TWELVE
INACCURATE STATEMENTS IN THE JUSTICE MINISTER’S
PERFORMANCE
REPORT ON THE CANADIAN FIREARMS PROGRAM
By Garry Breitkreuz, MP – November 17, 2003
Department
of Justice - Performance Report for the period ending March 31, 2003
Canadian
Firearms Program
http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/rma/dpr/02-03/JUS-JUS/JUS-JUS03D01_e.asp#canadianfirearmsprogram
Inaccurate Statement #1 – First Paragraph: “The attention to the Program sparked by the December 2002 Auditor General's Report emphasized concern about both costs and reporting, while confirming that the program continues to be supported by the majority of Canadians.”
FACT #1: The truth is that nowhere in the Auditor General’s report does she confirm that the program continues to be supported by the majority of Canadians. See the Office of the Auditor General - December 2002 Report - Chapter 10 Costs of Implementing the Canadian Firearms Program:
http://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/domino/reports.nsf/html/20021210ce.html
Inaccurate Statement #2 – First Paragraph: …“the program continues to be supported by the majority of Canadians (Environics Research Group Survey, February 2002).”
FACT #2: The truth is that three other polls have now shown support for the gun registry has dropped from a high of 43% last December (Ipsos-Reid) to a new low of 37.7% as of October 30, 2003 (JMCK Polling).
http://www.cssa-cila.org/garryb/breitkreuzgpress/guns100.htm
The truth is that the government resorted to using a flawed survey from last February to try and back up their statement. However, the question asked in the Environics poll was very misleading because it lumped in the gun registry with other gun control measures that had been in effect long before Bill C-68 was passed by Parliament in 1995.
Inaccurate Statement #3: – First Paragraph: “In addition, initiatives were undertaken to address the complexities of the compliance requirements and ensure successful completion of firearms registration by the deadline of December 31, 2002.”
FACT #3: The truth is that even the government admits that they registered a million guns after the registration deadline so how could it be “successfully completed”? On October 23, 2003, William V. Baker, Commissioner of Firearms testified to this fact before the Standing Committee on Justice: “In terms of long guns in particular, we've had good success. About 6 million of the guns we have registered out of the 6.7 million are long guns. We've had over 1 million long guns registered since January 1, the original deadline, so we're quite pleased with the level of compliance that Canadians are demonstrating and they continue to do that.”
Inaccurate Statement #4: – Second Paragraph: “The gun control program is one of the key contributors to the government's goal of enhancing security for Canadians.”
FACT #4: The truth is that
homicides are up – including domestic homicides, suicides are up, and violent
crime is up including violent crime committed with handguns that the government
has been trying to register for the last 70 years.
The truth is that on October 23, 2003, Statistics Canada reported 209,472 violent crimes (representing 59% of the national volume of crime) and only 2.2% involved firearms.
http://www.cssa-cila.org/garryb/publications/ViolationsAgainsthePersonbyTypeofWeapon,2002.pdf
The truth is that on September 27, 2003, The Toronto Sun reported the following comments from Toronto Police Chief Julian Fantino: And while he acknowledged crime stats have been drifting lower for several years now, Fantino said gun crime is a problem that just won't go away. Just under 50%, or 17 of the 40 murders so far this year, have involved guns, and guns are involved in fully half of all armed robberies. Cops have seized more than 1,500 guns in 2003, averaging 42 a week. The federal gun registry, criticized for costing too much, has been of precious little help, he said.
Inaccurate Statement #5: – Second Paragraph: “The objective of the program is to keep firearms from those who should not have them.”
FACT
#5:
The truth is the
government’s own admissions in the House of Commons prove this statement to be
false. The RCMP report that there
are 131,000 persons in Canada who have been prohibited from owning firearms by
the courts, another 36,000 with active restraining orders and more than 9,000
persons who have had their firearms licences refused or revoked. The truth is that the government doesn’t make any
attempt to track them so police will know where these real bad guys actually are
or which ones still have guns.
The
truth is that two million law-abiding licensed
firearms owners are required by the Firearms Act to report their change
of address within 30 days or face up to two years in jail.
But tens of thousands of convicted proven-to-be-dangerous-with-firearms
persons are free to roam Canada without telling the police where they live.
The truth is that the Privacy Act protects these real criminals (but not completely innocent gun owners) because the government didn’t include them as an “objective of the program” when it designed, drafted and rammed Bill C-68 through Parliament in 1995.
The truth is that the billion-dollar gun registry has starved police of the resources they need to enforce these tens of thousands of firearms prohibition orders and restraining orders.
http://www.cssa-cila.org/garryb/breitkreuzgpress/guns84.htm
http://www.cssa-cila.org/garryb/questions/may-7-2003written.htm
Inaccurate
Statement #6: – Second Paragraph: “the program aims
to prevent firearm crime while reducing the number of gun thefts, accidental
deaths and suicides.”
FACT #6: The truth is the government’s own statistics show that while that may be the “aims” of the program, it clearly isn’t achieving them.
The truth is that on August 20, 2003, the RCMP reported the number of stolen firearms increased from 2,706 in 2001 to 4,090 in 2002.
http://www.cssa-cila.org/garryb/publications/Article160.htm
The truth is that firearms accident have been dropping every year since the government has been keeping statistics – from 129 in 1970 to 37 in 1999 – long before the gun registry was even implemented. Provincial hunter safety training programs and a dramatic drop in the number of hunters in Canada are the main reasons for the drop in firearm accidents.
http://www.cfc-ccaf.gc.ca/en/research/publications/stats/default.asp
The truth is that Statistics Canada reports that the total number of suicides increased by 480/year between 1991 and 1999. The truth is that no lives were saved because as the number of people who killed themselves with guns dropped by 303, the number of people who hung themselves increased by 721. Suicide prevention programs would have saved lives – the gun registry did not!
http://www.cssa-cila.org/garryb/publications/suicidesincanada.htm
http://www.cssa-cila.org/garryb/publications/Article53.htm
Inaccurate Statement #7: – Third Paragraph: “Meanwhile, the Canadian Firearms Centre (CFC) worked to streamline administrative and business practices by consolidating program regulations and developing a strategy to outsource activities that could be performed more cost-effectively by a contractor.”
FACT #7: The truth is the government is in the process of hiring a new contractor to replace all the computer programs and systems already installed by EDS Canada since 1995 at a documented cost of $227 million. Estimated cost of the new “streamlined” privatized program $300 million over 15 years.
Inaccurate Statement #8: – Fourth Paragraph: “The Minister of Justice accepted the Auditor General's recommendation to improve reporting to Parliament.”
FACT #8: The truth is the government still refuses to provide the “major additional costs” recommended by the Auditor General in paragraph 10.29 of the Auditor General's December 2002 Report to Parliament and is violating Cabinet-approved Regulatory Policy in the process.
http://www.cssa-cila.org/garryb/questions/may-26-2003written.htm
The truth is the Library of Parliament released three studies that
show that complying with this useless gun law has already cost gun owners
between $367 and $764 million and
that enforcement costs will cost at least another billion.
http://www.cssa-cila.org/garryb/publications/Article195.htm
The truth is the 115-page government report on costs to the economy
has been declared a Cabinet secret and is being withheld from Parliament and the
people.
http://www.cssa-cila.org/garryb/breitkreuzgpress/Guncontrol41.htm
Inaccurate Statement #9: – Eleventh Paragraph:
“As of March 31, 2003, over ninety-four percent of Canada's estimated 2.3
million firearm owners had complied with the law.”
FACT #9: The truth is that this exaggerated compliance rate can only be believed if one believes the government’s low-ball estimate of the number of firearms owners. The truth is that the government reduced their own estimate of the number of gun owners from 3.3 million in l998 to 2.3 million in 2000.
The truth is that
even the Library of Parliament’s report on compliance costs dated October 10,
2003 quoted another study that estimated: “At present, approximately five
million Canadians continue to own between 11 to 13 million firearms.”
The truth is that if
we use the Liberal government’s 1976 estimates of the number of guns and their
1998 estimates of the number of gun owners, then we find that they have actually
licensed fewer than 60% and gun owners and registered fewer than 40% of the guns
in Canada.
The
truth is that Department of Justice’s own
statistics show that as of July 5, 2003 prove that their 94% compliance rate is
complete fiction:
Number
of licensed gun owners that still had to register their firearms………….
= 428,639
Number
of handgun owners that still had to re-register or dispose of their guns...
= 324,768
Number
of gun owners that failed to obtain a licence to own their guns…….…...
= 355,000
Number of owners of registered handguns that failed to get a firearms
license…. =
304,375
http://www.cssa-cila.org/garryb/GUNS92.htm
Inaccurate Statement #10: – Twelfth Paragraph:
“While it is too early to measure the long-term benefits of the gun control
program, preliminary evidence suggests that the program is producing results.”
FACT #10: The truth is it’s NOT “too
early” for Statistics Canada reports to prove that the registration of
handguns was a failed policy before Bill C-68 was rammed through Parliament in
1995 and a total waste of the billion-dollar that have been spent on the long
gun registry since:
(1)
The truth is that Statistics Canada’s
Homicide Report for 2002 showed that, despite spending a billion dollars on the
gun registry, the number of murders is still going up and that 66% of homicides
committed with firearms were committed with handguns that were all supposed to
be registered. But after 70 years
of mandatory handgun registration, three out of four recovered handguns were not
registered – proving once again that gun registration is a very expensive and
a totally useless way to try and control the criminal use of guns.
http://www.cssa-cila.org/garryb/breitkreuzgpress/guns95.htm
(2) The truth is that the government has required the mandatory registration of handguns since 1934 and yet Statistics Canada’s Annual Homicide Reports for 2000 (Table 6, page 9) and 2002 (Table 8, page 16) show that the use of handguns in firearm homicides has been steadily increasing from 26.9% in 1974 to 63.6% in 2002, and that, conversely, firearm homicides with rifles and shotguns, which only started to be registered on December 1, 1998, dropped steadily from 65.8% to 24.8% over the same 28-year period?
http://www.cssa-cila.org/garryb/publications/HomicidesinvolvingFirearms,1974-2002.pdf
(3)
The truth is that
in 1995, Justice Minister Allan Rock promised Parliament: “Registration
will assist us to deal with the scourge of domestic violence”, but
Statistics Canada newest reports on domestic homicide prove Mr. Rock was wrong
yet again. The Liberal
government’s own reports show that family homicides have increased by 28% in
the last three years, and spousal homicides have increased by 19%.
Since 2000, 79% of the 496 domestic homicides didn't even involve
firearms.
http://www.cssa-cila.org/garryb/breitkreuzgpress/guns99.htm
The truth is that Statistics Canada reports that of the 103 (21%) domestic violence victims murdered with firearms during this three-year period:
q
31%
were murdered with handguns that the government has been registering since 1934;
q
17%
were murdered with a registered firearm;
q
4%
were murdered with a completely prohibited sawed-off rifle or shotgun;
q
27%
of the murder suspects held a valid firearm license;
q
Domestic
murders with registered firearms more than doubled in the last year; and
q
Murder suspects holding a federal firearms license more than doubled in
the last three years.
http://www.cssa-cila.org/garryb/breitkreuzgpress/guns99.htm
(4)
The truth is that Statistics
Canada reported: “In 2000, 3% of all violent
crime incidents were committed with firearms.”
The
truth is the Library of Parliament Research Branch examined two
different reports published by Statistics Canada on violent crime in 1999.
They determined that the “Presence of a Firearm in Violent
Incidents” was 4.1%, but the “Use of a Firearm in Violent
Incidents” was only 1.4% - three times lower than the figure
normally reported by Statistics Canada.
http://www.cssa-cila.org/garryb/publications/violentcrimesfirearms.htm
The
truth is that
in July 1997, the Commissioner of the RCMP wrote the Deputy Minister of Justice
to complain about the department’s misrepresentation of RCMP statistics.
The Commissioner set the record straight: “Furthermore, the RCMP
investigated 88,162 actual violent crimes during 1993, where only 73 of these
offences, or 0.08%, involved the use of firearms.”
(5)
The truth is that
Statistics Canada reports for 2001 show that only 15% of robberies are
committed with firearms – 12% with handguns that the government has been
trying to register since 1934; 1% with guns that are totally prohibited; and
just 1% with rifles and shotguns that the Liberals have spent a billion dollars
trying to register since 1998.
http://www.cssa-cila.org/garryb/publications/robberybytypeofweaponpresent2001.xls
The truth is that Statistics Canada reports for 2001 show that out of 6,242 robberies committed in 2001 where victims had been injured during the robbery, ZERO percent had involved rifles and shotguns, and 12% had been committed with handguns that the government has been trying to register since 1934. No deaths were reported.
http://www.cssa-cila.org/garryb/publications/victimsofrobberysbyweaponsused2001.xls
(6)
The truth is that
Statistics Canada reports clearly demonstrate that violent crime is the real
problem in Canada:
The
truth is that
while the population of Canada has increased 1.7 times since 1962, violent crime
has gone up 7.4 times.
http://www.cssa-cila.org/garryb/publications/PoliceReportedCrimeCanada962-2002.pdf
The
truth is the
rate of violent crime has more than quadrupled since 1962. The truth is the number of violent crimes has
gone up from 41,026 in 1962 to 303,294 in 2002.
http://www.cssa-cila.org/garryb/publications/PoliceReportedCrimeCanada962-2002.pdf
The
truth is that
out of 209,472 criminal violations against persons reported by 123 police
departments in 2002 just 2.2% involved firearms.
http://www.cssa-cila.org/garryb/publications/ViolationsAgainsthePersonbyTypeofWeapon,2002.pdf
Of
the 4,698 criminal violations involving firearms in 2002, 70% involved handguns
that the government has been trying to register since 1934. Only 10% involved rifles and shotguns the target of the
Liberals’ billion-dollar gun registry.
The
truth is the
number of Criminal Code incidents per police officer has more than
doubled since 1962. Note: This
excludes Criminal Code traffic offences.
http://www.cssa-cila.org/garryb/publications/criminalcodeincidentsperpolice.pdf
Inaccurate Statement #11: – Twelfth Paragraph:
“The overall annual rate of firearm deaths has decreased from 4.8 per 100,000
people in 1990 to 3.3 in 1999 (Source: Statistics Canada: Causes of Death). The
number of firearm accidental deaths annually has decreased during the same time
period from 66 to 37, and the number of firearm suicides has decreased from
1,054 to 802.”
FACT #11: The truth is that
the number of deaths by suicide and homicide is increasing so no lives have been
saved despite spending a billion dollars on the Liberal government’s gun
registry.
The truth is the government didn’t start registering guns until December 1, 1998, so why are they reporting statistics from 1990?
The truth is that suicides have increased by 480 annually between 1991 and 1999; it’s just that instead of shooting themselves, people are hanging themselves. What now, register lengths of rope over four feet long? Then we have the case of the depressed man in Lethbridge who went and bought a firearm licence, bought and registered his gun and killed himself with it. If saving lives is the objective, then clearly spending a billion dollars on a gun registry wasn’t the way to achieve it.
The truth is that
firearm accidents have been dropping every year since the government has been
keeping statistics – from 129 in 1970 to 37 in 1999 – long before the gun
registry was even implemented.
Inaccurate Statement #12: – Twelfth Paragraph:
“There are also many real-life examples of the difference the gun control
program is making to enhance public safety and combat crime, such as the
uncovering in June 2000 of what is believed to be one of the largest and most
sophisticated firearm-smuggling rings in North America.”
FACT #12: The truth is the criminals involved in this largest North American smuggling ring were so “sophisticated” that they tried to register all the guns they were attempting to smuggle into the United States. It begs the question, why isn’t the government reporting their successes at stopping the smuggling of handguns into Canada?
Here are two
examples of the gun registry’s failure that the Liberal government totally
ignores in their reports to Parliament:
The truth is that
on January 6, 2003, Toronto Police Chief Julian Fantino said:
“I'm very devastated by the amount of gun-related violence that we're
experiencing here in the city of Toronto; a tremendous increase over years gone
by. The
difficulty of course is that we haven't yet come across any situation where the
gun registry would have enabled us to either prevent or solve any of these
crimes.”
The
truth is that
on November 4, 2003, The Toronto Sun reported: “This
weekend, however, the violence became particularly vicious.
There were three murders, 28 robberies and five home invasions, including
one where a baby had a gun pointed at her head.” The
Sun also reported: “Homicide Staff-Inspector Gary Ellis said public
safety is being threatened by weak youth crime laws, soft prison terms, ineffectual
firearms laws and a proposal to decriminalize dope.”