Here are the highlights of this week’s discussions (musings?) by the federal and provincial governments about potential provincially-run gun registry.
First off, the feds have made it clear that they will not assist any province in setting up a registry:
The Conservatives say they have no intention of sharing records or pumping cash into any new provincial long-gun registries that could surface once the doomed federal database disappears.
Meanwhile, Nova Scotia premier Darrell Dexter (NDP) has ruled out his province’s participation in any provincial long-gun registry. The reason according to Dexter? Cost:
“When it comes to any kind of new initiatives, we simply don’t have the money to embark on costly or comprehensive jurisdictional areas that belong to the federal government,” Dexter said Tuesday.
“We’re struggling to make sure that we keep teachers in the classroom, that we keep nurses that work in our hospitals. We have real priorities that we’re trying to deal with and we’re going to concentrate on that.”
Implicit recognition, it would appear, of the fact that gun registration is not a “real priorit[y]” and is most likely beyond the jurisdiction of the provincial government.