April 8, 1997 Mr. William Watson Editorial Page Editor The Ottawa Citizen 1101 Baxter Road, Box 5020, Ottawa, Ontario K2C 3M4 Dear Bill: Re: Catherine Ford Gun Control Column - April 7, 1997 In her column, "Gun control will work if we give it a fighting chance," Catherine Ford writes, "registration of all guns in the country is common sense." Using five year old data, Ms. Ford goes on to report that "handguns were used to kill 128 people in Canada." The failure of the handgun registration system, which has been in effect since 1934, is the very reason why the Ontario government refuses to support expanding the registration system to shotguns and rifles, preferring instead to put more police on our streets and highways. The sad fact is that police are already too busy implementing ineffective gun control laws to have the time to investigate legitimate criminal complaints against the likes of Mark Chahal in Vernon, B.C. Flawed gun laws also keep police too busy to undertake thorough background checks on maniacs like Mark Lepine in Montreal. Police can save lives, but not by wasting their time and our money registering 20 million firearms owned by 7 or 8 million law-abiding responsible firearm owners. Meanwhile, back in the real world, the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics reported in both 1994 and 1995 that more women are stabbed to death than are shot. Obviously, family fights are a real problem. Millions of Canadians with more common sense than both Catherine Ford and Allan Rock know that gun registration is not the solution. Sincerely, Garry Breitkreuz, MP Yorkton-Melville What neither Ms. Ford nor Justice Minister Allan Rock cannot explain is, why Canadians are still being killed with handguns in Canada when our handgun registration system has been in effect since 1934. But Ms. Ford, if registering guns is the solution, please explain why people are still being murdered with handguns when everyone knows that law-abiding Canadians have been registering their handguns since 1934.