Gun control advocate insists registry saves lives

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Gun control advocate insists registry saves lives

The Canadian Press Published Thursday, October 27, 2011 12:11PM EDT

Wendy Cukier, president of the Coalition for Gun Control, holds up a copy of the cover of the Canadian Firearms Association magazine as Catherine Bergeron, whose sister, Genevieve, was killed in the University of Montreal Massacre sixteen years ago, looks on at a news conference in Montreal, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2006.

Text:

TORONTO - The president of the Coalition for Gun Control says new data from Statistics Canada reinforces what she's been telling the Harper government for years -- that the long gun registry saves lives.

But Wendy Cukier says she knows the report will have no effect on the government's decision to scrap the registry.

She says it's just the latest addition to a body of evidence that Ottawa has chosen to ignore.

On Tuesday, the government introduced long promised legislation to kill the long gun registry.

StatsCan reported the next day that in 2009, the number of Canadian homicides involving rifles or shotguns had fallen to just one-fifth of what they were 30 years ago.

Like Cukier, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police also supports the long gun registry.

But the Conservatives contend the registry has been expensive -- and done little to fight crime.

They say they money spent on it could be put to better use hiring more police officers.