FIREARMS FACTS UPDATE

RCMP MISSING SOME IMPORTANT RECORDS
ON THE SOURCES OF CRIME GUNS

DECEMBER 15, 2004 – BREITKREUZ ATI REQUEST TO RCMP

Page 23 of the National Police Service 2004 Annual Report on Organized Crime states:

• the problem of illicit firearms and violence is particularly concentrated in urban centres;
• In these centres, gangs increasingly possess illicit firearms, particularly handguns;
• “intelligence and investigations confirm that the illicit firearms market in Canada is supplied predominately from two sources: firearms smuggled from the U.S. and firearms stolen from either private residences or commercial venues in Canada;
• Legal collectors have sometimes been the victims of either random or deliberately targeted robberies for their firearms;
• other less significant sources that also supply the illicit firearms market in Canada. These include: firearms diverted from legitimate commercial firearms market, firearm parts acquired legally or illegally which are reassembled into functioning firearms, firearms that have been declared deactivated, but are easily reactivated and firearms that have been wrongly declared deactivated but remain fully functional.

Please provide copies of reports, documents and correspondence that would:
(1) Provide evidence of the accuracy of each of these statements and the magnitude of each of these problems; (2) Provide explanations as to why 70 years of registering handguns in Canada has “increasingly” failed to keep illicit handguns out of the hands of criminals ; (3) Provide explanations why the theft of firearms from the police and the military are not included as sources of illicit firearms; and (4) Provide information about the capability of criminals to illegally manufacture their own firearms.

JUNE 15, 2005 – RCMP “DID NOT LOCATE ANY RECORDS” FOR QUESTIONS
(2) Explanations as to why 70 years of registering handguns in Canada has “increasingly” failed to keep illicit handguns out of the hands of criminals. NO RECORDS!
(3) Explanations why the theft of firearms from the police and the military are not included as sources of illicit firearms. NO RECORDS!
(4) Information about the capability of criminals to illegally manufacture their own firearms. NO RECORDS!

FEBRUARY 22, 2007 – INFORMATION COMMISSIONER CONCLUDED

“During the course of our investigation, we also reviewed the RCMP’s internal procedures and held discussions with employees of that institution to determine that every reasonable measure had been taken to identify and locate information related to points 2, 3 and 4 of your request. Although no records were located, our investigation has satisfied me that the RCMP undertook a thorough search to identify the records relevant to your request.”