Registry wouldn’t solve gun violence

Re: “It’s on Harper” ( Editorial, March 28)

Forgotten in all the discussion regarding the gunregistry data is the confidentiality of the information we provide to government. That information included responses to questions about our marital status and our psychological state. When the federal government required that citizens register their long guns, we complied, just like we comply when we are required to submit income information to the Canada Revenue Agency. At the same time, we expect that governments will protect that information and not share it with others without our consent.

The premise under which citizens provided information to their government is that it would be kept confidential. The fact that the party requesting disclosure of the information is another level of government is irrelevant. Would we accept disclosure of that information to a foreign government? To hunting apparel advertisers? Clearly the answer is no, and the Quebec government should not be afforded a special privilege in that regard. If the Quebec government wants to create its own registry, let it deal with citizens directly and honestly, without mining data from sources that promised citizens confidentiality.

As for those deluding themselves that such a registry will protect them from nuts like Marc Lépine, I remind you that his guns were duly registered. Furthermore, the claim that police “verify the registry 300 times a day” is a sophism. They also verify the automobile registry ( more frequently in fact), however the true issue is whether it contributes to solving or preventing crime.

It may be facile to reach for solutions like a gun registry to solve complex problems like gun violence, however solving and preventing crime requires complex solutions. For politicians and editorial writers to delude citizens into believing that the registry is such a solution is today ’s equivalent of telling schoolchildren in the ’ 50s to hide under their desk in the event of a nuclear blast. Benito Aloe, Brossard Eric Bates, Brownsburg- Chatham