Re: "The gun registry: should we kill it or fix it?", Sept. 28, 2006.

Your editorial is so full of misinformation and a complete misunderstanding of the facts, I hardly know where to begin.

Facts first. You claim that the simple answer is to "ban personal ownership of automatic" weapons. And yet, except for perhaps a few hundred grandfathered owners, fully-automatic firearms are already prohibited by law in Canada. Nobody can legally buy or sell any fully automatic firearm if they are not a grandfathered owner. No new fully automatic firearms may be imported or manufactured for public sale. Period.

You then go on to opine that this ban should be extended to "semi-automatic weapons," presumably because you think that they aren't "ordinary hunting rifles and shotguns". In fact, a very large percentage of just such "ordinary" sporting firearms are, indeed, semiautomatic in function.

From the .22 rifle used by farmers for killing varmints, to the 12ga shotgun used by waterfowl hunters, and everything in between, I bet you'd be hard pressed to find many gun owners who didn't own at least one semi-automatic firearm.

When it comes to misinformation, your statement that the "police still find [the gun registry] useful" doesn't hold much water. I'm sure that the police would find it "useful" to do away with the right to remain silent, or our search and seizure rights. Or perhaps they would find it "useful" to install cameras in our homes, and GPS locators in our cars, with direct linkups to the police station.

The power and authority of the police must be kept in check, and only a strict defence of all of our rights, including the right to keep and bear arms, can do that.

It is this very right that precludes your nonsensical idea that those wishing to own a gun should first "demonstrate a need for a hunting rifle or shotgun" before being "permitted" to do so. I should no more be required to prove my "need" to own a gun, than you should prove your "need" to write your editorial, or publish your paper. Or walk down the street. Or vote.

As for "registering cars," there is no requirement that you register any car you buy, and you don't have to have a licence to drive it on your own private property. You only need to do these things if you wish to drive your vehicle on the public thoroughfares. And there is no Criminal Code penalty that will seize your car, or put you in jail, just for owning one without the permission of the state - as there are for guns.

Apparently you didn't bother to read Claire Hoy's excellent column, "The false promise of gun control," or the plethora of letters you published in support of it. I would recommend that you go and do that - you could learn a lot.

Bruce N. Mills

Dundas, Ont.