WHAT THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE DOESN’T KNOW

ABOUT SHOOTING RANGES

By Garry Breitkreuz, MP – Updated: January 15, 2002

1. On June 8, 2000, Garry Breitkreuz, MP filed the following Access to Information Request with the Department of Justice (DoJ File: A-2000-0056/ff)

“Please provide copies of records, reports, and studies with evidence justifying the need for the stringent regulations and expensive controls being imposed on shooting clubs and ranges.  Records, reports, and studies should include risk assessments, cost-benefit analysis and evidence such as:

(a) the number of firearm deaths and injuries at shooting clubs and ranges,

(b) the number of firearm accidents at shooting clubs and ranges,

(c) the number of incidents where bullets have left shooting clubs or ranges,

(d) the description and the number of other incidents affecting safety of club members and/or the safety of the general public, and

(e) analysis of insurance practices and premiums for members of shooting clubs and ranges.”

2.  On August 30, 2000 the Department of Justice provided 108 pages of “releasable documents” none of which answered the questions posed in Breitkreuz’s original ATI Request.  Included in the documents was a 5-page Research Briefing Note dated October 6, 1994 titled “Survey on Shooting Clubs and Ranges,” that summed up the 108 pages of information provided by the Department of Justice.

“Further recommendations concerning the operation of shooting ranges at this time would be premature.  The construction and operation of a shooting range is based on the premise that safety and common sense prevail.  Even though there are no jurisdictional laws or statutes in place, it appears that for the most part shooting ranges are operated with standards and guidelines that attempt to eliminate any potential danger to membership and the surrounding population.”

3.  On December 6, 2000, Garry Breitkreuz, MP filed the following complaint with the Information Commissioner of Canada.

“Please find enclosed a copy of my original request dated June 8, 2000 and the response I received from the Department of Justice dated August 30, 2000.  I have not provided you with copies of the 108 pages the department released because they do not contain any of the statistical evidence I asked for in my original request.  Further, the department states in their letter that they have only enclosed the “releasable documents” which implies that more documents exist but they won’t release them.  It is absolutely unbelievable that the government would proceed to implement such a prohibitively expensive, bureaucratic monstrosity without having any documented evidence that a public safety problem exists on the thousands of shooting clubs and ranges in Canada.”

4.  On December 19, 2001, in response to the complaint to the Information Commissioner, the Department of Justice provided an additional 13 pages of documents to MP Breitkreuz none of which answered the questions he posed more than a year and a half earlier.