Article analysis and discussion

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The government’s gun registration program has failed. It did not stop the Dawson College shooting nor the two previous rampages in Montreal. All three crimes were committed by individuals using legally acquired weapons. More important, recent statistics show that while the incidence of crime—homicides, robbery—involving guns has decreased over the past ten years in the United States, it has increased in Canada. In the United States, not only is there no gun registry, but citizens are actually being encouraged to carry guns. Twenty-six states have recently passed laws allowing citizens to carry handguns and have made it easier for them to get handgun licences.

Not only has the gun registry program failed; it has had the effect of a steamroller crushing a butterfly. The gun registry program has two main functions: (1) to decrease the use of guns for criminal activity, and (2) to reduce the number of domestic murders because of easy access to guns. The registry has had no effect on either of these.

Most crimes are committed with unregistered and illegal handguns, often either stolen from individuals who have registered their guns or with guns illegally imported from the United States. A gun registry doesn’t address that problem. Criminals will still get guns; law-abiding citizens won’t. In fact, a gun registry can actually facilitate criminals getting guns because it tells the criminals who has the guns and from where they can be stolen.

The gun registry, by itself, does not reduce the number of domestic murders. The number is, first of all, already low. And if someone is going to kill a spouse or other family member, that person will use whatever is available. If guns aren’t available, he or she will use knives or clubs. Registering handguns will not change that.

Nor will it stop the killing of police officers. Few police officers in Canada are killed with guns. And when they have been, the guns have either been legally acquired, which the gun registry does nothing to prevent, or they have been illegal, which the gun registry also does nothing to prevent.

The gun registry is simply not effective. It should be eliminated.