By Tom Mark

Local MP Pans Gun Bill

Mar 22, 2018 | 7:16 AM

The MP for North Okanagan-Shuswap says the federal government’s proposed amendments on firearms legislation don’t go far enough.

Mel Arnold says it doesn’t have anything to address gang violence or the illegal smuggling and trade of firearms.

“The government could provide better resources for our border systems to track the illegal smuggling of guns into Canada, crackdown on gang violence.”

The government had earlier promised more than 300 million dollars over five years, with an other 100 million dollars yearly to deal with gang violence.

Arnold also says the federal Liberals have broken their promise not to bring back a gun registry.

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He says the proposed legislation includes a measure that is, in essence, a registry.

“This new firearms bill talks about a Registrar of Transfers. Any firearms transfer will need a transfer authorization number, which means there will be a registrar and registry somewhere.”

Arnold says two billion dollars was wasted on a registry in the past and auditor’s reports show that’s not effective.

He thinks the provision for mandatory record-keeping by vendors is a cost to be passed on to small business.

“How are they going to keep those secure. There’s really no parameters around that. It could be subject to piracy or divulgence of private information.”

Arnold does say the plan to extend background checks from the current five period to lifetime might be something the Conservatives copuld support.

by Tom Mark