Long gun registry

The Canadian Women’s Foundation is deeply concerned about the federal government’s decision to abolish the long gun registry.

We are particularly disturbed that there appears to be no recognition of the strong link between long guns and violence against women.

When a woman is murdered by her partner with a gun, almost 75% of the time she is killed with a long gun, not a handgun. The link is so strong that the Canadian Association of Police Chiefs has called long guns “the weapons of choice” when it comes to domestic violence.

In fact, the long gun registry was created largely in response to violence against women. In 1989, fourteen women were killed by a man armed with a rifle in the infamous “Montreal massacre” at École Polytechnique. In response, shocked citizens began organizing for stricter gun control in Canada, and the registry was launched four years later.

Since 1993, our organization has invested over $16 million for emergency shelters and violence prevention programs across Canada. Many of the initiatives we fund are in rural and remote areas. Too many women in these communities are intimidated and controlled by partners wielding shotguns and rifles. With the registry gone, these weapons will be impossible to track, placing women at increased risk.

Police forces across Canada have called upon the government to keep the long gun registry. So has the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians, the government’s own Ombudsman for victims of crime, and most importantly the Coalition for Gun Control – an organization that includes families whose daughters were murdered in Montreal in 1989. As well, according to an Ipsos Reid poll published in the National Post last year, two-thirds of Canadians support the registry.

Some people argue that there is no proof that the long gun registry has played a role in reducing gun violence. However, as many coroners’ reports have shown, access to firearms is a very well-known risk factor for domestic homicide. And we also know that Police Services across Canada access the registry over 17,000 times a day in an attempt to keep our communities safe.

Others claim the long gun registry is no longer necessary because gun violence is falling, as reported this week by Statistics Canada. This same report, however, says there is one type of homicide that has not decreased in the last decade: domestic homicide. Given the government’s strong focus on crime reduction, we are concerned that a tool that helps to reduce this terrible crime is being abandoned.

Even if it saves just one life, we believe it is worth it.

If you support our fight to save the long gun registry, please email or write your MP with your letter of support.

The Canadiament t