So, 92% of our respected front-line police officers agree that the Long Gun Registry should be scrapped. They and a full 72% of ordinary Canadians agree that the long gun registry has done nothing to prevent crime. Then why are the police chiefs trying so desperately to make us believe that the registry is useful? Could the police chiefs' enthusiasm for this 2 billion dollar boondoggle possibly have anything to do with the funding their association is receiving to help perpetuate this useless, bureaucratic, $105 million a year sinkhole of taxpayers money? Could it possibly be because the police chiefs wants to maintain the bloated bureaucracy and budgets that they claim the registry requires? While Toronto Police Chief Blair, who seems to be chief spokesman, has pooh-poohed the results of the survey of front-line police officers, it must be noted that the police chiefs have refused to commission such a survey of their rank and file officers. I wonder why.

Canadians are too smart to fall for padded information, such as the "officer safety value" of the registry since it receives 11,000 enquiries a day from the police. Police chiefs' spokesmen forget to say that ALL police queries to CPIC (Canadian Police Information Centre) are automatically programmed to check the long gun registry, even for minor traffic offences. Even when a 9-1-1 call is received by police, it is usually tied to an address and the long gun registry is not tied to addresses and therefore gives zero information as to the presence of firearms at that address.

Besides, all police officers are trained to assume that there is always the presence of firearms in any such situation and therefore these professionals would not rely solely on bureaucracy to warn them about possible danger. The truth is that the registry does nothing for officer safety. Perhaps when criminals start registering their handguns, and the government cracks down harder on the handguns being smuggled in from the States, such a system may have some benefit. However, criminals are not known to comply with such rules. It has been a legal requirement to register handguns in Canada since about 1940, and it should continue. But targeting law-abiding hunters, gun collectors and farmers with such a bloated and expensive bureaucracy is finally being seen for its true worth by a full 72% of Canadians.

To the twelve NDP MP's who initially supported the scrapping of the long gun registry but are now waffling on the upcoming Sept. 22nd vote, I say this: Look behind the taxpayer-funded lobbying by the police chiefs' bureaucracy, and consider what the front-line police officers' poll and the opinions of a large majority of Canadian voters are telling you. Let's end this wasteful and unnecessary bureaucracy and focus on what can be done about the criminal element.

Simon R. Guillet
Guilletville, Ont.
(Greater Sudbury)