Re: Klein Wonders How Mountie's Killer Got Gun, March 2.

Those who are looking for ways in which the useless firearms registry might have prevented the tragic events which lead to the death of RCMP Corporal James Galloway will be looking for a long, long time. The measure which might have helped, but didn't, was the screening procedure tied to the licensing of firearm owners.

When former solicitor-general Wayne Easter stood up in the House of Commons and admitted that the background checks tied to the licensing of firearms owners are done on a "discretionary basis," the writing was on the wall that the Firearms Act was not in any way shape or form about the public safety.

Inanimate objects have no will or volition of their own, and it is the human element which must be tracked. By maintaining a registry of persons who should not own firearms as determined by criminal tendencies or mental incapacity, we might have spared the life of Cpl. Galloway.

Ontario physicians, for example, have an obligation to inform the transport ministry of conditions which would impair drivers judgment.

[. . . .] While the Liberals are keeping thousands of functionaries busy registering firearms, they spend no resources on measures which might actually prevent exactly the type of tragedies that the registry can never prevent. . . . RS, Oshawa