A long time coming-Canada Scrapping Long Gun Registry :: 10/26/2011

As Solomon Friedman sees it, the history of Canadian gun-control laws amounts to "a slow, creeping process of criminalizing law-abiding members of the public."

Rather than cracking down on criminals, police have laid firearms charges most often against who those have not really committed crimes at all, says Mr. Friedman, an Ottawabased lawyer specializing in firearms law.

On Tuesday, the federal government will reportedly unveil legislation to kill the long-gun registry. Since it came into force in 1998, lawful gun users say they have lived with intense surveillance, and sometimes harassment and prosecution by police. After years of complaining about being treated as presumptive criminals, they hope the legal noose that has been tightening around their necks will at last loosen.

"I feel like I have no rights," said Lawrence Manzer of New Brunswick, who was charged criminally after taking an unloaded shotgun to help a neighbour during a disturbance. "They should be punishing criminals with smuggled, illegal guns and leaving us alone."