FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

1. About the Firearms Act

- Why do we need this law?
- How will the new law help fight crime?
- Why not just punish the criminals who use firearms?

2. The New System is Working go ...

- Gun violence is going down so why do we need this?
- How is the new system contributing to public safety?
- What about claims that the system is inefficient?

3. About Gun Owner Complaints

go ...

- Why penalize rural gun owners for big city problems?
- What is the financial "burden" on gun owners?
- Will registration lead to confiscation?
- Does the law give police power to conduct warrantless searches?
- What about claims gun owners will not register their guns?
- Do you really want to turn law-abiding gun owners into criminals?
- Don't civilians need guns to protect themselves?
- What about the National Firearms Association’s "Practical Firearms Control System"?

4. On Support for the Law go ...

- What about the opposition?
- What about the provincial opposition to the law?

1. About the Firearms Act

Q - Why do we need this law?
Answer:
Information is the lifeblood of policing and information about who owns guns and the guns that they own is one more tool to support crime prevention, investigations and prosecution. The new law required firearm owners to obtain a license (renewable every 5 years) by January 1, 2001 and to register their firearms (one-time only) by January 1, 2003. Licensing provides information on gun owners while registration will supply details on the firearms they own. This system is comparable to driver’s licenses and car registration.

Q - How will the new law help fight crime?
Answer:
Ensuring effective screening of applicants - The new law requires that all gun owners obtain licenses and be carefully screened. These licenses must be renewed every five years. Under the old system, 2/3 of firearm owners did not have valid FACs (Firearm Acquisition Certificate) because the old law only required an FAC to acquire a gun and not to possess one.

Enforcing prohibition orders - In Canada, there are 17, 500 prohibition orders issued in a typical year. Licensing and registration will provide the information needed to enforce them.

Taking preventative action - Public inquests have repeatedly recommended licensing and registration to help reduce the risk of dangerous people having access to guns (the inquests into: the suicide of Jonathan Yeo who killed Nina de Villiers and Karen Marquis, the murder of Brian Smith, the murder of the Kassonde children, the Vernon Massacre, the murder of Arlene May). Fully integrated databases and a central processing system will also provide access to information through CPIC to take preventive measures (i.e. removing firearms in situations of domestic violence). When a new violent incident is logged at the local level, the system searches the database for the license holder and alerts authorities. Unlike the old stand alone provincial system, the new, integrated, national information system provides police with continuous, real-time access to information to help remove firearms from those who are a risk to themselves or others.

Helping curb the illegal gun trade - Under the old system, an individual could buy as many guns as he or she wanted over a five year period, with little or no accountability because only handguns and restricted weapons were registered. These loopholes created a huge potential for illegal trading. Combined, registration and licensing will help enforce the requirement that guns only be sold to licensed individuals because it will be possible to trace them back to their owner. Already we have seen impressive results – In May 2000, the firearm registry played a pivotal role in uncovering what is alleged to be one of the largest and most sophisticated firearm smuggling rings in North America. Likely destined for the black market, nearly 23,000 firearms and their components were seized.

Reducing gun theft – Every year approximately 5000 firearms are reported stolen, lost or missing, by definition falling into the wrong hands. Without information on who owns the guns, existing safe storage regulations are very difficult to enforce. With registration, gun owners will be held accountable for their firearms, which will encourage compliance with safe storage.

Improving officer safety - While police always assume a firearm may be present in any call, more information will be an added advantage. We know that between 1961 and 1997, 112 police officers were murdered on duty and all but 5 of them were shot.
Providing critical information for police investigations - The firearms most often recovered in crime are rifles and shotguns. (Click here for more information) Registration will assist in criminal investigations by allowing firearms to be traced back to their original owner. It will also allow police to prove legal ownership of firearms, assisting in prosecuting gun theft and illegal possession.

Q - Why not just punish the criminals who use firearms?
Answer:
The law already includes a mandatory minimum sentence of 4 years for 10 violent crimes committed with firearms (criminal negligence causing death, manslaughter, attempted murder, causing bodily harm with intent, sexual assault with a weapon, aggravated sexual assault, kidnapping, hostage taking, robbery and extortion).
This legislation is a balance between prevention and deterrence. Minimum sentencing alone is simply not enough because it applies after the fact, which is why we also need to focus on prevention.

2. The New System is Working back ...

Q - Gun violence is going down so why do we need this?
Answer:
Firearms violence is declining with stricter controls on firearms. Since 1989, firearm deaths have declined from 1,367 to 1,037 in 1997 the lowest number and rate in 28 years and the number of firearms homicide remains lower than the average of 200 per year during the 1990s. Click here for more information on Firearms Misuse. Criminology Professor Neil Boyd from Simon Fraser University, has concluded that there is more evidence to support the efficacy of gun control legislation in reducing death and injury than there is for most other legislative interventions. But further improvements are possible. Motor vehicle fatalities have also declined significantly since the early 1970's but efforts continue to make the roads safer.

Q - How is the new system contributing to public safety?
Answer:
The Canadian Firearms Registry On-Line contains data on more than 2 million gun owners (around 90%) and 2 million firearms. Over 16,000 licences have been refused or revoked by public safety officials and there has been 32 times more revocations of licenses than the total for the last five years of the previous program. Already, this system is accessed by police an average of 5000 times a day.

There are several examples of enhanced public safety since the new system was put in place:

In May 2000, the firearm registry played a pivotal role in uncovering what is alleged to be one of the largest and most sophisticated firearm smuggling rings in North America. Likely destined for the black market, nearly 23,000 firearms and their components were seized.

In February 2000, in Alberta, a hearing was held for an individual who had been refused a possession and acquisition licence. The licence was refused due to a psychiatrist’s opinion that the applicant should not have firearms. In addition, there were a number of discrepancies in the individual’s application form and a history of criminal convictions. The Area Firearms Officer’s decision to refuse the licence was upheld by the judge.

In January 2000, police obtained a gun that had been stolen from a residence in Newfoundland 15 years ago. They managed to locate the gun in Quebec during a transfer of ownership through the registry and returned it to the original owner.
In January 2000, in Newfoundland, the Chief Firearms Officer was alerted to a series of classified advertisements selling firearms in a newspaper. Following a police investigation, an individual was charged with transferring firearms without authority. The individual pleaded guilty and was fined.

In early 2000, an individual in B.C. had his licence revoked because of a history of sexual assault offences. The individual decided to appeal the decision in court, but the judge confirmed the decision of the firearms officer to revoke the licence.

Again early in 2000, an individual in B.C. had his licence revoked for repetitive drinking and driving offences. Again, the revocation was appealed and the judge upheld the decision that the individual should no longer hold a licence because of irresponsible behaviour.

In August 1999, an Alberta judge upheld the decision of a firearms officer to refuse a licence to an applicant awaiting trial on drug charges on the basis of public safety concerns.

In August 1999, in Nova Scotia, a woman called the spousal line with a concern that her estranged husband was applying for a licence and was going to indicate that he did not have a spouse because she had refused to sign his application. She was quite concerned for her safety and the safety of their children. She later filed a complaint with her local police agency in order to generate a reference on the new Firearms Interest to Police (FIP) database (a reference log which indicates that an individual has recently been involved in a violent incident, has a history of mental illness or other information relevant to a firearms licence application). This means that if he tries to obtain a licence in the future, it will automatically trigger an investigation.
In April, 1999, in Quebec, the FIP database matched several cases of domestic abuse to " valid licence holders". Their licences were revoked.

In February 1999, in Nelson, BC, an individual with a valid Firearms Acquisition Certificate (FAC-precursor to the new licence) attempted to purchase several firearms over a two-week period. The background check indicated numerous prior convictions and several recent incidents involving criminal and violent activities. His licence was suspended pending further investigation. The individual later attempted two more times to purchase firearms until his licence was revoked and his firearms seized.
In January 1999, in Red Deer, Alta., evidence was discovered that an armoured car company employee had been falsifying his gun licence and permit to carry a handgun for the past three years and had gone undetected until the new registry caught this anomaly. Officials reported the incident and an investigation was launched.

Q - What about claims that the system is inefficient?
Answer:
There have been challenges involved in implementing any new legislation but there have been dramatic improvements in performance and a reduction in costs.

3. About Gun Owner Complaints back ...

Q- Why penalize rural gun owners for big city problems?
Answer:
We believe that the legislation balances public safety concerns and the legitimate needs of farmers, hunters and sports shooters. As Alberta’s Chief Justice Catherine Fraser wrote the new law is "About the protection of public safety from the misuse of ordinary firearms. This is to be accomplished through a simple but compelling concept - individual responsibility and accountability for one’s ordinary firearms. This is a small price to pay for the privilege of being allowed to possess and use a dangerous weapon".

It is a serious mistake to think that guns are only a problem in big cities. In fact the terrible irony is that where there are more guns there is more opposition to gun control, but where there are more guns there are also more deaths.

While illegal handguns, drug related crime and organized crime are certainly important problems, most murders in Canada involve people who know one another. Guns are the weapon of choice in domestic violence and rifles and shotguns, the guns more common in rural areas, are also the guns most often used when women and children are killed in domestic violence. Recent tragedies highlight this. And we have now had six separate inquests recommend licensing and registration as a way of preventing further tragedies.

Canada’s rate of children under the age of 15 killed with guns is fifth among industrialized nations, following the US, Finland, Israel and Northern Ireland. The provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan have rates of children killed with guns as high as Israel and Northern Ireland COMBINED. Again these problems are more acute in rural areas where guns are more prevalent.

Firearm suicide rates are much higher in smaller communities (8.0 per 100,000 compared to 1.8 for the three largest Canadian cities), as are firearm accident rates (0.85 compared to 0.17). Long guns are more commonly used for committing homicide in rural communities (in 62% of cases) than overall in Canada (54% of cases).

Q - What is the financial "burden" on gun owners?
Answer:
The requirements for registration and licensing are reasonable, given the risks associated with guns. You may obtain more information on the program on the CFC website. The firearms license which entitles you to possess firearms costs $60 and must be renewed every 5 years. That’s $12 per year, less than the cost of a dog license in most cities. The registration fees are one-time fees of $25, unless the firearm is sold or transferred. Clearly, the benefits outweigh the inconvenience.

Q - Will registration lead to confiscation?
Answer:
Gun control is not gun abolition and claims that it will lead to confiscation are not based in fact. In the vast majority of cases where specific types of firearms were prohibited because they were not deemed appropriate for hunting or target shooting, the owners were grand-fathered. This enabled them to keep those guns until their death and in the case of short-barrelled handguns, owners became a restricted class and were allowed to trade amongst themselves.

Q - Does the law give police power to conduct warrantless searches?
Answer:
The inspection powers in the law are consistent with inspection powers under other legislation. The law does not allow police to enter their homes without their permission or a warrant. Police inspection powers are restricted to owners of prohibited or restricted weapons or those with 10 firearms or more, and they must provide advance notice and obtain the owner's permission. Otherwise, a police warrant is needed. The legislation is also subject to the Charter. The claims about the abuse of police power appear to be attempts to fuel opposition to the law.

Q - What about claims gun owners will not register their guns?
Answer:
Some gun owners say that they will bury their guns or register fictitious weapons but "law abiding" gun owners will obey the law. Many people did not support the GST or the seatbelt legislation but ultimately most Canadians are law abiding. An overwhelming majority complied with the law and applied for a firearms licence. Deliberate efforts to undermine the system should not be tolerated, any more than we should tolerate tax evasion.

Q - Do you really want to turn law-abiding gun owners into criminals?
Answer:
First time offenders may be charged with a summary of conviction, with fines up to $2,000 and/or 6 months in jail. While we are concerned about not unduly penalizing inadvertent non-compliance, strong legislation is required to stem the illegal gun trade and criminal sanctions are essential. Police always have discretion about whether or not to lay charges. The crown also has the discretion about whether or not to prosecute. The courts have the option of conditional and unconditional discharges.

Q - Don't civilians need guns to protect themselves?
Answer:
As the US example has shown all too well, arming for self protection does not work, it only serves to escalate violence. While murder rates without guns are roughly comparable between our two countries, the firearm homicide rate in the US is 7.9 times greater and handgun homicide 14.5 times higher than in Canada. Uncontrolled access to guns puts officers at risk - the more guns that widely accessible, the greater the risk to police. Widespread access to guns in the United States has increased risk for police officers. In 1997, 1 police officer was murdered on the job in Canada, while in the US, with a population ten times greater than Canada and much easier access to guns, there were 64 police officers murdered on duty and 63 of them were killed with a firearm. In San Diego for example, one in three drivers apprehended for traffic infractions is armed. Our law and values do not support arming civilians for self protection.

Q - What about the National Firearms Association’s "Practical Firearms Control System"?
Answer:
This proposed system would put public safety at risk. It focuses only on training while the principal risk to public safety is not that people do not know how to use guns but that individuals intentionally misuse firearms in homicide, suicide and crime. The NFA plan eliminates the careful screening process which was developed to keep guns from those who present a risk to themselves or others. It relies on firearms instructors to approve licenses with a criminal record check as the only screening measure. It removes restrictions on weapons such as military assault rifles suggesting gun owners should have access to any guns they are trained to use. The NFA also encourages arming for self-protection and promotes "Gun Proofing" children rather than safe storage of firearms. Police are in a better position to assess the risks an individual may pose to themselves or others.

4. On Support for the Law back ...

Q - What about the opposition?
Answer:
The majority of Canadians support this law. Polls consistently put support at about 75% of Canadians. Provincially, support for registration ranges from 53% in Saskatchewan to 90% in Quebec. Much of the opposition is the result of deliberate misinformation released by the gun lobby.

Q - What about the provincial opposition to the law?
Answer:
The Coalition for Gun Control, along with the Canadian Paediatric Society, the Quebec Public Health Association, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, CAVEAT and the cities of Toronto, Montreal and Winnipeg, has played an active role in defending the law all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. The 9 – 0 Supreme Court decision was unequivocal, the decision, "by the court" stated: "The registration provisions cannot be severed from the rest of the Act. The licensing provisions require everyone who possesses a gun to be licensed; the registration provisions require all guns to be registered. These portions of the Firearms Act are both tightly linked to Parliament’s goal of promoting safety by reducing the misuse of any and all firearms. Both portions are integral and necessary to the operation of the scheme."
The provinces' efforts to distinguish handguns, which they say are dangerous, from rifles and shotguns which they claim are merely private property, is hard to comprehend since long guns are the firearms most often recovered in crimes.