CANADIAN SHOOTING SPORTS ASSOCIATION / CANADIAN INSTITUTE FOR LEGISLATIVE ACTION

For immediate release - August 30, 2012

Great Canadian Gun Registry Shuffle proves firearms data is useless
Firearms owners exchange guns in national protest and vow to never register again

(TORONTO – August 30, 2012) The members of the Canadian Shooting Sports Association (CSSA) are mad as hell and they're not going to take this any more.

The CSSA is advocating that all owners of registered non-restricted firearms take part in the Great Canadian Gun Registry Shuffle. The CSSA says anti-gun advocates are spitting in the face of Canada's legal system by deliberately ignoring the will of Parliament in an attempt to preserve registry data for future use.
In order to support federal Bill C-19 that specifies the data must be deleted, responsible gun owners are swapping their firearms to illustrate that the data was -- and will always be -- useless. The Great Canadian Gun Registry Shuffle removes any wrong-headed notion that the data could help build subsequent registries.

Bill C-19 received Royal Assent on April 5 and clearly dictates that the data must be destroyed. In contempt for the new law, the Government of Quebec, the City of Toronto, the Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic, and the Region of Waterloo have asked the courts to preserve the data and ignore Parliament. The CSSA is mobilizing trustworthy Canadian gun owners to immediately buy, sell, trade or lend previously registered firearms to protest the data preservation injunctions.
“The governments and advocacy groups have forced our hand by suggesting the registry data is somehow useful, ” says Tony Bernardo, CSSA spokesman and executive director of the Canadian Institute for Legislative Action (CILA). “If they refuse to acknowledge the will of the people, we'll do it for them. Canada's previously registered firearms are now changing location, so the registry is even more useless, if that's possible. The registry was never a public safety tool, and we're removing once and for all the myth that the data was valuable. The Great Canadian Gun Registry Shuffle negates the silly straw man attempt to protect the data. Shuffling previously registered firearms is totally legal, responsible and appropriate.

“The Schlifer Clinic is funded by four Ontario government ministries, so it appears the provincial Liberals are hiding behind this anti-gun ploy,” he adds. “More than half of the firearms in Canada have never been registered and even anti-gun advocates admit that criminals won't register their guns. As long as these nuisance court injunctions keep the registry data intact, they are maintaining a shopping list for computer hacking criminals to locate our firearms. That places gun owners in danger, so we are compelled to demonstrate that the registry is inaccurate by making it even less accurate. Pro-registry advocates need to see that there's no useable data to protect. We are simply showing them the folly of their own political posturing. The registry is dead.”
CSSA/CILA has provided a great deal of statistical evidence over the years to prove that a gun registry does nothing to keep Canadians safe and does not curtail violence against women.

“Sticking a registry paper on a gun doesn't make it safe,” says Bernardo. “The registry was created as a political pacifier strictly to win votes and some politically motivated groups are still willing to play that game today. Sport shooters are fed up and we're putting an end to it. The law permits us to exchange our firearms with other qualified gun owners. By this time tomorrow, no one will know which owners have which firearms. And that's perfect, because it's nobody's business.

“This shuffle forces the obstinate anti-gun crowd to admit that the registry is not worth fighting for,” he adds. “It truly never was. The data is corrupt and outdated, and it never saved a single life. It was never designed to make us safe. We have challenged anti-gun advocates to reveal how the registry can help anyone, and they have never delivered – not once. How could they? The registry doesn't do anything. The Great Canadian Gun Registry Shuffle makes the data transparently irrelevant. Perhaps now we can all get on with focusing on bona fide ways to increase public safety and protect Canadians against violence. We will do all we can to help.”

TO ALL LONG GUN OWNERS: Please let us know how many long guns you have shuffled. Do not tell us the type, location etc., just the number. Every Thursday morning we will post the totals on the CSSA web site. Enjoy the Shuffle.

For more information contact:
Tony Bernardo at 905-571-2150 or email abernardo343@rogers.com