun Control:..."

(article linked in RESOURCE LIBRARY -Media, and above)

Canadian Firearms Centre Commissioner Baker leaves the CFC for CRA

Michel Dorais, commissioner of the Canada Revenue Agency, announced today that William Baker, until recently commissioner of the Canadian Firearms Centre , will leave that agency and take up the newly created post of CEO/COO of the Canada Revenue Agency. Mr Baker came to the Canadian Firearms Centre from Revenue, and returns to his roots as a longtime CRA bureaucrat.

Mr. Baker's departure comes on the heels of the announcement by Stockwell Day, Minister for Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada, that control of the Firearms Centre would return to the RCMP. Both the Firearms Centre and the Canada Revenue Agency were given poor marks by Auditor General Sheila Fraser in her 2006 Report.

The Canadian Firearms Centre remains at the centre of controversy over spending and contracting practices. Mr. Baker will assume his duties at CRA on May 23, 2006.

New Changes to the CFC and Gun Control Program, May 17, 2006

Government takes action to eliminate the costly and ineffective long-gun registry

OTTAWA, May 17, 2006 -- The Honourable Stockwell Day, Minister of Public Safety, today announced the Government’s plan to eliminate the long-gun registry and to better meet law enforcement needs while reducing burdens on law-abiding long-gun owners.

“Eliminating the long-gun registry is a promise this government made to Canadians and is a promise we are going to keep. Promise made, promise kept,” said Minister Day. “Canada’s new Government is putting its emphasis on getting tough on crime and developing a truly effective firearms control program, not punishing responsible long-gun owners.”

The Government is moving ahead today with the implementation of the following measures:

* transferring responsibility for the Firearms Act and regulations to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), taking over from the former Canada Firearms Centre;
* reducing the annual operating budget for the program by $10 million;
* implementing licence renewal fee waivers and refunds;
* eliminating physical verification of non-restricted firearms; and
* introducing a one-year amnesty to protect previously-licensed owners of non-restricted firearms from prosecution and to encourage them to comply with the law as it currently stands.

As well, the government will table legislation to repeal the requirement to register non-restricted firearms.

Any legislative and regulatory changes will continue to require the safe storage of firearms, safety training, a licensing program including police background checks, a handgun registry (as has been the case since 1934) and a ban on those classes of firearms currently identified as prohibited.

“This new Government will not continue to fund ineffective programs. Instead, we will invest our resources to better protect Canadian families and their communities by putting more police on our streets, funding crime prevention initiatives and supporting the victims of crime,” Minister Day concluded.

Fraser tables her report on the Canadian Firearms Program

Auditor General of Canada Sheila Fraser tabled her 2006 Report of the Auditor General of Canada. Of particular interest to Canadian firearms owners, is Chapter 4, Canadian Firearms Program. Fraser was critical of financial reporting practices, contracting practices, and alluded to possible simlar issues of contract payments for which no particular work was done. She added an additional report concerning the impact the Liberal government's decisions had on parliamentary control of public spending. The relevent report links for these, and the background 2002 Auditor's reports are posted in the Resource Library, Legislation/Government.

Steve Janke: Cukier is pushing what is known as the Sunk Cost Fallacy

Steve Janke, of Angry in the Great White North blog fame takes exception to Wendy Cukier's latest last minute rationale for saving the bloated registry. Cukier's idea that, oh well, the money's been spent, is justification for keeping on spending on a program with no definable benefit other than setting up Canadians for confiscation. Endless access to information requests have yet to highlight any discernible need to keep the registry going.
Janke writes:

"The Conservative government in Ottawa has the long-gun registry in its sights. What was supposed to cost a few million has cost over a billion, and for all that, it is not clear what contribution the registry has made in fighting crime (I'm being diplomatic in my wording here). If the registry had cost half the originally predicted amount, defenders would say Canadians were getting a well-managed bargain. Strangely, though, defenders of the registry say the vast cost overruns are also a reason to keep the registry...

[...]

Cukier is pushing what is known as the sunk cost fallacy:

Many people have strong misgivings about "wasting" resources. This is called "loss aversion". Many people, for example, would feel obligated to go to the movie despite not really wanting to, because doing otherwise would be wasting the ticket price; they feel they passed the point of no return. This is sometimes called the sunk cost fallacy. Economists would label this behavior "irrational": It is inefficient because it misallocates resources by depending on information that is irrelevant to the decision being made.

Follow the story here.

Montague heads to court

Bruce Montague is an Ontario gunsmith who has taken exception to many aspects of the Firearms Act from its inception. His story is chronicled here. As of April 30, 2006, his legal counsel has submitted his application and factum to the clerk of the Superior Court of Ontario, the first step on the long road to the Supreme Court of Canada. He awaits a decision as to whether the court will hear his case.