The Harper government is moving forward with C-19, a bill that would, among other measures, end the requirement for gun owners to register their long guns and erase all Canadian Firearms Registry records.
Postmedia News reports this morning, “The Conservatives won a motion during a late Tuesday evening parliamentary vote to limit debate on the long-gun registry repeal bill to one day at report stage and two days at the bill’s third and final reading. The time allocation motion received 152 votes, with 131 MPs opposed. Bill C-19 will be up for third reading. Afterwards, it will go to the Senate.”
CUPE has issued an action alert that states:
Tell the Harper Conservatives, other Party leaders and your MP that Bill C-19 goes too far. Not only will Bill C-19 eliminate the registration of rifles and shotguns, but it will roll back the clock more than thirty years, undoing measures introduced since 1977.
It will:
- Eliminate mandatory licence checks to purchase firearms which will increase the chance unlicensed individuals will be sold rifles and shotguns.
- Eliminate recording non-restricted gun sales which have been in place since 1977. Without this information there is no way for police to investigate the source of rifles and shotguns recovered from crime scenes or seized from suspects.
- Erase data on 7.1 million rifles and shotguns currently registered, despite the fact that this data could be useful as an investigative tool for police officers. Several international treaties require that countries maintain firearm sales records for the purpose of tracing. This is unnecessary, punitive and will impede criminal investigations.
- Allow a licensed individual to acquire an unlimited number of guns without any flags being raised, including powerful semi-automatics and some sniper rifles. There will also be no means to know who owns these powerful guns, nor how many are owned.
- Destroy a tool used by police officersto remove guns from dangerous people, enforce prohibition orders and take preventive actions.
Please call and email your MP and Party leaders immediately:
Prime Minister Stephen Harper
(613) 992-4211
Stephen.Harper@parl.gc.ca
Ms. Nycole Turmel, Interim Leader of the Opposition
(613) 992-7550
Nycole.Turmel@parl.gc.ca
Hon. Bob Rae, Liberal Party Interim Leader
(613) 992-5234
Bob.Rae@parl.gc.ca
Mr. André Bellavance, Bloc Quebecois Interim Leader in the House of Commons
(613) 995-1554
Andre.Bellavance@parl.gc.ca
Ms. Elizabeth May, Green Party Leader
(613) 996-1119
Elizabeth.May@parl.gc.ca
Contact information for your MP is available at http://civic.ca/.
We need to send as many messages as we can to tell our elected representatives that we still support gun control legislation.
