Will the Tories break their promise to scrap the gun registry?

I can remember the days when "scrapping the gun registry" was a hot issue back when the Official Opposition’s gun control critic, Garry Breitkreuz, used to work along side Canadian Police Association president Const. Grant Obst to champion the cause. Comments, like the one below, and press releases used to be frequent when the Liberals were in power:

“Whether it’s the estimated 300,000 unclaimed guns in the old handgun registry; losing track of 38,629 licenced firearm owners in the last year; issuing 832 duplicate firearms licences; issuing dozens of licences with the wrong photographs, or the issuing of 57 registration certificates for 16 guns owned by one man, the Justice Department bureaucrats have proven themselves incapable of implementing Bill C-68 and have no hope of fulfilling the Minister’s promises,” commented Breitkreuz. “The gun registry is the biggest garbage collection system in Canada. No wonder the Liberals want to privatize this mess.”

Indeed. However, it looks as though the current Prime Minister and the Tories are slowly backing away from their pledge to get rid of this bureaucratic nightmare. As a blogger who sees this registry as a wasted $25 to $100 million per year [of taxpayers money] which could be invested more wisely into tools and programs which would better solidify law enforcement, I was very disappointed to see this article by Toronto Star Ottawa Bureau Chief Susan Delacourt (of all people) who sees Bill C-21 as dead on arrival and the gun registry as a government bureaucracy that will live to breathe another day:

"It is beginning to look like the Conservatives are not going to be able to keep their long-held promise to scrap the federal firearms-registration system."

As Harper said a few years back, "Canadians are right to demand better justice policy and safer communities."

Unfortunately, keeping the gun registry intact will do nothing to keep handguns out of the hands of criminals, not to mention, it does nothing to make our streets and communities safer. That is why NB Taxpayer is demanding that Mr. Harper keep his promise and scrap this wasteful gun registry.