Canada had a grand experiment with total gun registration in 1995.
The estimated cost was going to be $2 million per year over the cost of the handgun registration system that was already in place.
$60 million was spent on a public-relations programs including television commercials.
We were initially told that signing up would be free, but it was later revealed that they planned re-registration fees that would generate $117 million per year.
By 2004 it was estimated that the registry system had cost $2 BILLION, about $250 for every gun that ever went through the system, and was costing $71 million every year to operate. This is not including incidental costs to every police detachment such as entering all the data they already had on hand. Our local small detachment had 2 filing cabinets of records and refused to enter the data unless they received an extra clerk for a year to do so. They never did and neither did most of the police detachments across the country.
Early on it was impressed upon us to "register now while it is still free".
Details of impending re-registration costs were foggy, $10/gun per year was floated about.
The uproar caused them to back down to $10/yr for all guns, paid as $50 every 5 years.
Many people saw their guns as a financial liability and either sold them cheap or squirreled them away.
The hoped for $117million revenue disappeared. The costs increased.
Meanwhile gang related handgun violence has exploded in our cities.
These guns have been registered in Canada for over 70 years, yet gangs have ready access to them.
Luckily, in the face of huge costs and no results, the long gun registry was shut down last year.
We still have to take a course and get a permit to buy and own guns and ammunition.
Our experiment with registration is over.
(I didn't own this gun, it was a loaner!)
Steve
