The Conservatives have destroyed the gun registry right across Canada except in Quebec.
Now they are planning a series of radical changes to gun laws to have even less police control over firearms.
Meanwhile in Quebec City, in the light of the 23rd anniversary of the Montreal Massacre, the Parti Québécois has announced plans to create a new gun registry just for Quebec.
The new registry will be set up as soon as Quebec can get back the computer data on Quebec gun ownership from the federal government.
Good luck Stéphane Bergeron in getting it before Stephen Harper and his cronies completely destroy what remains of Quebec's share of the registry.
The Conservatives say that all this has nothing to do with the anniversary today of the École Polytechnique massacre. Pure coincidence, that's all.
The proposed changes would abolish lots of restrictions on firearms. Critics and police say it would pose a risk to public safety.
Minister of Public Safety Vic Toews says otherwise.
Last March just after the law abolishing the gun registry passed in the Commons, Toews and his senior officials met with the 12 members of his special Advisory Committee of hunters and gun enthusiasts.
The Advisory Committee is co-chaired by Steve Torino the Canadian Sport Shooting Association, and the 12 members have a list of demands. They have the political clout to make the Conservatives see things their way.
One proposal is to get rid of "prohibitions" on some handguns.
Some handguns have been illegal as far back as 1934. So haul out dad's old Saturday-night special. It may soon be legal again.
The committee also wants to legalize "restricted" assault weapons - the kind Rambo uses to go to war. Great for shooting rabbits in Saskatchewan.
The commmittee also wants to extend the current five-year gun ownership permits to 10 years. The RCMP objects strongly to this. But what do they know about guns that Vic Toews doesn't?
There's a plan as well to abolish the "transport permits" for firearms.
The committee has already been able to get Toews to back down on the need for permits to sell guns at trade shows, just like in the U.S.
It proposes setting up a committee to advize on the classification of imported firearms (think mainly from the United States) as long as the committee is made up mainly of gun industry people. (Not a word about the need for women or police on the committee.)
They also want that firearms seized by police be sold at public auction rather than destroyed by the police, as they are now. What a great opportunity for criminals to buy back their own fancy "guns."
Three seems to be no end to it. And we thought Harper and his boys only wanted nothing more than to abolish a tedious and expensive gun registry.
Who would have ‘thunk' how far Steve and the "gun lobby" would go?
Harper said later on Thursday there nis no way he would relax controls on prohibited weapons but he said nothing about the other proposals
