Bill to end long-gun registry will destroy data already collected :: 10/27/2011

OTTAWA-Prime Minister Stephen Harper has acted to kill any attempt by a provincial or future federal government to recreate the doomed long-gun registry.

In a surprise move aimed at putting a bullet in the registry for good, the Conservative government bill tabled Wednesday orders the commissioner of firearms to destroy "as soon as feasible" records related to 7.1 million long-barreled guns collected over the past 15 years.

If passed, Bill C-19 would, as promised, end the legal requirement for owners of rifles and shotguns to register their firearms under a federal gun control law inspired by the 1989 Ecole Polytechnique massacre. It retains the requirement for long-gun owners to be screened and licensed.

But the bill declares that other federal laws that require the preservation of federal records would not apply to gun registry data.

Asked what motivated the destruction of data, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, the lead minister, said the Conservatives want to thwart the ability of any other party, such as the NDP, to reestablish it in the future.