NEWS RELEASE

November 18, 2003                                                                                      For Immediate Release

JUSTICE MINISTER’S PERFORMANCE REPORT ON GUN REGISTRY LESS THAN HONEST

“The truth about firearms crime is in Statistics Canada reports, but the Liberals just ignore the facts.”

Yorkton – Today, Garry Breitkreuz, Official Opposition Critic for Firearms and Property Rights, released a six-page analysis (see link below) exposing more deceitful practices by the Liberal government in yet another vain attempt to justify their billion-dollar-and-counting, totally useless gun registry.  Breitkreuz found twelve inaccurate statements in the Justice Minister’s Performance Report on the firearms program that was tabled in Parliament on October 31, 2003.  “I couldn’t believe how loose they were with the truth.  It’s one thing to make these kinds of inaccurate statements to the media but to put them in a report tabled in Parliament is unprecedented.  Did they really think they could get away with it?” asked the Saskatchewan MP.

For example, the Justice Minister’s report leads everyone to believe that the Auditor General said in her December 2002 report that the firearms program “continues to be supported by the majority of Canadians”.  But Breitkreuz confirmed that the Auditor General made no such statement in her report.  “Not only did the Auditor General’s report not say it, but the Minister’s statement is factually incorrect,” reported Breitkreuz.  The truth is that two other polls have shown support for the gun registry has dropped from 43% last December (Ipsos-Reid, Globe and Mail, CTV) to 37.7% as of October 30, 2003 (JMCK Polling).

The Justice Minister also misleads Parliament in his report by claiming the “successful completion of firearms registration by the deadline of December 31, 2002”.  The new Commissioner of Firearms, William V. Baker, contradicted the Justice Minister’s report on October 23, 2003, when he appeared before the Standing Committee on Justice and said: “We’ve had over 1 million long guns registered since January 1, the original deadline.”  Breitkreuz asked, “Did no one proof-read this report before tabling it in the House?  They registered a million guns after their so-called “successful completion”!  This truly is the gang who can’t shoot straight.  They wouldn’t know the truth if it smacked them up side the head.”

Breitkreuz’s analysis also provides some basic facts about firearms crime in Canada as gleaned from various other Statistics Canada reports and government documents:

·         99.92% of the 88,162 violent crimes investigated by the RCMP in 1993 DID NOT involve firearms;

·         99% of 6,242 robberies committed in 2001 DID NOT involve a rifle or a shotgun. 12% of the robberies involved handguns that the government has been trying to register since 1934;

·         97.8% of the 209,472 criminal violations against persons in 2002 DID NOT involve firearms;

·         79% of 496 domestic homicides committed since 2000 DID NOT involve firearms;

·         74% of the 582 murder victims in 2002 were NOT murdered with a gun;

·         66% of the 149 firearm homicide victims in 2002 were murdered with a handgun that the government has been trying to register since 1934; and

·         72% of the handguns recovered from murder scenes since 1997 were NOT REGISTERED.

12 INACCURATE STATEMENTS IN GUN REGISTRY PERFORMANCE REPORT:

http://www.cssa-cila.org/garryb/publications/Article199.htm

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