The gun registry debate: the Godzilla of Canadian politics

The seemingly immortal gun control issue might finally be killed come September.

When Parliament resumes in September, the first order of business for the Conservatives will be to kill the controversial long-gun registry. If Bill C-391 passes it will put an end to the program, along with the debate that’s raged around it since then Justice Minister Alan Rock introduced the registry in 1995.

In the National Post Rex Murphy gropes for some pop culture metaphors to describe the immortal gun control issue: “Vampire? Energizer Bunny? Terminator?” he proffers. “It’s melancholy to think that there are now fully mature Lady Gaga fans who were just past teething when Mr. Rock introduced this rancorous and unkillable issue into Canadian public life.” Don’t get him started on the registry’s “Godzilla-scale cost overruns.”

Garry Breitkreuz raises the spectre of another monster in The Mark today: that of the police state. Police associations’ outspoken support for the registry is scary, he says, because when “law enforcement managers try to write the laws they enforce, history has taught us we risk becoming a state where police can dictate our personal freedom.”

Luckily for the registry’s opponents, Jack Layton just might be the wooden stake, Sarah Connor, or Mothra (take your pick) of the gun control debate. The NDP leader has refused to follow the lead of Michael Ignatieff, who has promised to whip the Liberal caucus into voting against the bill. The survival of the registry now rests with 12 NDP MPs, and those representing rural constituencies would be risking their seats if they support it.

What will the ultimate resolution of this debate mean for the government? Absolutely nothing, according to Angelo Persichilli of the Hill Times. Because the debate is split so clearly with urban voters supporting the registry and rural ones opposing it, and because the Conservatives already poll well in the country and the opposition polls well in the city, all parties are pandering to people who already vote for them. The “growth potential is almost nonexistent,” which means our politicians might have been firing blanks at each other for fifteen years.