Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Long-gun registry efficient: RCMP report

CBC News: An RCMP evaluation report of Canada's long-gun registry concludes that the program is cost effective, efficient and an important tool for law enforcement, CBC News has learned.

The findings of the report, conducted with the help of outside auditors and completed six months ago, have been in the hands of the government since February, but have not yet been released.

One section of the report states: "The program, as a whole, is an important tool for law enforcement. It also serves to increase accountability of firearm owners for their firearms."

The report found that the cost of the program is in the range of $1.1 million to $3.6 million per year and that the Canadian Firearms Program is operating efficiently.

"Overall the program is cost effective in reducing firearms related crime and promoting public safety through universal licensing of firearm owners and registration of firearms," the report states.

The full report contains over 40 pages of analysis of the effectiveness of the firearms registry, in both urban and rural areas. The RCMP would only confirm that the report is still being translated and could not give a firm date for its release.

13 comments:

The Rat said...

So we trust RCMP reports when they support Liberal views but not when they don't? The RCMP supports the registry, shocking I know, and they are against Insite.

Gayle said...

Rat - you must have missed it, but the RCMP have admitted to having no credible reports that criticizes Insite.

In any event, just because someone is right once does not make them right all the time. The way most people determine whether to accept that opinion is to look at its foundation.

Like this: the RCMP attempted to manufacture some reports that were critical of Insite. They later admitted these reports were not credible.

As opposed to: the RCMP prepared a credible report on the effectiveness of the long gun registry, as verified by outside auditors.

Now I realize we have to wait and see the latter report to determine if the report is true, but if it is then that should end the argument.

ridenrain said...

Didn't seem to save 4 of them in Mayerthorpe, the Picton case or any of the near nightly shootings in our large urban centers. A quick read through the news shows an illegal gun at every drug bust or grow op so it seems to me there's a more obvious connection between illegal drugs than there are duck & deer hunters.

Gayle said...

Yes, well if the RCMP said the registry saves each and every life threatened by a gun, you would have a point.

But they didn't, and you don't.

But based on your logic, I think we should simply throw out the criminal code altogether. Clearly criminalizing crime is not preventing it.

ridenrain said...

Didn't you read that?
"Overall the program is cost effective in reducing firearms related crime..." the report states.

Where's the proof? If it didn't save 4 of their own, it's definitely not going to help the folks getting shot every night in Toronto, Vancouver, Abbotsford or Winnipeg.

ridenrain said...

Quick check of "prime time crime" shows 3 perfect examples of the direct connection between illegal guns and drugs:

During that bust, police also found at least 15 sticks of dynamite, three loaded guns and other stolen property.
http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20100824/bc_kootenays_crimes_100824/20100825?hub=BritishColumbiaHome

Darren “Ice” McLean, who is known to police for minor marijuana offences, was gunned down at his Wickstead Court townhouse Saturday night.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Crime/2010/08/23/15119691.html

The residence was known to police to be associated to a local gang, the Game Tight Soldiers. The warrant resulted in the arrest of 14 people. Inside the residence police located a loaded sawed off shotgun, ammunition, body armour and bear spray.
http://www.bclocalnews.com/news/101330384.html


Why bother chasing duck & deer hunters when it's clear that drugs and gun violence go hand in hand.. and the registry does nothing about this.

Gayle said...

Maybe you missed this point - no one said the registry saves EVERY life.

If that is the standard by which you must justify expenses, then please sit down and write Stephen Harper a letter asking him to abandon this foolish minimum sentence policy. It will cost us billions of dollars and people are still being murdered.

Anonymous said...

@ ridenrain: before you keep inundating this site w. news of all the crimes w. guns that weren't prevented by the long gun registry (LGR), go read up on what "Straw Man" & "Red Herring" arguments are.

No one ever claimed the LGR would prevent all crime. No one ever claimed all guns involved in crimes would be registered. No one ever claimed the LGR would put an end to all the other types of police work that have needed to be done.

But what the police chiefs & associations & some of the A-G's _are_ saying is that the LGR is a tool (that's something you should understand): a very useful one for them, on a no. of fronts: to help the consumers when their LGs are stolen; to help get warrants & solve crimes; to know how many & what types of arms to seize when they intervene in a suicide call; and to help know when to deploy the Emergency Response / SWAT teams & 'come in heavy' when they're dealing with a signficant cache of arms or a high-powered rifle, among other things.

As for some of the specific eg's you cite -- Mayerthorpe & Pickton -- they're actually both successes for the LGR: even tho' they didn't prevent the deaths, they led to the arrests & convictions (of 2 accomplices, in the Mayerthorpe case); see:
http://warrenkinsella.com/2010/08/questioning-political-bits-and-pieces/#comment-8331

(cont'd)

Anonymous said...

(cont'd) And don't try to snow people (or yourself) into thinking that the LGR's only harassing innocent duck & deer hunters who never become dangerous gun-wielding criminals themselves.

The fact is, even bucolic folk "go postal," at the rate of about one every month or two in Canada, I'd estimate (altho' they don't always succeed in killing someone), and they shoot:

- their neighbours, www.leaderpost.com/RCMP+arrest+suspect+farm+shooting/3335709/story.html

- the police, www.edmontonjournal.com/news/RCMP+shooter+after+hour+standoff/3421112/story.html

www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/slayings_were_self-defence_accused_claims-40835262.html

www.montrealgazette.com/news/Jury+deliberates+fate+Iqaluit/2658968/story.html

- innocent children, near the police they’re firing at,
www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2010/07/30/north-cape-dorset-shots-fired.html

- at other innocent strangers & townsfolk as well as police they’re firing at,
www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/03/08/13154036.html

www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/08/06/14939831.html

- or their brothers,
www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/06/21/14464446.html

The registry might be able to prevent more of these situations from becoming lethal, if it hadn't been interrupted with the ongoing amnesty 5 years ago.

ridenrain said...

"Overall the program is cost effective in reducing firearms related crime..." the report states.

All of these examples happened in spite of the registry and if that $2 billion went to MRI machines, we would have been guaranteed to actually save some lives. The registry was sold as some form of pre-crime prevention and it's only real value is as a stepping stone to confiscation.
Your idea that the Picton or Mayerthorp case were solved with the registry is desperate.

Maybe you can post some examples where the firearm takes away a firearm before it gets used?

Anonymous said...

ridenrain, first of all, it was $1-B to implement, not 2, and acc. to some reports, that was because some of the programmers had sabotaged it, delaying development.

Second, it's not "desperate" to say the LGR had a role in the convictions in those 2 cases: that came from the police association re: Mayerthorpe :

http://www.cpa-acp.ca/files/news_files/2010/Open_letter_Members_Parliament_Senators_EN.pdf

& the report of indep. investigation of the Pickton case.

There were plenty of mistakes made by the police in both cases, but using the LGR was not one of them.

And Libs' aren't desperate to save it; in fact, it's a political liability for the party given the vociferous (but by not means univocal) rural opposition to it. But many believe it's just the right thing to do, nevertheless.

Third, as for furnishing eg's where it's saved lives due to the forefeiture of weapons. Well, there are some -- maybe lots -- but the details can't be (or at least, aren't) revealed for privacy reasons: where the cops respond to calls that someone is suicidal, and, if they get there in time & talk them down, they have to sieze all the guns for their own protection until they're cleared again. And if they're registered, they know -- or at least have a much better idea -- of how many & what types to look for.

And where'd I get that tidbit? From the very place that supposedly shows almost all the frontline cops think its worthless: a Blue Line forum (where, BTW, a different, smaller poll showed 1/3 _do_ think it's valuable):

http://forums.blueline.ca/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=17977&start=0

And here's a Public Health report which notes, among other things, that each gun death saved saves $1-M

www.inspq.qc.ca/pdf/publications/1090_MemoireProjetLoiC391ArmesFeu_VA.pdf

ridenrain said...

The cost was clearly spelled out by Sheila Fraser, when she said that Liberals were hiding the costs. You can claim there may have been unplanned cost over runs but the net result to the taxpayer was $190 million.
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/QPeriod/20060516/ag_report_060516/

It is desperate because it’s well beyond the point of doing any good.
Handing out tickets or fines to the people who lent James Rosco a hunting rifle ignores the fact that he already had an illegal rifle and pistol. He was lawfully unable to own firearms so why did he have them in the first place? Why did the registry fail even though everyone in town knew he was a problem?
Same with Picton who, with his Hells Angels brother, held public events. Women were running away from the farm after being stabbed yet you expect me to believe it was great police and the gun registry that cracked this case.. after almost 50 women were killed?

The Libs and their supporters are ideologically driven to keeping this boondoggle alive, regardless of the cost or value to taxpayers. This was a political promise to Toronto and they’ll be punished if they fail to keep it alive. The fact that another gun battle left 4 wounded on Wednesday night. Once again, illegal handguns in the hands of thugs escapes the billion dollar screen of the Liberal’s registry.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/four-recovering-after-toronto-shooting/article1685805/

This registry does nothing better than the last system and wastes precious money in harsh times. We would be far better to put the violent thugs we catch with guns in jail instead of letting them out on bail or parole. We also need to drive home the fact that illegal drugs = illegal firearms and gang violence.

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