OTTAWA, April 22, 2009- This week opposition parties ganged up and voted to end our Conservative government’s support for long gun owners. The Liberals, Bloc and New Democrats re-forged the infamous coalition to support a Bloc motion that would put an end to the four year break period our government gave long gun owners so that they don’t have to register their arms.
“The long gun registry does not work. Period. All it does is create more unnecessary bureaucracy and red tape for farmers, hunters and legitimate long gun owners,” said Tony Clement, Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for FedNor. “The fact that the Liberals and New Democrats would support a Bloc motion to bring an end to our work for long gun owners just goes to show how little they understand Canadians.”
Our Conservative Government currently has two bills before Parliament to repeal the long-gun registry so that our hunters and farmers will not have to jump through more bureaucratic hoops to own guns. Our legislation will repeal the requirement for individuals and businesses to register non-restricted long-guns and require firearms retailers to record all sales transactions.
“The Liberals continuously neglected Canada’s licensing system and instead wasted a billion dollars on the failed long-gun registry, which the Auditor General reported has wasted taxpayers’ money and contains data that is unreliable,” said Minister Clement. “Now they are going to have to explain to Canadians why they chose to get together with the other parties to sabotage our efforts to help long gun owners. Our Government will continue to fight for effective gun control that targets criminals, not farmers and hunters and we will uphold our position on the long gun registry.”
