Could a firearm registry halt Ottawa's rising gun violence?

After a brazen daylight shooting onthe weekend, Ottawa's mayor is welcomingproposed legislation that aims to tackle a growing problem with gun violence.

On Saturday, a 35-year-old man was taken to hospital with serious injuries after being shot multiple times at a home near the city's Chinatown neighbourhood.

It was the city's 24th shooting of the year. By the same time in 2017, there werefewer than five shootings but the city still ended the yearwith a record number.

"It's clearly not acceptable in a civil society to have this level of gun violence," said Mayor Jim Watson on Sunday.

Watson said thecity has hired 50 new police officers, partly to help deal with a spike in firearm-related incidents.

But residents need to take control of the situation as well, he said.

"If your 18-or-19-year-old son has no job and is driving around in a fancy car, there's probably something wrong with that picture," Watson said.

"And quite frankly, before that person is killed, we need to get them into some form of help whether it's career counselling or college or a job apprenticeship. Because the lifespan of someone who lives in a gang is not that great, and they're causing too much harm and fear in our city."

Registries, background checks proposed

Last week, the federal Liberal governmenttabled a bill that would strengthen background checks for anyone wanting a firearms licence and require vendors to keep registries of all inventory and sales.

They would also have to maintainthose records for 20 years.

Watson said that while he hasn't read the bill,he welcomeslegislation that would help address gun violence.

"I'm obviously supportive of any initiative that tightens up control and prevents the use of illegal firearms, stolen firearms, firearms coming over the border," he said.

"Because those are the ones that are involved in drug deals and that are killing people not just in the United States, but right here in Ottawa."

Registry 'inefficient,' says gun control expert

Not everyone is convinced the bill's provisions will make much of a difference.

While the registry mighthelp police and government keep keep track of a firearm's first owner, it can't do much else,said Francis Langlois, a history professor at CEGEP Trois-Rivires who studies firearms issues in the United States.

Langlois said the proposed registry isinefficient because officers would still have to go to court to obtain a warrant for the information.

"If the police [are] in a hurry, they won't be able to work rapidly," he said.

The registry would also only show new purchases, Langlois said, not firearms that people already own.

Langlois said he believes it would putundue burden on firearm vendors who will have tokeep and maintain thoserecords and he has questionsabout what would happen if the vendor goes out of business, or the records are accidentally destroyed.

Mandatory record-keeping in Canada was done away with when the former Harper government made sweeping changes to the country's firearms regulations in 2012.