'The gun registry is gone,' says MP
NDP leader says he would keep track of firearms if he becomes prime minister; Bevington says this doesn't mean a return to 'failed' registry
Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Published Monday, December 8, 2014
NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
The national long gun registry is gone but not forgotten, and it still has the power to create a political stir every once in a while.
Such was the case last week when NDP leader Tom Mulcair speculated on what a future government led by his party might do to keep track of firearms in Canada.
According to news reports from Ottawa, Mulcair referred to a "form" to allow governments and police to keep track of guns, although it is unclear what that might mean.
However, Northwest Territories MP Dennis Bevington said the NDP does not want a national long gun registry.
"It's definitely not party policy to have the registry return," he said. "We're not interested in going back to the failed Liberal gun registry. That's over with."
As for what Mulcair was talking about, Bevington declined to speak for his leader.
The MP also said, "I haven't seen any further policy that has come out yet from our party."
Bevington doesn't anticipate the long gun registry will be an issue in the 2015 federal election.
"The gun registry is gone," he said. "It's dead."
Bevington has not yet announced whether he intends to run again in the next election.
While the MP was downplaying Mulcair's comments, the NDP's political opponents were more than happy to pounce.
That included Ryan Leef, the Conservative MP for Yukon and chair of the party's Northern caucus.
In written comments to News/North, Leef accused the NDP of planning to reintroduce the "failed, ineffective and costly" long gun registry.
The Northwest Territories has a long and storied tradition of embracing and celebrating a culture of living off the land, hunting and trapping, he stated. "Northern Canadians know that a firearm is a tool, one that supports an important way of life," wrote Leef.
Leef said Bevington refuses to defend that way of life, while adding the Conservatives will ensure law-abiding, safe, ethical and self-regulating firearms owners will not be criminalized for simply owning a gun.
"The great folks of our three territories know only the Conservative government will support common sense legislation that protects your way of life while ensuring real public safety measures," Leef stated.
Bevington noted Mulcair's comments were made in a discussion of Bill C-42, which deals with restricted weapons.
"We don't want to see people criminalized for their failure to register or anything dealing with their ownership of guns," he said. "Honest and straightforward gun owners don't have anything to fear from any further legislation from the NDP."
Bevington has never voted in favour of a national long gun registry, which was abolished in 2012, even though the NDP's previous official stance was to support it.
The MP voted for a private member's bill to get rid of the gun registry, but then abstained on another vote to scrap it when his party came out in favour of the registry. He missed the final vote because he was in Europe.
Bevington said he was not very happy with that bill because it didn't give the provinces the right to decide whether they wanted the collected data or not, and Quebec had indicated it wanted the data.
