The subversive attacks on law-abiding gun owners by provincial Chief Firearms Officers show why it was a mistake for the federal government to stop just with the dismantling of the long-gun registry. The Harper Tories should have carried through with their original promise to repeal the whole of the contentious 1995 law, Bill C-68, not just the useless, expensive, intrusive registry.

The CFOs, as the top provincial gun cops are known, now appear to be using the remnants of C-68 — licensing, storage, gun-show permits, etc. — to harass legitimate gun owners in a manner similar to what the registry provided. It is not too hard to imagine the CFOs hope they can make complying with their edicts and regulations complicated and aggravating enough that existing sport shooters, collectors and hunters will be encouraged to give up their hobbies and a new generation of potential gun owners will be discouraged from taking up firearms pastimes.

Take the example of the Calgary Gun Show, going on this weekend. The show is 51 years old and the largest gun show in the country. It has never had a single safety incident or accident in its history.

It’s not a surprise that the Calgary show has a pristine safety record. Registered gun owners as a class have a far lower crime rate and far higher gun-safety rate than the public as a whole. These are folks who know and respect guns, and understand how to use and display them safely.

To the extent this country has a problem with gun crime, it is not the fault of law-abiding gun owners. Try drug dealers and gang members.

So why is the CFO of Alberta imposing draconian regulations on this year’s Calgary show?

Earlier this year, the top Alberta gun cop (who is a federal appointee), asked show organizers to urge sellers at the Easter weekend event to put trigger locks on all the firearms they would have on display. Typically, sellers have displayed their wares (always unloaded), with plastic or wire tie-wraps around the triggers.

Then last month, the CFO told organizers that all sellers would be required to use key or combination metal trigger locks.

Why?

There isn’t a public safety issue with display guns at a show. If any of the guns is a danger to the public (and there is no evidence they are), the threat comes long after the guns have been sold and left the show.

Since this is also long after any trigger mechanisms have been removed, whatever locks or wraps are used at the show provide no protection for the public.

The only reasonable explanation for the CFO’s decree is that he knows there aren’t enough trigger locks available in the country on short notice to satisfy his demand. He is creating a standard the organizers can’t meet so they either have to cancel their event or run the risk of their participants being fined or even arrested.

The CFO is using bureaucratic gobbledygook to achieve the same goals that were taken away from him when the registry was disbanded.

Remember, some of the CFOs tried to create a backdoor registry last year — until the Harper Tories stopped them — by making gunshop owners keep records of what guns they sold and to whom.

Some CFOs (notably Ontario’s) have tried, too, to create so many hurdles to transporting a gun from a home to a shooting range that legit owners will just give up.

The Canadian Sport Shooting Association has started a petition calling on the federal government to disband the CFOs’ positions. It is high time the Tories heeded that call.