Original ATI Request to RCMP – November 13, 2001

From January 1, 1995 to the present, please provide a copy of reports showing the number firearms surrendered to police and government for destruction and the number of firearms turned over to museums.

The reports on surrendered firearms should include information on:

1) The number of registered and unregistered handguns,

2) The number of rifles and shotguns,

3) The number of firearms that were prohibited, restricted or non-restricted, and

4) The number of firearms that had been reported stolen.

RCMP Response – December 18, 2001

The record search for the requested information was completed on the basis of the information provided by you and the results are as follows:

- Regarding firearms surrendered to police, the Canadian Firearms Registration System (CFRS) does not presently record “protected firearms” (which include surrendered, seized and forfeited) and will not have that capability until the Public Agents Firearms Regulations come into effect on January 1, 2003. As a result, we are unable to provide statistics that relate to the firearms surrendered at this time. [emphasis added]

- Regarding firearms turned into museums, we have no way to distinguish between the firearms a museum has on its inventory or has acquired from other sources from any that might have been turned in to them. As a result, we are unable to provide statistics that relate to firearms specifically turned in to museums [emphasis added] and can only provide total number of firearms presently registered to museums (our letter of December 17, 2001 – item 8 of file 01ATIP-51743). [Note: 1,979 firearms registered to museums]

- A total of 58,742 are marked as destroyed in the CFRS and in the Restricted Weapons Registration System (RWRS) since January 1, 1995, [emphasis added] but these numbers include firearms that were not necessarily surrendered to police or government agencies, and therefore may not be an accurate reflection of the numbers you are seeking.

- 935 firearms are reported in the CFRS as stolen, which would only account for firearms that have been registered in the new system since December 1, 1998. This is only a partial total. We bring to your attention that some pertinent statistics could be obtained from the Commissioner’s Annual Firearms Report. The report is produced every Spring based on the previous “year-end” statistics and once it is table before the House of Commons is made available to the public.