EDMONTON - The long-gun registry is an "ill-conceived" waste of cash, says a former high-ranking Mountie, who'd like nothing more than to see it killed.
Keith Thompson, a retired RCMP superintendent who once worked as the emergency response team commander for southern Alberta, joins the growing number of cops and former cops who want to abolish the registry. He says the money could be better spent putting more officers on the street.
"I think it is a waste, and most importantly, if we think about the safety of our citizens, it gives them a false sense of its importance," said Thompson, who now runs a security consulting company.
Thompson, with the Mounties for 30 years and once a member of the Canadian Association of Police Chiefs, said his position gave him insight dealing with potentially explosive situations.
"In my various roles, I attended too many scenes of hostage-taking, murder/suicides, barricaded persons, etc., and know of no lives that could have been saved with such a fully functioning registry," he wrote in a recent open letter to Members of Parliament.
He said no experienced commander at the scene of such incidents would issue orders based on information in a gun registry, but would instead assume a worst-case scenario.
"In other words, assume that there would be guns regardless of what the registry implied," wrote Thompson, a Fort Saskatchewan, Alta., resident who retired 20 years ago, when he was in charge of the Prince George, B.C., detachment.
He explained he wrote the letter in response to the publicity the "ill-conceived legislation has generated."
His stance pits him against the Canadian Association of Police Chiefs, who are lobbying to keep the registry.
Mark Pugash, a spokesman for Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair, the most vocal advocate of the long-gun registry and president of the chiefs' association, recently defended the registry as a matter of public safety."
MPs are expected to vote on the matter later this month.
Thompson said he believes politicians who support the registry are doing so for political advantage -- to appeal to those city dwellers who have no interest in owning long guns. Thompson said he doesn't own a gun.
"The bottom line is "is the long-gun registry a benefit to the street officer? I think it's unequivocally no," he said.
"Who is it a benefit to? Does it make the citizens of Canada safer? I don't think so.
"So why maintain it?"
Alberta Justice Minister Alison Redford and Solicitor General Frank Oberle have also called for the registry to be shot down.
Most rank-and-file cops also believe it's useless, according to a recent straw poll of officers, conducted by Edmonton Const. Randy Kuntz.
- with files from QMI Agency
