NEWS RELEASE

July 31, 2003                                                                   For Immediate Release

MINISTER’S USER GROUP ON FIREARMS SHOOTS BIG HOLES IN HIS “ACTION PLAN”

“No wonder the Minister replaced his User Group on Firearms with a Liberal-friendly Advisory Committee.”

Yorkton – Today, Garry Breitkreuz, Official Opposition Critic for Firearms and Property Rights, released yet another stack of documents from the Justice Department that are highly critical of the billion-dollar gun registry.  “We had to file a complaint with the Information Commissioner to get these documents,” said Breitkreuz.  “Obviously, the Justice Minister didn’t want these documents to be made public while Parliament was still sitting and before MP’s voted to pour another $128 million down the gun registry drain in June.”

The documents reveal that, on February 4, 2003, the Justice Minister’s own User Group on Firearms sent him eleven major recommendations including a recommendation to: “Decriminalize all firearms activities where no criminal intent or activity occurs, such as the possession of unregistered firearms by a licenced person.”   The User Group also warned the Minister: “Continuing on the current path without addressing the main reasons affecting maximum compliance puts the entire program at considerable risk.  Revisiting the legislation later, rather than sooner, will result in greater cost with less chance of success.”  See attached for the 11 “recommendations” from the Minister’s User Group on Firearms.

“Unfortunately, the Minister has ignored almost all of the recommendations from his own User Group on Firearms,” said Breitkreuz.  “The Minister met with the User Group on January 31, 2003 so he knew these recommendations were coming and yet he chose to ignore them when he submitted his Action Plan to Parliament on February 21^st. 

The documents received at Breitkreuz’s office yesterday include five letters sent to the Justice Minister by his User Group between November 1, 2002 and February 18, 2003.  One week before the Auditor General reported that the gun registry was going to cost more than a billion dollars, the User Group’s November 26^th letter identified no less than 11 “major problems” with the federal firearms program.  See attached for the 11 “major problems” identified by the Minister’s User Group on Firearms.

The User Groups’ December 5^th letter, echoed demands from eight provinces, by recommending that the registration of guns be put on hold and also warned the Minister:

q       “The severity of the present state of affairs cannot be overemphasized.  The underground grey and black markets truly become firmly entrenched as of January 1^st.  Ignoring this will be recognized as a bankrupt policy.”

q       “The danger to public safety from this will have major repercussions for many years on those responsible for any inaction regarding this issue.  We have made recommendations relating to this matter for the last three years. 

“Solicitor General Wayne Easter and the police under his command won’t enforce the firearms laws passed by his government and he won’t pass the amnesties or decriminalize the firearms paper-crimes as recommended by the Minister’s User Group on Firearms,” observed Breitkreuz.  “As a result, he’s got the worst of both worlds: hundreds of thousands of non-compliant gun owners are living in fear of prosecution driving guns underground while at the same time he’s undermining respect for Criminal Code of Canada by the general public and the police who take an oath to enforce it.  Oh, what a mess!”

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MINISTER’S USER GROUP ON FIREARMS RECOMMENDATIONS

FROM A MEETING WITH JUSTICE MINISTER MARTIN CAUCHON

ON JANUARY 31, 2003 – FROM LETTER DATED FEBRUARY 4, 2003

NOTE:  The following information was obtained by MP Garry Breitkreuz from the Department of Justice following a complaint to the Information Commissioner of Canada with respect to the department’s incomplete response to an Access to Information Act request filed on April 2, 2003 – Justice ATI File: A-2003-0002.

Amnesties:

• Extend present amnesty for registration to December 31, 2003 for anyone who may own firearms.

• Add an amnesty to protect firearms and applicants for a licence under the following amnesties.

• Add an amnesty for disposal of unregistered firearms to licenced persons.  The Registrar supports this.

• Add an amnesty for those without a licence to obtain a Licence for the purpose of registering presently owned firearms, to protect them from any criminal prosecution and encourage compliance.

• Reinstate POL’s through an amnesty or other legal vehicle for anyone willing to enter the program.

These will help address any current influx into the underground and grey and black markets.

Transfer Fee: Cancel the current Transfer Fee if transfer is done on line or by phone, and reduce the fee to a nominal amount if the transfer is paper based.  This will remove the current financial penalty for compliance and is in line with the costs of an automated transfer process.

Transfer System: Automate the transfer process for transfers of firearms, using a model similar to the credit card transaction phone-in system, UPS call-in system or the bank phone-in funds transfer high security systems.  A licenced vender and buyer transferring a registered firearm without any CPIC or other “hits” can fit in this system without involving any vital personnel and take no more than two minutes or less.  Any problems are automatically sent to a firearms officer for review.  This will cut the current relevant costs which can be allocated to the other areas of need.

Forms: Bring back the simplified registration forms.

Licences: Include Authorizations to transport restricted and prohibited firearms in any Licence issued.  This includes picking up a firearm upon purchase, transport to any approved shooting range or visit to a gunsmith.

Website: Bring back the website for fee registration and licence renewals, which should be at a reduced fee in line with the reduced costs of using the website.

Computer System: Revamp the overburdened computer system which is costing more than necessary.

C-10: The passage of this Bill is essential, as is any attendant regulatory amendment package, to begin maximizing program efficiency, and obtain the built-in cost savings.

Budgetary Restructuring: Reallocate funds to labor essential areas, such as Licencing, relevant investigations of applicants, safety training, etc., from such areas as redundant and overlapping processes, etc.

Legislative Amendments:

• Decriminalize all firearms activities where no criminal intent or activity occurs, such as the possession of unregistered firearms by a licenced person.  This will do more to gain credibility and remove the belief of “questionable activity” than anything else can do at this time.  This removes law abiding firearms owners from the category of true criminal activity, allowing law enforcement to concentrate on true criminals.

• Address the most serious concerns and consequences of such items as

-         The prohibition of over 550,000 previously registered firearms in F.A. subsection 12(6).  Its existence has not shown any benefit for society or public safety since its introduction.

-         The introduction of a new concept of “use it or lose it” in F.A. sections 67-71.

-         The inspection requirements in F.A. sections 101-105, and no protection against self-incrimination.

-         The determination of a firearm’s class at the sole discretion of the Governor in Council without being open to review.

• Change the definition of antique firearms to exclude modern percussion firearms from registration requirements.

• Other: this includes such items as not permitting the shipment of all types of firearms by Canada Post, separate ATT’s not included in a firearm licence, Gun Show requirements relative to universal Licencing and Registration, the shooting range guidelines emanating from U.K. and other sources not being applicable to Canadian trouble-free ranges, etc.

Communications: This has long been a problem of not truly explaining what needed to be at given time at a level understood by those unfamiliar with legislative text.  This was never properly done for the re-registration issue.

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MAJOR PROBLEMS IDENTIFIED BY THE MINISTER’S USER GROUP ON FIREARMS

FROM A LETTER TO MR. GARY WEBSTER, CEO OF THE CANADIAN FIREARMS CENTRE DATED NOVEMBER 26, 2002

• The 1-800 line is not functioning to provide the needed service at this time.

• The Internet registration site is also in a bad state in that many applicants are seriously concerned that they cannot register their firearms.

• Many who wish to apply for a licence cannot do so on line and would require some assistance to encourage them to get into the program, even at such a late date.

•  A many would-be applicants are extremely confused about what to do either on their own or trying to cope with the abovementioned problems.

• Grandfather rights attached to prohibited firearms to be re-registered are in jeopardy for many individuals.

• There is no provision in any contemplated action plan to permit unregistered firearms to be legalized as of January 2003, even though such firearms in the hands of unlicenced owners next year is contradictory to the safety aspects attached to the legislation and to the very principle of universal registration.

• There is no provision to deal with the unlicenced owners who cannot now apply for a licence in time to attempt registration.  Public safety concerns are the same as for the above.

• All firearm dealers and individual licence holders contacted are opposed to reinstatement of the $25. transfer fee, since they unanimously are of the opinion that its deferral was the best thing that came out of “amendments” to C-68 when this was first announced.  Since it was deferred some 2^1/2 years ago, the reported legal sales of low and medium priced firearms have greatly increased, permitting them to enter the system instead of going underground, as was reported to the CFC.  This has greatly helped to reduce the underground inventory.

• The transfer process has seriously regressed to a level not seen for a long time, with many transfers being required by administrators to be done using paper instead of the faster phone methods.

• Many firearm dealers have become a volunteer source of information on the legislation for the Government, which takes up much valuable time to accomplish this essential work.

• Consignment firearms sold but not yet shipped or exported, ie. work in process, must be dealt with.