The province's firearms office collected the information under federal authority and continued to do so, even after the federal government killed the long gun registry earlier this spring. (Canadian Press)
Posted on 07/11/2012 3:19:04 PM PDT by neverdem
Although long gun registry was axed earlier this year, dealers were still collecting information
The province's firearms office collected the information under federal authority and continued to do so, even after the federal government killed the long gun registry earlier this spring. (Canadian Press)
The federal government has ordered the province to stop collecting personal information from people who buy long guns.
Nova Scotia's firearms office collected the information under federal authority and continued to do so, even after the federal government killed the long gun registry earlier this spring.
Roger Merrick, the province's director of Public Safety Investigations, said that will now end.
"We will be sending out letters to businesses that sell firearms, basically stating that they are no longer required to collect data on persons purchasing long guns," Merrick said.
Dealers have been recording long gun sales since the 1980's, including the names and addresses of the buyer.
Last week, the federal government explicitly told Nova Scotia and other provinces to stop collecting information.
"Previously, the firearms act required the data to be collected, to be available to be scrutinized. After this, we will not have any data to look at, " Merrick said.
For police, he said, the end of the ledgers will make tracking the movement of long guns harder, if not impossible.
"If the police were looking to track a particular firearm that may have been used in an offence, they would have to utilize the serial number of that firearm, go back to the manufacturer, find out who they sold it to, and then perhaps interview the business owner to see whether or not they would be able to provide the information," Merrick said.
Justice Minister Ross Landry said the province has no interest in setting up its own system, making it clear the NDP will not fight the federal government's decision.
"For us to go in and try and challenge them in that battle, it makes no logical sense to us. Our taxpayer dollars would be better spent on crime prevention and other initiatives," Landry said.
Firearms dealers are still required to collect and maintain data on the sale of restricted weapons, such as handguns.
Buyers of long guns require a training course that is overseen by police.
A step in the right direction.
Yup
Chief Firearms Officers in individual Provinces were rogue and were creating law out of their own mouths`.
They should have been immediately arrested.
But the state of California, broke as a joke and blowing smoke, seizes the reins and implements their own long gun registration scheme.
Behold, the minds of liberals.
Just in time to join their American cousins in a UN jackboot shootfest!!!
Baby blue helmets make such fine targets at 500 yards.
Bring your tomahawks too for the cleanup.
Wherein the requisite name,address, serial #, caliber, etc will no doubt be gathered. I would say they seem to just be eliminating an unnecessary redundant burden on the merchants. A good thing. Do the Canadians subscribe to World Governance? UN is awfully busy these days.
You do need an FAC to buy a long gun.
The concept that the government could register and guns so that it can “track them is silly and ineffective. It presumes that the government knows all, controls all, and should be doing so. It is ineffective in preventing crime, but is effective in criminalizing gun owners.
It is crazy to set up a huge expensive bureaucratic system, require everyone to jump though hoops and prove that they are *not* criminals in order to try, ineffectively, to prevent the few individuals who are not responsible, from having legal access to guns. This is a failed paradigm, and it should be abandoned. To accept the idea that the all gun sales should be monitored by the government, and traced from legal owner to legal owner, is an ineffective and expensive model that does not reduce crime.
The entire idea of the enterprise has always been the death of a thousand cuts, where the restrictions on who can buy, and where, and how and what are continually increased until the number of gun owners is reduced to political insignificance.
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