NEWS RELEASE

February 25, 2000

For Immediate Release

AXWORTHY ASKED THE UNITED STATES TO STOP LEGAL GUN SALES TO CANADA

"Gun smugglers don’t apply to the government for firearms licences and import permits and they don’t register their guns."

Ottawa – Today, Garry Breitkreuz, MP for Yorkton-Melville and Official Opposition Firearms Critic, slammed Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy for over-reacting to the Clinton/Gore government’s concerns about legal gun sales to RCMP licenced firearm dealers in Canada. "This is not a smuggling issue," declared Breitkreuz. "This is not an illegal activity. The legal import and export of firearms is the most regulated industry there is. This is either another back-handed attempt by a paranoid Liberal Cabinet Minister to kill the thousands of legitimate businesses and tens of thousands of Canadian jobs or a cover-up of another botched job by bureaucrats in the Canadian Firearms Centre and the Canadian Firearms Registry."

"Officials in the Department of Foreign Affairs have advised that the request to impose the U.S. suspension of legal firearm sales to Canada came directly from Minister Axworthy’s office. Within days, this ban will cause the loss of business and layoffs in the thousands of firearms dealers licenced by the RCMP to operate in Canada. Axworthy must resolve this ridiculous situation and withdraw his suspension request immediately!" exclaimed Breitkreuz.

"Gun smugglers aren’t stupid. They don’t apply to the U.S. Trade Department for firearms export permits. Smugglers don’t apply to the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs for import permits. They don’t stop at Canada Customs to pay the GST and duty when they bring firearms across the border. And, smugglers don’t register each firearm with the RCMP as the law requires. Does anyone really think organized crime and the Hells Angels are applying to the government for firearms’ licences and import permits?" asked Breitkreuz.

"A key question for everyone to be asking is: With all these controls in place, why doesn’t the federal government know exactly where all these firearms are?" Canadians have every right to be alarmed but they should be alarmed at the incompetence of this Liberal government that loses track of 140,000 firearms in their brand new gun registry."

"All the firearms imported legally from the United States are in the hands of licenced firearm dealers or licenced individuals. Canadians should be concerned about criminals who own guns, not legitimate businesses and citizens who go to all the trouble of licencing themselves and their businesses, applying to the government for import permits and registering their guns," said Breitkreuz. "The system of legal import/export of firearms is operating exactly the way both governments wanted it to run. What’s the problem? Only legal gun sales between the U.S. and Canada have been suspended. Black-market gun sales and firearms smuggling will continue unabated. The only people who will get hurt by this suspension are the thousands of licenced firearm dealers and their employees."

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For more information, please call:

Yorkton Office: (306) 782-3309

Ottawa Office: (613) 992-4394

e-mail: breitg0@parl.gc.ca