Hunters in Quebec are reluctant to register their firearms in the new Quebec registry, launched nine months ago, following the abolition of the federal registry.
Just 14% of all unrestricted long guns in circulation in Quebec have been registered since the Act came into force on January 29th.
Time is running out for latecomers as there are barely three months left for gun owners to comply with the law.
The low registration rate is due, among other things, to the reluctance of hunters to the new register. The hunters’ associations did not want the Quebec registry. According to these groupings, acquisition and possession cards were sufficient to control firearms.
The President of Quebec Federation of Hunters and Fishermen Gaspésie-Iles Region, Alain Poitras, explains that hunters are dissatisfied and delay their registration.
Mr. Poitras does not hide it, he is very happy with the delay that may hinder the process. When they [Officials] will see all this happen at the same time, it will not make sense, they will go crazy!
Stakeholders are asking for corrections to the registry. This is the case of the member for Bonaventure, Sylvain Roy, himself a hunter.
In particular, he requested that the requirement to measure the barrel be withdrawn as well as the requirement to report the removal of more than two weeks of a firearm in another region.
We also ask, he says, that there is an extension of the registration period since it does not seem to work. There, what will happen is that we will create any piece of crime, artificially, because people will not have managed to register their weapons or have not done so.
In Gaspésie, 8000 shotguns and rifles have been registered since January.
The mandatory deadline to register a long gun on the internet is January 29th. Registration is free.
According to a report by Pierre Cotton
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