New e-petition asks federal gov't to scrap "shadow registry"

We're just about a few weeks into the federal government's new "gun transfer registry," and so far, things have been ... surprisingly quiet since the new rules came into play (see the new rules explained here).

There was a massive uptick in gun sales just before the changed regulations came into place; both individual-to-individual and business-to-individual transfers skyrocketed, but other than that? There hasn't been much talk of a plan to fight back against the government red tape.

Until now, that is! There's a new petition, asking the government to repeal the requirements introduced by the federal government in April. It was initiated by Steve Hamilton from Prince George, BC, and sponsored by Conservative MP Todd Doherty, of the Cariboo—Prince George riding. See the text of the petition below:

Petition to the Government of Canada

Whereas:

• On April 29, 2022, the Liberal government introduced an order to introduce further restrictions with a 'shadow registry' on licensed firearms owners in Canada;
• The previous gun registry cost tax payers over 1 billion dollars;
• The Auditor General's report found that the program did not collect data to analyze the effectiveness of the gun registry in meeting its stated goal of improving public safety. The performance report focuses on activities such as issuing licences and registering firearms. The Centre does not show how these activities help minimize risks to public safety with evidence-based outcomes such as reduced deaths, injuries and threats from firearms;
• Providing personal information to private sellers can result in identity theft and fraud;
• This will unfairly cost businesses countless dollars in wages and time to process; and
• This unfairly targets Canadian firearms owners who are already among the most vetted in Canadian society, Possession and Acquisition License (PAL) and Restricted PAL (RPAL) holders are subject to daily screening and are statistically proven to be less likely to commit crimes than non-PAL and non-RPAL holders.

We, the undersigned, citizens of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to immediately repeal the order issued April 29, 2022.

The petition opened for signatures on May 12, and closes on August 10 of 2022.

What can we expect?

At time of writing, almost 15,000 Canadians had signed the petition. What can we expect, if the signatures keep coming in?

Assuming the amount of signatures double in the next few months, this petition will be slightly ahead of the 25,249 signatures of 2016's Petition E-111, which Conservative MP Bob Zimmer filed, asking the federal government to change the AR-15's status to non-restricted. The official response to that campaign? The Liberal government ignored it.

More recently, Petition E-2341 drew 175, 310 signatures, the most-signed e-petition in Canadian history. In the wake of May, 2020's OiC firearms bans, this petition called the government "to put any new firearms laws, bans, buyback programs or changes to licencing before the House of Commons to be debated." The Liberal government also ignored that petition, and doubled down in promises of more gun control legislation at that time. We're seeing the results of those promises today, in Bill C-21.

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