ROUGH DRAFT PLEASE DO NOT QUOTE

We discuss Canada's universal gun registration legislation (Bill C-68), passed in December 1995. It has been plagued by a variety of problems: delays in coming into force, huge cost overruns, need to cut fees to encourage compliance, massive problems with its computer systems, stubborn resistance by anti-control groups, and the fact that eight of 10 provinces refused to participate in administering the new law. To hide the overruns, the federal government resorted to "back door" financing. While the latest deadline for registration of all long guns and hand guns was July 1, 2003, it is not clear that universality was achieved. For one thing, the official estimate of the stock of guns is almost far below the actual number of guns in private hands. We explain that, like almost all previous gun control legislation in Canada, Bill C-68 reflects a persistent kultur kampf and opportunistic behaviour by politicians. Presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Criminology, Adams Mark Hotel