No gun registry or similar program works anywhere in the world. Last month, New Zealand dropped its plans to register all firearms because costs are too high and there are no perceived benefits. Said New Zealand’s police minister George Hawkins: "Police advice was that most of the time guns are used illegally, they are illegal guns and (police) don’t know about them anyway."

That’s how criminals get away with murder. They don’t let other people know that they have a gun. They acquire them illegally or steal them. No one should expect a Montreal Hell’s Angel in charge of inventory to place a polite call to the gun registry and ask, "I’d like to register six crates of long guns and do I need to register stolen hand guns? I’ve got a lot of those. What about stun guns? Knives?"

An all out ban on guns won’t help either. Britain banned handguns in 1997 guaranteeing criminals that citizens they attack cannot defend themselves. The lead sentence in a Dec. 29 article in the Sun newspaper in England was: "Britains for the first time are more likely to be attacked than burgled." A 2001 study in The Netherlands found that Australia and Britain top the list of countries for violent crime per capita. Both countries have strict gun control. Canada placed fifth. The United States didn’t make the top 10.

The Vankleek Hill Review recently argued that the "right to bear arms" does not supercede one’s right to live safely. But it is precisely one’s right to bear arms that ensures one’s safety.

American lawyer and columnist Ann Coulter was stopped on a brightly lit Washington street one night five years ago by a mugger who simply walked up to her and asked for money. "I wanted a gun," she recalled of that moment, adding women like guns. "Guns are our friends because in a world without guns, I’m what’s known as ‘prey’. All women are." Not surprisingly, therefore, is the result of a Gallup poll released Jan. 4 in which one in three American women say they own a gun.

Fewer Canadians feel the need to own a gun for protection but when law abiding citizens acquire one they can’t be faulted for feeling safer in a world that more and more guarantees less and less protection against violence. For the pro-gun registry crowd it’s protection from violence, not guns, that people want. Few people seem to recall that an armed man, who went on a shooting spree at an American University several years ago, was stopped by two students. How two students armed with books stopped a mad man with a gun is simple. They went to their cars and got their guns.

Renfrew Conservative MP Cheryl Gallant has rightly again called for the Canadian government to scrap the long gun registry as it will now cost taxpayers more than $1 billion. Meantime, Canadian police are divided on the issue. They are not, as some report, gung ho about the gun registry, regardless of the fact they use it. A fraction of $1billion could have been put to better use by beefing up enforcement and creating tougher laws on criminals who trivialize human life using guns when they commit offences. Tougher laws could be implemented on anyone in possession of stolen or illegal weapons. Judges could also be encouraged to restrain criminals from possessing guns or face time in the slammer.