Thanks very much.
There has been very interesting testimony by individuals who have a lot of experience and knowledge of this issue.
Mr. Friedman, you quoted the Supreme Court. There's another quote from the case Regina v. Wiles, which I guess you're familiar with. The court said that the possession and use of firearms—I'm translating here—was a heavily regulated privilege. I don't think we can make a case against the registry based on the fact that gun owners have rights maybe tantamount to what exists in the United States.
On that note, I'd like to say for the record that the gun owners I know in my community happen to be the pillars of the community. So we're not impugning gun owners by being in favour of the registry. I don't think that long-gun owners should be made to feel like criminals because they have to register their guns. I believe the government has torqued that rhetoric. Previous governments never suggested they were criminals, but over time the government has told them they should feel like criminals if they register their rifles, and it snowballed from there. That's a bit of a tangent.
I understand your point about a gun owner perhaps feeling that they're breaking the law because some paper has been misplaced, or they haven't done their homework properly, or whatever. Our party recommended decriminalizing the failure to register the first time. I think if you fail to register two or three times, there might be a problem that needs to be addressed--maybe through the Criminal Code.
If we decriminalize the need to register the first time, would that not satisfy a lot of people who feel that maybe it's a little heavy-handed?