Quote:
Originally Posted by TheNewGirl
The police most commonly use the gun registry when responding to calls at house holds, particularly disturbance and domestic violence calls to ascertain if there's weapons potentially in the house hold. This allows them to be prepared with non lethal interventions upon arrival.
They use this in other emergancy response situations as well. I know someone who's father was suicidal and manic and the police responded to a call at his house. Because they knew that he had a weapon in the house they were ready and tasered him when he was found waving around a rifle. Otherwise the police officer said he probably would have been shot if they hadn't had the warning.
Later they used the registry to get a list of all his firearms and make sure they were all removed from the house while he was getting treatment.
This is the shit that doesn't get on the news. But the police and other emergency services utilitize the gun registry often and generally it's to protect the gun owners and those in their households, not to harm them.
Like I said, it's not a perfect system, I think it can be made better for everyone, but I do believe it is important to have.
And I don't think the gun registry generally prevents "crime" at least not in the way you're thinking about it, as in gang violence. I think it DOES prevent deaths and accidents.
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4 police were killed in Alberta a few years ago because they walked onto a farm without proper backup, no proper "swat" gear etc because the gun registry told them no guns on site. they were shot.
this is not the only time the police have been in trouble by assuming what they see in the registry is correct. they should always assume weapons are on site everywhere they go. for this purpose the registry is useless. they are more likly to run into trouble with weapons in places were no weapons are listed, then in places where law abiding people have filled in their paper work.
the gun registery has so many flaws. the first being that when it came into effect, customs inport documents estimated there were 24 million legal guns had been sold into Canada over the past ~50 years. 9 million have since been registered. yet they now claim over 90% of guns are registeried. what happened to the other 15 million?... they are in Farmers barns, grampa's attic etc. millions of guns in houses all across the county not on that list.
2nd gun owners have no requirment to store firarms at their house. they can borrow, lend, store them anywhere they want. if their is a domestic abuse call. and he happens to legally own say 3 guns. he might have 0 guns in the house, he might have 3, or he might have 300. if the police walked in and removed the 3 guns listed on the registery and walked out they have failed to do their job. becasuse their could be more legal guns in the house, or even illegal guns in the house too. a full search of the house should take place no matter what the registery says. once again making the registery useless. it doesn't matter how many a list says he owns, it only matters how many are in the house.
gun licences would remain intact, and were in place long before the registery was. so police would still know if houses had gun owners or not. and can then assume guns are in the house.
how does the gun registery prevent deaths and accidents? there is licence training and testing. there are laws on storage, use, transportation etc of firearms. these help prevent deaths and accidents. the registry is just a list of numbers on peices of paper.