Summary The Tories argued that the registry did not help to stem crime.
OTTAWA (AFP) - Canada s high court ruled Friday that the federal government may delete its list of long guns owned by Canadians over objections from Quebec, which hoped to use the database to create its own firearms registry.
The mostly-French speaking province pressed Ottawa to hand over the list of rifles and shotguns held by Canadians after the federal government shut down a national firearms registry in 2012.
But Prime Minister Stephen Harper s Tory government refused, citing critics of the registry who complained the original had been an expensive intrusion on gun owners and should not be repeated.
Furthermore, the Tories argued that the registry did not help to stem crime.
In a blow to the future of gun control in Canada, the Supreme Court in its decision said Quebec failed to establish a legal basis for its claim to the data.
The court added that the disagreement over the fate of the information in the registry should have been negotiated in a political process, rather than adjudicated.
Following the decision, Quebec Public Safety Minister Lise Theriault said the province would move ahead with creating its own firearms registry from scratch, at a cost of about Can$30 million (US$24 million).
Quebec had led the effort to create the national firearms registry in the wake of a 1989 Montreal college shooting rampage when a gunman killed 14 people with a semi-automatic rifle.
"We remain convinced that the everyday use of such a tool is necessary to facilitate investigations and emergency responses, and execute court-ordered prohibitions on possessing firearms," Theriault said.
Harper, meanwhile, stuck to his guns.
"We have registration of all handguns already. We have registration of all restricted weapons already," he told reporters.
"In our view, and I think it has been borne out by the facts, we simply don t need another very expensive and not effective registry.
"What we have needed are severe, strong and more effective penalties for people who commit criminal acts using guns and that is what we ve done."
According to federal police figures, nearly two million people are licensed to hold guns in Canada, including 500,000 in Quebec province.
They own an estimated 7.5 million to 9 million guns.
