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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Though he abstained from voting to end the long-gun registry, Western Arctic MP Dennis Bevington says he supports its dissolution. He just thinks the current records should not be destroyed.

The Conservative government introduced first reading of the bill on Oct. 25 and is aiming specifically to repeal the requirement to register non-restricted firearms and destroy all records pertaining to the registry.

The government would still to retain control of prohibited and restricted firearms.

The bill passed second reading Nov. 1 and will now go to the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security which will review the bill and hear from witnesses before it enters its third and final reading.

Bevington said he supports doing away with the long-gun registry completely and actually voted in support of such an act in a private members bill during the last parliament.

But he is concerned with the bill now proposed, especially with the destruction of the registry data, which could be used by provinces and territories wishing to establish their own registry. Bevington said the bill does not address the desire of some gun owners to have a registry that is not included in the Criminal Code.

"I abstained because I am hoping they change their minds about the data in committee," he said, adding that he has been adamant on this point and even raised the issue in the House of Commons last June.

"I'm giving them that opportunity."

Such an amended bill would further localize gun-ownership liability and "provide information to law enforcement agencies and simplify and legitimize the process of private gun sales or transfers," he wrote in a recent guest column to the Toronto Star.

Bevington, who is not himself a gun owner, said rather than helping interested provinces and territories with such a process, that the government will make such a process worse for taxpayers and an added burden to gun owners who would in some cases have to go through provincial registry paperwork.

The federal government argues, however, that by eliminating the data, that it will prevent any future government to create another registry.

As a compromise, he said it would be better to simply penalize gun owners that are not registered with a small fine and apply it to a non-criminal law, such as in property laws.

Bevington said the issue has been difficult to deal with as he receives aggressive lobbying on both sides of the debate from both the constituency and from national bodies.

He said he was disappointed to see fellow members in his caucus being punished for voting against the bill.

Barry Taylor, president of the Yellowknife Shooting Club and the owner of multiple guns admits he has been a long-time opponent of the federal long-gun registry and, like many other Yellowknife gun advocates, is looking forward to the new bill.

"It's about time," he said. "Surprisingly, no one has called me on it yet. Everybody is just sitting and waiting ... We know that it is in Parliament, but we don't know what they will do for sure as there is nothing in writing yet."

Taylor said providing information to the provinces for their own registries would be useless because current records, in many cases, are already inaccurate and in a few years the data would be old.

There is a sense of weariness and redundancy on dealing with the issue not only on supporters of ending the registry, but on the side of those who want to keep it around. YWCA executive director Lyda Fuller said she had not kept up to date with the latest vote this week, but was quite tired of talking to the point.

She said she was aware that the Conservatives were going to abolish the registry now that the party has a majority government, but the YWCA's position is the same it's always been.

"I think we have made all of the comments I want to make," Fuller said.

"We think it is stupid to abolish it and there are lots of reasons why. I have talked on it until I've been blue in the face. (Prime Minister Stephen Harper) has the majority and he can do what he wants. He is going against police chiefs that I have heard of.

"He is going against women's organizations that run shelters. I don't know what more to say. It is stupid, short-sighted and a political decision."

She also said expecting one to register guns should not be any different than one's obligation to register cars. She added she is not against gun ownership itself.

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