Conservatives Continue the Fight to Scrap The Long Gun Registry

October 21, 2010

Ottawa – Ted Menzies, Member of Parliament, advised that Conservatives continue to fight to scrap the long gun registry.  Despite the hopes of many law-abiding Canadians, police officers and advocacy groups, a new chapter in the fight to scrap the wasteful and ineffective long-gun registry begins – again.

On September 22, 2010, a Bill to scrap the long-gun registry, proposed by Conservative MP Candice Hoeppner, was barely defeated in the House of Commons – by a mere 2 votes. This outcome was made possible because of 14 MPs who succumbed to pressures of the leaders of the Ignatieff/NDP/Bloc Québécois Coalition. Mr. Ignatieff whipped his MPs into voting against Ms. Hoeppner’s Bill. This resulted in eight Members, who had previously supported scrapping the registry, voting against the wishes of their constituents and other Canadians across the country. The NDP also urged its MPs to vote against the Bill – with the ultimate result of six New Democrats reversing their decisions.

“The bullying tactics and desperate manoeuvring of the Liberal and NDP parties have ultimately resulted in the defeat of this clear and straight-forward bill to end the registry,” said Menzies.  “Those MPs have sent a clear message that their voters have heard and understood – that they don’t have a voice in Ottawa when they thought they did.”

From now on it will be very difficult for Canadians to believe a member of the Ignatieff/NDP/Bloc Québécois Coalition who says, “I will vote to scrap the long-gun registry.” Indeed, the vast majority of Ignatieff/NDP/Bloc Québécois Coalition MPs have spoken loudly and clearly in favour of criminalizing law-abiding Canadians. Families in Canada can trust that Conservatives will always stand united against this costly and flawed system.

“Our Conservative Government does not believe in treating law-abiding hunters, farmers, and rural Canadians as criminals. We don’t believe in singling out and putting under suspicion honest, hard-working Canadians. And we don’t believe in shamelessly wasting hard-earned taxpayer dollars on an ineffective tool that does little to nothing at stopping real crime in Canada,” stated Menzies.

This is the furthest Canadians have come to dismantling a body that was originally forecasted to cost $2 million, but has ballooned into a $2 billion bureaucracy. Canadians can count on Conservatives to continue to work to scrap it once and for all.

To learn more about the Conservative campaign to scrap the long gun registry, please visit www.scraptheregistry.ca.