Thank you, Chair.
Mr. Toews, I've heard you say in the House, for example, that this is not about the changes that are going to affect the categorization of arms. Nevertheless, some of the consequences of your bill I find frankly irresponsible. There is the straight-up destruction of the registry and the destruction of the data when, first of all, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police say they want it and provincial governments such as Quebec's want it in the interests of public safety, and when the chiefs of police across this country have an important role to play in that.
You are also weakening the international obligation on tracing. That is also necessary for our own public safety, and the chiefs of police have pointed that out.
Thirdly, you are weakening the transfer requirements. That's what my colleague, Madame Boivin, was getting at—the weakening of the licensing verification requirements for transfer, thereby allowing guns to fall into the wrong hands. This is in clause 11 of the bill.
Importantly, you're also ignoring the consequences of no longer having merchants required to keep track of the guns they're selling, who they're selling them to, and the serial numbers and all of that, which was in place before the registry was there. By destroying the registry, you're not putting back that requirement.
You are going to be allowing semi-automatics such as the Ruger Mini-14. We're going to be allowing sniper rifles. We even have a sawed-off shotgun for sale that's manufactured as a sawed-off shotgun with a twelve-and-a-half-inch barrel so that it's not illegal. It's actually marketed as the Outlaw shotgun and is a double-barrelled 12-gauge shotgun on sale in this country for $325. These will not be restricted weapons; these will not be prohibited weapons. They will not be required to be registered or tracked in any way.
That, sir, is irresponsible. I'd like you to respond to those comments.