Long gun registry is history: Komarnicki feels relief as gun bill passes
February 21, 2012, 3:04 am
Kevin Weedmark
Conservative MPs cheered Wednesday after the House of Commons voted to scrap the long-gun registry, putting to rest an issue that has had farmers and hunters up in arms since Bill C-68 was passed in 2001.
The Harper government used its majority to pass the bill, ending the gun registry by a vote of 159-130, with the support of two maverick New Democrats-John Rafferty and Bruce Hyer.
All other NDP, Liberal, Bloc Quebecois and Green MPs voted against it.
The vote is the final word from the House of Commons on the issue-all that remains is for the Senate to give its assent.
"It's been a long time coming," Souris-Moose Mountain MP Ed Komarnicki told the World-Spectator after the vote last week.
"There were a couple of near misses when we were a minority government, and finally it's become law."
He said the gun registry was a touchstone issue for many people in the riding.
"It's amazing really," he said. "That piece of legislation had such strong support from Western Canadians, and in our area especially.
"It symbolized, or maybe was the focal point, where the former Liberal government lost touch with Western Canadians and ordinary Canadians, and were passing something that pandered to a narrow view of Canadians in the East.
"It was emblematic of a deeper issue or mistrust of the government of the day and for a lot of people it was the last straw. It was just one push too far. The worst is, they did it through the criminal code. The sanctions were criminal. Something irked people about that. When you look at the fact that some of the rifles were in common use and the people who possessed them were as good rock solid Canadians as you could hope for, there was resistance.
"The long gun registry was the thing that festered. Western Canadians wanted it gone."
Komarnicki said he was pleased to be there for the vote in the House of Commons Wednesday. "It was quite a moment, quite a turning point," he said. "I think a lot of Canadians and especially a lot of farmers will be happy to see this.
"I think it's finally saying the government has come to its senses and is going after real criminals and not law-abiding citizens."
Komarnicki said that, for the last several years, the long-gun registry was always an issue for some people.
"It was always there, If you were going to carry a wide ranging conversation asking people what they wanted done, this would always come up," he said.
"The majority of people in our area wanted it gone, and a lot of people were passionate about it.
"Many complied with the registry because they are law-abiding people, but didn't feel good about it. This is a good day for farmers, duck hunters and law-abiding recreational users of long guns."
The Member of Parliament said he feels relieved the Conservatives can now put the issue to rest.
"It's a sense of relief more than accomplishment," he said. "We knew we could do this with our majority. It was something that was left unfinished and needed attention. Now we can move on to other issues."
Komarnicki says that, while the vast majority of people in the Souris-Moose Mountain riding are dead-set against the long-gun registry, the opposition in Ottawa was strongly opposed to the new legislation ending the registry.
"I spoke just recently on this bill, and the opposition to this is still great," he said.
"The opposition didn't want to see it passed. The debate is still out there for sure, except we're now on the winning side."
Prime minister Stephen Harper has repeatedly vowed to kill the long-gun registry, but he's been thwarted until now by the opposition parties, which could stop any legislation until the Conservatives won their majority in last May's election.
"Many of us have waited for this day for a very long time,'' Public Safety Minister Vic Toews told a news conference earlier Wednesday.
He said it's the end of a campaign that began for him 15 years ago, when he was attorney general of Manitoba. And he called it an important day for Conservatives, who have opposed the registry for years.
Toews said the registry is "a billion-dollar boondoggle'' that does nothing but penalize law-abiding hunters and farmers.
"It does nothing to help put an end to gun crime, nor has it saved one Canadian life,'' he argued.
In the Commons, Conservative MPs gave a particularly rousing cheer to Yorkton-Melville MP Garry Breitkreuz, who made a name for himself as a crusader against the gun registry.
