Return of Long Gun Registry

[Gilroy]

How would the victim of a stolen gun ever know the gun was recovered? I would expect forces like the RCMP and OPP to just quietly destroy all guns they recover anyway. They want to disarm all legal firearms owners as do both the Libranos and Dippers. And of course the database of the registry still exists. It's inaccurate and hidden away but it still exists and will magically reappear when the left takes over. Don't you know Libranos are magicians? Just this week Wynne "magically" found money to grease teachers into helping JT get elected by giving raises after clearly stating there wasn't any money? Magic!

The victim would know when the police called.Police services dont simply destroy guns they need a justice to authorise disposal.

[Gilroy]

I've never seen anyone investigate an occurance then just file it and forget it,especially,when it came to firearms which moved to the top of the list. Whether they happened to be registered or not,serial numbers and owner ID became part of the report amd automatically entered onto CPIC as a standard investigative procedure. In view of that,the LGR was merely a redundant level of bureaucracy.

The simple fact today is that if your gun is stolen and you have not taken down the serial number you have next to no chance to get that gun back.At least when you had to register and a recovery was made you would get the gun back.

[welsh]

Giltroy's right on this: one of the things that registries do is to control the market in stolen guns. Not that this necessarily justifies the cost of a long gun registry -- that's a separate question -- but it is a fact that registries have this effect.

One thing that's clear in the US is that stolen guns move freely through the secondary market. A gun you pick up used might well have been stolen and then recycled through private sales at some point in the past. Since gun thefts in the US often go unreported and many people don't track serial numbers, there's not much risk in fencing a stolen gun.

If guns have to be registered, then obviously a stolen gun is removed immediately from the legitimate secondary market, and can only move through the black market.

The question you have to answer before saying this justifies a long-gun registry is, to what extent is the movement of stolen long guns through Canada's secondary market a serious problem?

[Bushmoose]

The simple fact today is that if your gun is stolen and you have not taken down the serial number you have next to no chance to get that gun back.At least when you had to register and a recovery was made you would get the gun back.

The even simpler fact is that if a person does not record the serial number of any item, then they would have next to no chance of getting the item back. Be it a gun, generator, bicycle..... whatever/ We don't need a costly and inefficient registry to do this for us.

[waterrat]

Just to thicken the soup. Has any one ever tried to claim either stolen/flooded/fire damaged guns through insurance. With out the LRG, it is your word against the Ins Co that it was a 64 Winchester 30-30, worth xxx$, or that it even existed at all.

[Waftrudnir]

Just to thicken the soup. Has any one ever tried to claim either stolen/flooded/fire damaged guns through insurance. With out the LRG, it is your word against the Ins Co that it was a 64 Winchester 30-30, worth xxx$, or that it even existed at all.

again this applies to anything you have and I bet it's easier (based on serial number) to proove what you actually had. and to be frank, not many people in Ontario own firearms in the 5 digits/per piece. those who do, either don't care too much about money or have proof of what's worth.
if there's someone pushing a registry for anything "valuable" - you know it's not to give it back to you, but to take it away. just remember the gold prohibitions between 1910s and 1960s in various European countries.

[greatwhite]

I would like to see stats on how many firearms were traced because of the registry vs life before the registry.

We have a handgun registry we know that has never been of much use. So why would a long gun registry be any different??

[CocoZoo]

Stolen firearms are added to CPIC regardless of a registry. If the owner is too lazy or stupid to write them down somewhere, that's their problem. We don't need the government to nanny ones property. If police really want to track a firearm, they can go all the way back to the manufacturer, date of import, and retail records to the original retail buyer. From there, they can track further. A little more leg work, but it beats frivolous government intrusion.

[blargon]

Just to thicken the soup. Has any one ever tried to claim either stolen/flooded/fire damaged guns through insurance. With out the LRG, it is your word against the Ins Co that it was a 64 Winchester 30-30, worth xxx$, or that it even existed at all.

Yes I have. 20 firearms to be exact. The insurance company did not ask about any registrations, nor did they care about serial numbers, or question any values. The replacement cost was over $30k.

No good will ever come from any registry, no matter who or how you spin it.

[trimmer21]

My insurance rep said to treat firearms like any other valuable property by photography and recorded serial numbers. It's your proof of ownership in the event of a total loss,no different than anything else.