Should long-gun registry data be preserved?

UPDATE: A Quebec Superior Court judge has granted a five-day injunction against destroying data about Quebec gun owners found in the federal long-gun registry after the bill to kill the registry becomes law later today.

The bill to end the federal long-gun registry and destroy its data passed the Senate Wednesday night and is expected to receive royal assent Thursday. Quebec, however, wants to protect the registry's data.

The Conservatives have long called the long-gun registry a waste of taxpayers' money. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press) In anticipation of the bill's passage, the Quebec government filed arguments in court Tuesday. They're seeking an injunction to protect the registry's data until such time as a judge can consider Quebec's position that the federal government's actions are unconstitutional.

Quebec Justice Minister Jean-Marc Fournier says more than a million long guns would disappear from the radar screens of his province's police forces if the data is destroyed.

Quebec has long demanded relevant registry information be transferred to the province, so it can create its own list without the expense of creating a registry from scratch.

In 2011, federal Information Commissioner Suzanne Legault said destroying the data would violate the letter and spirit of the Library and Archives of Canada Act.

The government wants to scrap the registry. It says it's a waste of money, ineffective at improving public safety and preventing crimes, and targets law-abiding gun owners instead of criminals.

The long-gun registry database contains records on about 7.1 million non-restricted firearms collected since 1995.
    
Should the federal government be forced to preserve data from the scrapped gun registry? Would you support your province creating its own long-gun registry? Let us know in the comments below.



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