Mr. Speaker, I have been asking for the government to give some consideration for some time now to a gun amnesty bill for the nation. I am back again now to encourage the government to move on. I was led to believe there was some provision in the new gun control bill for an amnesty.
It would be rather simple to do. I would not require any new legislation. There is already a provision there for a gun amnesty. It would not require a lot of funding. Indeed, it might save some money. It would save considerable money for people who have guns they do not need and who would like to see them disposed of in a systematic way.
A couple of experiences we have had in this country would support the wisdom of a gun amnesty law at this time. Back in the period of November 1 to December 15 in 1992 the minister of justice announced a gun amnesty and 30,000 firearms, both handguns and long guns, were surrendered in Canada.
A little later there was another gun amnesty. This quotation from the Globe and Mail , which is always very accurate and precise. On April 18, 1994 that paper reported the success of a gun amnesty in metro Toronto. According to the Globe and Mail police said at that time that most of the people turning in weapons were just average Joes. They were people who just wanted to get rid of their guns, the guns that were in their basements, behind kitchen doors and in the attacks of their homes. They had some fear at that time, and the situation would be prevalent today, that these guns might at some point be stolen or misplaced or might fall into the wrong hands.
Gun amnesty has been very successful in this country and I would like to see this government proceed with a national gun amnesty. It is no good to announce that amnesties are permitted. We need the government to put some national focus on gun amnesty instead of depending on municipalities to do it independently of one another. That would give the project some thrust. They could suggest through various forms of media that there was a national gun amnesty. If we got a few thousand more guns out of our society we would have a safer society. It would be a mark of progress to us as a society and as a culture to make this effort.
I am looking forward to the government response on this matter. I know that municipalities could go ahead and do it, but that is not what I am asking for. I am asking for a national focus and a national thrust to this because of the successes we had when gun amnesties were declared on a smaller scale.
That was my question to the minister several weeks ago. I am back again at the late show tonight to emphasize it. I am committed to this. Indeed, I will be the first one to turn in guns. I have guns which I no longer have a use for and I would be glad to be the first one to contribute a couple of rifles to a national gun amnesty.