Garry Breitkreuz, M.P.
Yorkton-Melville		 News Release

For Immediate Delivery

May 11, 1998

GOVERNMENT MISLED THE PUBLIC, PARLIAMENT AND THE ALBERTA COURT OF APPEAL!

"Statistics Canada data proves rifles and shotguns aren’t the problem and registration doesn’t work."

Ottawa – Today, Garry Breitkreuz, MP for Yorkton-Melville, slammed the government for misleading the public and Parliament and introducing false and misleading firearms statistics in the Alberta Court of Appeal. "There was only one reason why the Justice Department introduced these completely misleading firearms statistics," stated Breitkreuz. "Clearly, if they relied on factual data from either Statistics Canada or the RCMP it would have proved that rifles and shotguns are not a problem and that gun registration doesn’t work. The data speaks for itself, see Statistics Canada data below. To be completely honest, the Department of Justice should have introduced all this evidence in their sworn testimony and affidavits they filed in the Alberta Court of Appeal during the constitutional challenge of Bill C-68. The only question that remains for Justice Minister Anne McLellan to answer is, why didn’t they?" asked Breitkreuz.

RCMP Commissioner J.P.R. Murray

"The RCMP investigated 88,162 actual violent crimes during 1993, where only 73 of these offences, or 0.08%, involved firearms. We determined that our statistics showed that there were 73 firearms involved in a violent crime compared with the Department of Justice findings of 623 firearms involved in a violent crime." Source: Letter from the office of RCMP Commissioner J.P.R. Murray to Mr. George Thomson, Deputy Minister of Justice and Deputy Attorney General of Canada dated July 21, 1997.

Department of Justice

"It can also be seen that rifles and shotguns were involved in 51% of violent firearm crimes, airguns were involved in 19%, and handguns were involved in 17% of violent crimes." Source: lllegal Firearm Use in Canada, Statistics on Firearms Recovered by Police in 1993, Department of Justice, May 1995 which was attached to a Report of the Firearms Smuggling Work Group titled The Illegal Movement of Firearms in Canada, May 1995.

Statistics Canada

In 1996 there were a total of 291,437 Crimes of Violence. Of this total, there were 121,291 violent incidents where weapons were present and 5.3% of these violent offences involved firearms. Of the 6,375 violent offences where weapons were involved, 74.9% involved handguns (mostly unregistered) and only 6.9% involved rifles and shotguns. Source: Canadian Crime Statistics 1996, Statistics Canada, Catalogue no. 85-205-XPE, Table 3.3 page 10; Table 4.3, page 46; and Table 4.4, page 47.

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For more information please contact
The Office of GarryBreitkreuz, M.P.

Yorkton: (306) 782-3309
Ottawa: (613) 992-4394

 

"Take Canadian Crime Statistics 1996, issued by Statistics Canada: a grand total of 5.9% of all violent firearms crimes in Canada in 1996 involved firearms -- hardly a crime wave to justify hundreds of millions -- if not billions – of dollars gun registration will cost, not to mention eventual confiscation. Of all violent gun incidents, 6.9% involved rifles or shotgun – or less than one-half of 1% of all violent gun crimes. The overwhelming majority of violent firearms incidents – 74.9% involved handguns, the majority of which were illegal. So whatever statistical gymnastics the Canadian Firearms Centre used to claim that ‘51% of violent firearms crimes’ involved rifles and shotguns that Commissioner Murray disputed in his letter, it’s untrue. No matter how successful gun registration might be, its effect on gun crime statistics will be negligible considering that 75% of violent gun crimes are with handguns, 90% of which are owned illegally." Source: The Toronto Sun column "Guns and crime: Statistics skewed" by Peter Worthington dated May 8, 1998.