I worked for 15 years as a public safety senior official. The first thing police officers are taught in training is that they are responsible for their own safety. I fully agree with Professor Mauser: the murder of the four young police officers in western Canada was attributable to a professional mistake on their part. In Ms. Gignac's case, where she was killed with a registered firearm, one should not forget that a judge had granted an individual with psychiatric issues the right to carry the weapon for a month, during the hunting season.
If the registry only serves to protect police officers' lives, that is a fundamental flaw. I am not saying that querying the registry to see whether an individual possesses a firearm does not have an effect. In fact, close to 40% of address-related data in the registry is false. We have to pay $2 billion to protect the health and safety of police officers. In my opinion, that is the only causal relationship we have any evidence for. It is too expensive.