Conservative Government Acts Conservatively

I'll put aside my cynicism for the moment. Maybe, just maybe the government is doing this for the right reasons. Whatever the motive, this is a small but significant blow for freedom:

A Conservative MP says she's close to having enough opposition support to kill the long-gun registry in a vote on her private member's bill Wednesday. Candice Hoeppner says she has commitments from eight Liberal and NDP MPs to vote in favour of legislation that would end the decade-old registry and destroy existing data in the system on about seven million shotguns and rifles. 

 "I probably have eight (opposition) members who have indicated they'd support the bill," the Manitoba MP said Tuesday. "I would like to have 12 to really make sure it passes." A parliamentary vote in favour of Bill C-391 on second reading Wednesday won't make it law, but will send it to the next stage of legislative approval and make it that much more difficult to derail at a later stage. 

 Repealing the long-gun registry would still leave registration of hand guns and restricted weapons intact, and rifle and shotgun owners would still require gun licences.