[Azure]

Originally Posted by Rathji

You seriously think that no criminal has ever owned a gun that he registered? You think that every single act a criminal does is illegal?

Uhhh, yeah?

Of course it depends on what kind of criminal you're talking about, but in order to register a gun, you must first own a PAL, and in order to get your PAL, you need to pass a police background check.

Since cops are gnerally concerned about violent offenders, drug dealers, or people with weapon offenses when they raid the house, it won't help them much to look at the gun registry database, since it is impossible for someone with that kind of criminal record to register a gun in the first place since they can't even acquire the license to BUY a gun, much less fill out the paperwork to tell the government that you OWN it.

No one that has ever grown pot in their basement leads an otherwise normal life.

How many normal 9-5 people do you know that grow pot in their basement? I grew up in rural Alberta, where it is FAR more likely to have small grow operations in various houses in town, not to mention farms/ranches, and people don't grow pot out back for the heck of it. It was pretty widely known where one went to get his pot from around here.

How about someone who has hunted his entire life and then gets into a fight in a bar and the cops need to go to his house and pick him up? Since he is now a criminal, by your logic, he will have a stockpile of non-registered weapons sitting in his basement that didn't exist before hand?

Is someone like that likely to be violent? Assuming he isn't drunk anymore. How is procedure for the cops going to change considering the man has no criminal record, and the bar owner just told the cops that he's a regular that went a little overboard. When you start dealing with more serious criminals, the cops will know that because they have a CRIMINAL record. And if the cops have to raid the house of a violent offender, or someone with weapons charges, and the gun registry shows that the occupant doesn't own any guns, you actually think the cops are going to send a two man team to pick up someone who has a serious criminal record?

Also, if you own a PAL, and you get charged with certain crimes, your PAL can be revoked.

I don't know off hand and don't have the time or inclination to look it up but did the person who shot those RCMP officers in Mayerthorpe a few years back a registered gun owner? Would it change the actions of the officers either way? They knew he was dangerous and probably proceeded as such. Same thing will happen if they are raiding a drug house.

Good example actually. At least for me because it blows any argument in favor of the gun registry out of the water.

According to Wikipedia.

At the time of the incident he was prohibited from legally possessing firearms.

So when the cops went to check the gun registry, they saw that the man didn't own any weapons. And yet he had enough firepower to take down 4 well trained cops. All the good the gun registry was then in the worst day in 100 years for the RCMP.

The one gun that they found that WAS registered, was stolen from someone else that was affiliated with James Roszko, and there was no way the cops could have known Roszko had it.

Thing is, despite the fact that the cops were killed, Roszko had a history of violent and sexual offenses, which would have been an indicator of who they were dealing with, although they obviously had no idea that the man had a semi-automatic rifle, not registered, and a 9MM pistol, also not registered.

To think that police suddenly run haphazardly into situations where there is no registered gun is really assuming the worst from our police force. Who knows though, maybe they are all idiots.

They almost certainly don't. But from the cops I have talked to going back all the way to high school, the gun registry doesn't change much in terms of looking for non-restricted weapons, i.e. long guns. Why? Because people who are likely to be violent can't register guns in the first place, therefore your 'serious' criminal won't have any registered guns, and the amount of long guns stolen from law-abiding citizens, reported stolen, and recovered before a crime was committed with them is VERY low.

I've had this argument so many times before, and no matter from what angle you look at it, the 'long gun' registry serves no purpose to Canadians. It was a waste of money to begin with, and every year we waste another $4 million on it that could be spent on teaching gun safety to people who want to take their PAL.

What does the gun registration hurt?

Prove to me its beneficial and I'll support it. What does it hurt is a lame argument.