NUMBER OF GUNS REGISTERED

WHO IS RIGHT – THE FORMER JUSTICE MINISTER OR THE RCMP?

By Garry Breitkreuz, MP – February 13, 2002

1.  In response to a request made under the Access to Information Act, the Department of Justice (File: A-2001-0100/ms dated February 1, 2002) provided copy of a letter from the Honourable Chris Axworthy, Minister of Justice and Attorney General for the Province of Saskatchewan dated July 18, 2000 and Justice Minister Anne McLellan’s reply dated September 22, 2000.

In her reply to the Saskatchewan Justice Minister on September 22, 2000, Anne McLellan stated: “More than 1.6 million firearms are registered.”

2.  In response to a request made under the Access to Information Act, the RCMP (File: 01ATIP-51743 dated December 17, 2001) provided up-to-date statistics on the number guns registered.

In these documents, the RCMP reported: “As of November 22, 2001 there were a total of 1,431,731 distinct firearms registered since December 1998.”

WHO IS RIGHT – THE FORMER JUSTICE MINISTER OR THE RCMP?

If they are both right, where did almost 200,000 registered guns go between September 22, 2000 and November 22, 2001?