Well, what I can say is that we will not mandate the creation of a registry. Whether you call it a green book, whether you call it paper, or whether the gun shop keeps it in a computer makes no difference to me—what you're doing is creating a registry. So what we're saying is that there is no authority under the federal legislation to do that, and we've made that very clear in order to ensure that we are carrying out the promise we made to the people of your riding, and indeed, ridings like mine, where the long-gun registry was a huge thorn in the side of very ordinary citizens.
Might I just make this one point? One of the things I've heard police say about the registry is that it's the indirect impact of the registry that caused a lot of problems. For the very farmers, hunters, and sport shooters who as a general rule are very supportive of the police, the registry created a rift. So instead of having those individuals as partners in fighting crime, those individuals began to see the police as the other side.
That was one of the most significant aspects of the damage that the long-gun registry did. Basically, the old Liberal government said that “if you don't register this, you're a criminal”, and people resented that very much. It alienated them from the police, and that was very unfortunate.
