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Day quietly delays plan to stamp imported guns
Tim Naumetz, CanWest News Service
Published: Wednesday, December 05, 2007OTTAWA -- The Harper government has postponed for two years a plan supported by police associations for gun importers to mark all firearms.
Cabinet quietly passed an order two weeks ago delaying the measure -- which would have taken effect last weekend -- until December 2009.
The day after the cabinet decision, three national police groups wrote to Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, urging him to implement import marking as a way of helping investigators track down guns used at crime scenes.
The presidents of the Canadian Police Association, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police and the Canadian Association of Police Boards said they were concerned the government was about to cave in to the gun lobby.
They were unaware cabinet had already made its decision.
"We understand that this postponement is being considered at the urging of the firearms community, without the benefit of adequate consultation with law enforcement," the letter says.
They said that import marking can shorten firearm-tracing times to "hours versus months."
B.C. NDP MP Penny Priddy lashed out at Day. "If the gun-import lobby has convinced the government to do this, then the Conservatives are a lot weaker than I thought."
