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Long Gun Registry is History

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                    

April 5^th, 2012

OTTAWA – Member of Parliament for Battlefords-Lloydminster and Minister of Agriculture Gerry Ritz is proud to announce that Bill C-19, the bill to end the long gun registry passed through the senate and received royal assent.

“Over my 15 years in office, the consistent message from voters in my riding was to get rid of the long-gun registry that unfairly targeted law-abiding farmers, hunters and sport shooters”, said Ritz. "I am proud that our Government has delivered on our promise and abolished the unfair long-gun registry once and for all."

From its very introduction, the long-gun registry was poor policy and a waste of taxpayer dollars. 10 years ago, the former Auditor General Sheila Fraser found the long-gun registry to be an unreliable tally of the number of long-gun dispersed throughout the country. And while the opposition kept assuring Canadians that law enforcement ‘checked the registry thousands of times a day.’ This was misleading. Many of those ‘hits’ were simply routine address and licence plate checks.

“Law-abiding farmers, hunters and rural Canadians will no longer be treated as criminals, simply for owning a long-gun. It was an honour to represent the wishes of my constituents in the House of Commons and finally see the end of the long-gun registry”, added Ritz.

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For more information call the office of Hon. Gerry Ritz 613-992-9703