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“I don’t want to feed paranoia, but as prime minister I can tell you I share the frustrations of our caucus members,” said Harper, before alluding to “bureaucratic initiatives that we think are effectively trying to put the long gun registry back in through the back door.”

“This is not something we can tolerate.”

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He said the government would ensure, in future, that such measures “can’t be done without some degree of political oversight.”

However, documents obtained by the CBC through the Access to Information Act show the RCMP notified the public safety minister well in advance about — and sought input on — its decision to ban the Swiss Arms Classic Green and the CZ858 rifles last winter. Harper himself was briefed in May 2013 on issues surrounding the reclassification of firearms, according to a heavily redacted document obtained by The Canadian Press.

Still, resurrecting the ghost of the gun registry is good politics for a Conservative government that already appears to be in full flight toward a date with voters in 2015.

Frank Fata, a Sault city councillor who was among 100 or so invited guests at the Harper event, said the Conservative stand against the gun registry was a decisive factor in northern ridings such as Sault Ste. Marie, where the Tories reclaimed the seat in 2011 — by just under 1,200 votes — for the first time since 1988.

“Looking back to the last federal election, that did play a very important part in people’s minds,” said Fata, not a gun owner himself.