FIREARM FOLLIES #2: LIBERAL REPORT

FABRICATES FIREARM PROGRAM BENEFITS

By Garry Breitkreuz, MP – November 1, 2004

Official Opposition Critic on Firearms Legislation

The Liberal’s tried to put a brave face on their waste of more than a billion dollars by providing two pages of so-called benefits in their recent 66-page report on the Canada Firearms Program. The sad truth is that every shooting reported by the media proves the soon-to-be $2 billion firearms program isn’t working.  Think about it – even if the Liberals can’t.  If the gun was unregistered – it failed!  If the gun was registered – it failed!  If the gun owner was unlicenced – it failed!  If the gun owner was licenced – it failed!  It’s time for Parliament to scrap Bill C-68 and cut the public’s losses before another billion is flushed down the drain.

The Liberals falsely claim that their licencing program ensures that, “firearm owners meet specific safety standards.”  The truth is that hundreds of thousands of gun owners that no longer use their guns didn’t bother to get a federal firearm licence.  The truth is that some 1.3 million gun owners issued Possession Only Licences (POL) by the federal government were never required to take the federal firearm safety course.  Fortunately, for decades, provincial governments have been running hunter safety training programs; gun clubs and shooting ranges have been certifying their members; and mothers and fathers have been training their sons and daughters in the safe handling, storage and use of firearms.  There was no need for a two billion dollar gun registry then, and there is no need for one now.

The Liberals falsely claim that their “enhanced screening has kept firearms out of the hands of those who should not have them.”  The truth is that once a person is prohibited from owning firearms or has had their federal firearm licence revoked, they are no longer tracked by the $2 billion firearms program.  The government never checks to make sure these persons forfeited all their guns, and it doesn’t “inspect” their homes periodically to see if they have acquired more guns illegally. Only law-abiding, licenced gun owners are required to report their change of address, submit their homes to government “inspections” and turn their registered guns in (without compensation) when ordered to do so. 

The Liberals falsely claim that “spousal notification” is required to “manage the risk of improper use of firearms.”  Sadly, the Firearms Act completely ignores the real danger to spouses; namely, 176,000 convicted criminals that are subject to firearm prohibition orders and 37,000 individuals with restraining orders against them. These persons who have been proven in the courts to be too dangerous to have guns are completely exempt from the federal firearms program.  Recently released Statistics Canada figures show domestic homicides are still going up: from 209 in the three years 1998 to 2000 to 249 in the period from 2001 to 2003.  Over half of those accused of family homicides had a previous criminal conviction (not tracked by the firearms program), and three quarters of family homicides are committed using something other than a firearm. 

The Liberals claim that, “continuous eligibility checks are conducted on each licence holder but Statistics Canada’s annual homicide report show that the firearms program isn’t checking the right people for guns.  In 2003, 69% of persons accused murderers were already known criminals including five that had been previously convicted of murder.

The Liberals also claim that the gun registry “provides law enforcement officials with critical information,” and helps them with the “enforcement of firearm prohibition orders.”  But how can it when the government’s own documents obtained through Access to Information Act requests show there are millions of guns still unregistered; 304,375 owners of previously registered handguns without a firearms licence; 406,834 firearm licence holders who haven’t registered a gun; 316,837 registered handgun owners who still have to re-register their handguns; and 5 million guns in the registry that still have to be “verified” in accordance with police association demands.

It is simply not credible for the Liberals to claim that their two billion-dollar registry is of any value whatsoever to police when it is missing so many guns.  No police officer would be so foolhardy to trust information from a registry so riddled with errors and omissions. Given a choice, every sane person in Canada would much rather have had 10,000 more police officers on our streets than a gun registry that wastes billions.

Garry Breitkreuz is the Associate Justice Critic on Firearms Legislation and the Member of Parliament for Yorkton-Melville, Saskatchewan.

For more information: www.garrybreitkreuz.com

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