Registration does NOT equal Licensing

 I was browsing a certain forum and came across a link to a group called the advocacy project. I haven’t spent too much time going through it, but I believe its primary focus is on domestic violence. EDIT: Miss Mandelman was kind of enough to post a comment (seen below) clarifying the Advocacy Project’s mission, in her words, “The Advocacy Project’s mission is to produce social change by helping marginalized communities claim their rights.”  That’s what I get for not doing a final proofread and fact checking before making posts. Based on the blogs I’ve read, its specifically focus on firearms and domestic violence. The post on that page that got me writing this article in particular is entitled Registration vs. Licensing in which the author, Elizabeth Mandelman, states that both registration and licensing are interrelated, and even explicitly states that registration protects women and children, among other dubious claims about the failed gun registry.

 Seems everytime I see or hear about the failed gun registry I hear the same people spouting off about how it prevents crime, protects people, etc. These statements are at best the result of being horribly misinformed, or lacking any understanding of what the billion dollar plus disaster actually does. At worst, it’s a blatant lie being told to people to get their support. For the usual suspects like Mayor Miller of Toronto, Dalton McGuinty, and Wendy Cukier, and the regular letter to the editor writers in the Toronto Star and other publications, its a blatant lie. For Elizabeth Mandelman, who made the blog post I linked to above, I presume its simply not understanding.

 First, you need to understand what they claim. They claim that the registration of firearms in Canada prevents firearms from ending up in the hands of criminals, and by extension, reducing violence. Another favoured line is that registration reduces domestic violence. Honestly, they will stand before a video camera and with a straight face state that the government knowing that person A owns firearm B will, through the power of dreams and magic, prevent person A from harming person C. How a few lines of code in a badly managed database program and a piece of paper is supposed to prevent one human being from inflicting harm upon another is beyond me. To some however, it makes perfect sense. That, or their lieing. Now, do you really believe that the individuals I listed in the last paragraph, you know, people like the Premier of Ontario, are really that stupid?

 No, they are not.

 The failed gun registry does one thing and one thing only, provides a list of what firearms have been registered. Note that I said registered, not what’s in country. While only about 7 million firearms are registered, some estimates place the actual number at double that or more. Why? Well there are plenty of people, generally older, or in rural areas, who have family hunting rifles or shotguns, or war relics that they never registered. This is because they don’t know the laws, or don’t care, or simply feel it couldn’t possibly apply to grandad’s old Lee Enfield in the attic. That is quite literally the only function of the registry, to record what guns are in the country, and who the owner is. It means that when I buy a rifle, I hand the clerk my license, they contact the Canadian Firearms Center and state that the Savage Mk.1 with serial number such and such is being sold to me. The CFC transfers registration from the store to me. That’s it. It doesn’t mean I can or can’t buy a gun, it doesn’t do a background check, all it does is state that rifle, of this make, of this model, with this serial number, and this classification (non-restricted, restricted, or prohibited) is now registered to me. It simply means that in the eyes of the Canadian Firarms Center that rifle is now mine.

 Somehow, there are individuals and organizations in this country that will have you believe that this process will somehow stop a gangbanger from shooting a gangbanger. Or a drug addicted wife beater from beating his wife. I’m pretty confident that you, the reader, are not an idiot, and know that a piece of paper stating a particular piece of wood and metal belongs to a certain individual can not in any way, shape, or form, prevent a person commiting harm against another person..

 So what purpose does the failed registry serve then? Well, it’s apparently supposed to help police when they have to approach a vehicle, or enter someones home. Everything I’ve heard and read from front line police officers states that they don’t use it. Why wouldn’t they use it? Simple, for one, the registry is horribly innacurate, this is a well documented fact that has been true for years. Heck, there’s a soldering gun thats been registered. Second, how often do the police go into your home? Not often I imagine, that’s because you’re a law abiding citizen, like all the millions of men and women with firearms licenses. They don’t do things that would prompt the police to have to enter their home. Granted, there are some individuals with licenses who commit crimes, but at a vastly smaller rate than average people. As we all know, you have bad apples in every group, but the registry in no way prevents these individuals from committing crimes. Lastly, theres the fact that anytime a police officer enters any sort of situation, they are aware, alert, and prepared for any possibility. It doesn’t matter if they’re entering an old woman’s home, they will be prepared for the possibility that said old woman has some long standing grudge and a little purse gun hidden away. Police are well trained, and if any officer relied on the registry for information, they’d be inviting a death sentence for themselves as criminals, by nature of being criminals, and thus NOT following the law do not register their firearms, nor possess firearm licenses.

 So we’ve established that for what are actually fairly obvious reasons when you think about, police don’t have much use for the registry. There’s another police use of the registry that gets stated. To seize firearms from individuals if they are being a threat to themselves or other, have their licenses revoked or suspended, etc. They say that the registry provides a list of firearms the individual possesses so they know how many their should be to take away. Except for the fact that it doesn’t really work that way. You see,  its all to easy for someone with ill intent to say they lost a gun, let someone borrow it, had it stolen, or they could simply get their hands on a gun illegaly. If they have criminal intent, then chances are they know criminals, and illegally obtaining a firearm should be easy as pie at that point. When police seize firearms, they use a thing called a search warrant, this way, they can seize all the items that need to be removed, legal or illegaly, registered or unregistered, etc etc. Without a registry, the police will just easily go into said person’s house, do the exact same thing they’re doing, and leave with the exact same items. The dismantling of the registry won’t affect this. The only scenario I can plausibly think of where using the registry to seize firearms might work is someone who may be suicidal. But then the person simply ties a noose around their neck and hangs themselves, since these people advocating for the registry apparently feel a billion plus dollars is better spent on recording which firearms are imported rather than, say, programs to help individuals and their family and friends who are suffering from mental health issues, and need actual support and help, NOT some self serving politico on their soapbox telling them how everything will be sunshine and rainbows, with unicorns frolicking in the fields if we simply keep wasting resources on the failed registry rather than actually address the issues.

 So how are we supposed to keep people from obtaining firearms that shouldn’t have them? Well, realistically, there will ALWAYS be firearms in criminals’ hands, that is simply the a fact of life with humanity, there will always be people seeking to inflict harm upon others. And we already have a system in place to prevent people on unsound mental health or violent criminal histories from being able to legally acquire and possess firearms. It’s called licensing, it is completely different than the registry, and actually fulfils the tasks that people like Liz claim the registry fills. To obtain a license you need to attend a safety course, pass a safety examination consisting of a written and practical component, then submit an application to the Canadian Firearms Center for a license. The CFC will then forward your information to relevant agencies, and a check will be done on your mental health and criminal histories if you have any. If you are determined to be a safe, responsible, law-abiding citizen then congratulations, you get a license. Happy and safe shooting to you. If you are a gangbanger with repeated charges and parole violations, you get rejected. Furthermore, with the computerized systems in the hands of our law enforcement agencies nowadays, everyday you are basically run against the police database, so if you commit a crime, get a license suspension, etc, they will instantly know, and the process for securing your firearms (if deemed necessary) will be underway. The failed gun registry has no impact on any of this.

 So if the failed registry is actually useless, and a waste of well over a billion dollars at this point, you’re probably asking why so many people support it. Well, for average people, its because they don’t understand. They don’t realize that the registry does not actually have any useful purpose, because they have listened  to those with an anti-gun agenda repeatedly spewing out the same lies and misinformation over and over and over again. For said people with agendas, they simply have a very strong hatred of firearms for some reason and seek to have them removed from society, or are pushing a political agenda to buy votes, deflect attention, etc. It’s easy for people like Miller to stand at a podium and decry the evil of guns, and parade around the families of victims of gang crime. Much easier than say, standing at the podium and answering questions as to why the unionized waste management system in Toronto costs more than 60% greater than the average for Canadian municipalities. The most insidious purpose for supporting the registry however, is confiscation. This, along with inconveniencing firearm owners and businesses, is the primary purpose of the registry. To provide a database for certain members of our political establishment that they can use in the future to seize guns, possibly most, if not all of them, in the country. Don’t believe me? It’s already happened, several models of firearms such as two different shotguns that have option of function in semi-automatic or pump-action depending on what kind of ammo you want to use, were prohibited, and police dispatched to the homes of owners where they were seized and destroyed, without any form of compensation for the property the government decided to prohibit overnight. Furthermore, if/when a certain political party decides to go ahead to ban semi-automatics (you know, those evil semi-automatic sport and hunting rifles, or semi-auto shotguns used for bird hunting) the registry will provide a convenient list of all the ones registered that the police can go and then seize. This is despite claims at the time the registry was created, and claims since, that confiscation has nothing to do with the registry.

 So now you understand, registration has one function, recording specific firearm information, and who owns it, it has absolutely zero control over who can or can’t possess a firearm, and it is physically impossible for registration to prevent a crime. The task of deciding who can or can’t possess a firearm, is a function of licensing, and despite a number of issues with our licensing system, its overall pretty good and strongly supported for the firearms community. There does indeed need to be controls over who can acquire and possess firearms, but registration has nothing to do with that.

~ by seyek858 on July 25, 2009.