Free Republic

Irrational public policy debates like the long-gun registry interest me. In my view, your recent editorial trashing the Conservatives for abolishing the registry is seriously misleading (Safety catch, Oct. 26, North Shore News). You claim that police won't know if there are long guns in a house post-long-gun registry. This is misleading: Police will know in the case of law-abiding gun owners because they have a "gun licence" (PAL or POL) which officers can check from their cars. But post-long gun registry, as today, if the homeowner is a criminal, police will normally have no such information; criminals don't register...

After 15 years of promising to axe the controversial long-gun registry, the Conservatives are finally poised to make good on a pledge that has been their central ballot box issue for rural and remote ridings like Timmins-James Bay. The government gave notice last week of its intent to introduce legislation to repeal the long-gun registry. It is welcome news for hunters and anglers like Andy Chartrand of the Timmins Fur Council, but Timmins-James Bay MP Charlie Angus said judging by the results of May's election – the long gun registry is not at the top of the mind for most...

Michigan Governor wants to document state's child obesity statsby Angi Gonzalez Posted: 1 hr, 23 mins ago MICHIGAN (AP) -- Michigan Governor Rick Snyder has announced plans to begin asking doctors, practicing in Michigan, to start monitoring the body weight of patients 18 and under. Under the proposal, revealed during an event in Lansing on Wednesday, the data would be entered into a Michigan Care Improvement Registry in the hopes of addressing the state's growing pediatric obesity problem. **SNIP** The Governor's plan would require the information be stored anonymously, but according to the Governor's office, would give doctors the perfect...

There are two basic crime scenes when it comes to gun violence in Canada. One involves weapons that are traceable - sometimes using the $1-billion long-gun registry that is likely to be scrapped by the Conservative government this fall, as promised. The other - far more common - involves guns that are not traceable because they are not registered, the registration number was erased or the guns used to kill are never found. The looming question as MPs get set to haggle once again over the emotional long-gun registry issue is: Does it save lives? What do the statistics show...

A United States resident crossing into Canada has found out a broken rifle is not just a broken rifle when it's accompanied by 166 other undeclared and prohibited firearm parts. Brian Joseph Maack was charged with smuggling and possession of prohibited devices after a July 18 vehicle search at the Pacific Highway border crossing produced 151 high capacity ammunition magazines, a silencer and 14 other various parts of weapons. According to a press release issued by the Canadian Border Services Agency, Maack was pulled aside for inspection after he declared he was in possession of a broken gun. Last week,...

The federal Conservatives have confirmed that the contentious long-gun registry will be scrapped this fall. Speaking with Postmedia News, Conservative MP Candice Hoeppner said: "Everyone knows it's been part of our party's policy for many years, and the Prime Minister committed to Canadians during the election we would scrap the longgun registry.. Canadians can expect to see [the legislation] fairly early on in the fall." We support this move. The long-gun registry, which has been with us for a decade, should never have been created. There was no convincing explanation as to how a database of serial numbers and street...

Back on the merry-go-round, voters. The assault on Canada’s gun laws has begun again. That Prime Minister Stephen Harper would pledge to get rid of the federal long-gun registry was inevitable. It works for him on two fronts: it plays to core Conservative supporters and creates divisions in the Liberal and NDP camps by pitting rural Canadians against urban “elites.” Nothing could be better for a politician who has ratcheted up divisive politics to troubling levels. Since 2006, Harper’s Conservatives have repeatedly tried to get rid of what is a basic and reasonable requirement for gun owners to register all...

OTTAWA — Two-thirds of Canadians support the controversial long-gun registry and even voters who back Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservatives are split on the issue, a new poll has found. The national survey conducted exclusively for Postmedia News and Global Television finds that support for the registry stands at 66 per cent nationally. Moreover, support is strong in regions throughout the country — even though Harper has said his party will not "rest" until it abolishes the registry. But the poll also finds that although Harper is running counter to public opinion on the issue, his stance is only deepening...

Mavis Moore was 4 years old the first time she faced the barrel of a long gun. A neighbour pointed his .22 at the girl and her mother when they stopped by to pick up a newspaper in their small Saskatchewan town. Sixty-eight years later, Moore remembers dropping one blue angora mitten in the snow as the man stood above them on his steps. “You can't imagine what it's like, this adult man having a gun on you and threatening to kill you and your mother,” she says. Moore's mother picked up her child — and the mitten — and...

Louisville's The Courier-Journal editorial promises to tell us "Guns' real cost": University of Louisville physician Bill Smock...created The Gun Shot Wound Registry 14 years ago to keep track of local incidents involving guns (homicides, suicides, assaults and accidents...It monitors when shooting incidents occur, who the victims are, and how much it costs to provide their medical treatment. Unsurprisingly: Most victims of gun violence, it turns out, are uninsured, and so academic medical centers...end up spending far more to treat victims than they can ever expect to be repaid. ...Gun violence is...an ailment related quite specifically to such factors as gang...

Police Chief Rick Hanson says it's time to review the federal gun registry, even though most of his colleagues support keeping it. "The gun registry has done little to make the streets safer," said Police Chief Rick Hanson. Calgary is known for its gang wars that have played out on city streets. Shootouts have left a bloody trail of murder and violence. The police gang unit says handguns are the weapon of choice for Calgary gangs. But there has also been an increase in the use of heavier weapons like assault rifles, which can penetrate body armour and vehicles. Chief...

I was using MaxSecure's Max Registry Cleaner until I got this global warming support email from them today. Their gone from my home. Any others worth using? (Their disgusting email) This Saturday, the symbols of our civilization, iconic buildings and landmarks from all over the world, will stand in darkness, to help bring to light one of the biggest challenges of our generation-- Climate Change. The 'Earth Hour' that began as a show of solidarity against climate change has today become a global movement. On March 27 at 8.30pm, switch off your lights to support action against climate change. Call...

As a parent on the Delmarva penninsula I have followed this local story with interest. This is a parent's worst nightmare and our thoughts and prayers are with Sarah and her family. There safeguards to help prevent these types of things. While no one seemed to suspect the alleged perpetrator, there seems to be an indication that something was amiss: read more...

WE DID IT!BILL C-391 PASSES SECOND READING BY 27 VOTES.As you know, the CSSA/CILA has been heavily involved in both Bill C-301 (Garry Breitkreuz) and its replacement, Bill C-391 (Candice Hoeppner). We are very pleased to announce that we have a major victory under our belts as C-391 has just passed second reading in the House of Commons. This was possible due to the hard work of a lot of people and arm twisting of opposition MPs. The CSSA/CILA played no small part in this victory and took on the antis face-to-face. The opposition was showing their desperation by releasing...

Attention: Assignment Editor, Environment Editor, News Editor, Sports Editor, Government/Political Affairs Editor ON, O.F.A.H. MEDIA RELEASE--(Marketwire - Nov. 4, 2009) - Bill C-391, An amendment to the Criminal Code (repeal of the long gun registry), passed a major hurdle in the legislative process earlier today when it was approved at Second Reading in the House of Commons. For 14 years, the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters (O.F.A.H.) has been determinedly fighting to scrap the long gun registry through media campaigns, rallies, presentations and meetings with public officials and politicians, and most recently, a national online petition. The bill, a...

MPs voted by a clear margin Wednesday to repeal the federal long-gun registry, signalling for the first time since the program was adopted 14 years ago that it is headed for the scrap heap, despite police assertions that it saves lives. A private member's bill, sponsored by Conservative backbencher Candice Hoeppner, had the backing of all the Tories, from Prime Minister Stephen Harper down, and enough Liberal and New Democrat MPs to clear its first major hurdle of winning support in principle. The bill passed by a surprising 164-137, winning more supporters than expected as 18 opposition MPs rose to...

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s decision to try for a third time to scrap the gun registry has been cast by Conservatives as a cultural question, a matter of understanding rural Canada, in particular the way folks outside the big cities use their rifles and shotguns. But there’s another gap of understanding that I would argue is more important in getting a handle on this debate: grasping how police use the gun registry. If there’s a case for keeping the registry, it must rest on how useful the database is to police, especially when a cop has to venture into a...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House voted Tuesday to require the registration of sales and purchases of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, which has been converted into the explosive of choice for terrorists ranging from the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995 to the 2002 attack on a nightclub in Bali, Indonesia. The bill, passed by voice vote, orders producers, sellers and some purchasers of ammonium nitrate to register with the Department of Homeland Security and makes producers and sellers maintain sales records. The department would check purchases against terrorist watch lists while retailers who refuse to sell to customers would receive civil...

How The Plan To Force Vaccination Gave Birth To The National ID, A Government Health Records Database, and the End of Medical Privacy History of Mandatory Vaccination Immunization laws in the US are not federal, but state mandates. The authority of U.S. states to promulgate regulations which protect the public health and safety is well established, having historical roots in health regulations created in the colonial states during the 18th century. A seminal Supreme Court decision in 1905, Jacobsen v. Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11 (1905), affirmed the authority of state legislatures to assign "police powers" to health officials to enact...

RICHMOND — Barbara Jones has seen them hundreds of times: newspaper ads featuring the name of a woman seeking the father of the child she is ready to put up for adoption. It is one of the last steps before a mother can legally give away her child without the father's permission. Miss Jones, a longtime adoption lawyer, said most new mothers could live without this burden. "You expose this mother, who maybe sacrificed a lot to carry this pregnancy because she didn't want to abort the baby and now her name's in the paper," the Fairfax County lawyer said....