Mr. Speaker, since January 1 of this year I have received over 700 letters and 60 petitions from my constituents in Cariboo-Chilcotin rightly protesting the government's intention to introduce new firearms legislation. I would like to quote from one letter:
Ignorance is the cause of fear and the fear of firearms now is caused by a general lack of understanding of what a gun is, how it functions and how extensive our existing gun laws currently are. If the public understood what an honest citizen must currently go through to legally acquire a firearm, they would realize that the new gun control legislation is nothing more than an expensive publicity campaign designed to appear as if the government is fighting crime. We, the people, need education about firearms, not gun laws that attack honest gun owners and leave the criminals at the status quo.
I agree with my constituents. We do not need any more firearms legislation.