Thank you, Madam Speaker. The Minister was very understanding and open to the suggestion we made, which was to try to delay the implementation of that regulation until the fall. That would give us time to look at alternative arrangements. While we support the safety element of the national firearms course and the test, we do not agree that firearms have anything to do with most people in the Northwest Territories. At least in the case of handguns, muskets and rifles from previous centuries. I raised a number of specific points in the course and the book itself to illustrate the point. As I said, I hope by Monday, if not today, we should have a definite answer. He had indicated the following day he was going to have a definite answer to us, but that didn't happen. It should be noted by the Members as well that when the Ministers discussed it, there was a lot of support for the notion that we should look at prohibiting handguns for use in Canada, rather than tinker with regulations simply restricting them. The suggestion was the use of handguns, per se, have no place in a firearms safety course in Canada, since the majority of us use only rifles and it is for hunting. Handguns are not in the same category whatsoever with people who use firearms and, therefore, we should not be compelled to know about handguns in order to continue using firearms the way we have. There were a number of Ministers who stood up on Wednesday and said as far as they were concerned we should look at doing away with firearms and their use in Canada. Thank you.
Stephen Kakfwi on Question 390-12(5): Purpose Of Minister Of Renewable Resources' Trip
In the Legislative Assembly on March 25th, 1994. See this statement in context.
Further Return To Question 390-12(5): Purpose Of Minister Of Renewable Resources' Trip
Question 390-12(5): Purpose Of Minister Of Renewable Resources' Trip
Revert Back To Item 5: Oral Questions
March 24th, 1994
Page 860
See context to find out what was said next.