Mr. Speaker, I do thank the hon. member for his comments; however, I must take issue with him on a couple of them.
Number one is with regard to his comments about government members voting as we did last night to abolish the wasteful and ineffective long gun registry. Members on the public safety committee heard testimony after testimony, not only from victims, but also police officers. When the member makes a carte blanche statement that police officers in this country think that we should continue with the wasteful and ineffective long gun registry, he is absolutely, categorically wrong.
We heard from many front-line police officers that it is not a useful tool for them, that in their training, they walk up to any circumstance thinking that the person behind the door may have a gun, and if they do not, their lives are not secure. The information provided is partial. It is often not accurate and it does not serve a useful purpose to them as front-line police officers. To link our desire for better legislation to deal with gun control vis-à-vis proper licensing is absolutely false.
If he has the time, I would invite him to come to the public safety committee and listen to some of the testimony of victims, people who have children who have been abused sexually by people who are back on the streets because there was no discretion to keep them off the streets.