by  Crystal Giesbrecht, Director of Member Programs and Services, in collaboration with the Coalition for Gun Control

The government introduced Bill C-19, An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Firearms Act (Short Title: Ending the Long-gun Registry Act) on October 25^th, 2011. The Bill has since been looked at by the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security who heard witnesses and testimonies on the content of the Bill and its impacts. Despite the consensus by public safety experts that this Bill was proposing changes much beyond the simple end of the long-gun registry, the committee recommended to support the Bill without amendments.  While the government had promised to fast-track Bill C-19, the vote on the committee report and to send the Bill to the Senate have yet to be scheduled. 

 Bill C-19 seeks to:

• End the registration of rifles and shotguns, including the powerful semi-automatics as well as some sniper rifles;
• End the requirement that gun owners’ licenses be verified when they purchase a firearm;
• Call for the destruction of the records of the 7.1 million rifles and shotguns that are currently registered, which will hinder the police’s ability to trace these guns to their last legal owners if they end up being used in crimes;
• Eliminate the requirement that gun dealers must record sales, a requirement that has been in place for more than 30 years and is essential for allowing guns to be traced;
• Destroy a tool used by police officers to remove guns from dangerous people, enforce prohibition orders, and take preventive actions;
• Allow an individual to acquire an unlimited number of guns, including powerful semi-automatics, without confirming that their license is valid. There will be no way to know who owns these powerful guns, nor how many are owned.

The long-gun registry connects guns to their owners.   That owner has responsibility for ensuring the safe storage of the weapon as well as being aware of its location if it is not in his or her possession.  It is a tool that goes hand in hand with licensing and recognizes that Canada understands and respects the lethality of fire arms. Without information about who owns guns, there is no way to keep them from dangerous people when there is risk of suicide or domestic violence and to use the information to solve crimes. Registration ensures licensed gun owners are held accountable for their firearms. Across Canada, police refer to the registry 17,400 times each day and routinely check for the presence of firearms on domestic violence calls, as do other front line workers. Registration also helps enforce prohibition orders by providing information about the firearms police should remove. Physicians, crisis workers and police have provided anecdotal evidence of specific cases where the registry was useful in removing firearms from potentially deadly situations. The Minister of Public Safety has confirmed that 4,612 registered firearms were removed from the possession of individuals whose licenses were revoked due to public safety concerns.

As of September 2011, there were 1.8 million licensed firearm owners (91,500 in Saskatchewan) and 7.1 million firearms registered as “non-restricted firearms” in Canada (415,000 in Saskatchewan), including rifles and shotguns. Fees associated with registration have been waived and firearms are registered once to their legal owners. Non-restricted firearms account for 90% of all registered firearms.

The Auditor General reaffirmed in May 2010 that the program is now well managed and that the bulk of the costs of the Firearms Program are for licencing gun owners and screening them for risk factors of violence and suicide. The costs of maintaining the registration of rifles and shotguns are modest. As well, an independent cost-benefit analysis for the RCMP has estimated that scrapping the registry would save less than $4 million per year. The annual costs of firearm death and injury was estimated at $6.6 billion in 1995.

At the international level, licencing gun owners and registering firearms is the norm, with the United States being the exception. Canada’s law has been heralded worldwide as a model for addressing armed violence against women. The United Nations has gone so far as to suggest that states that do not adequately regulate firearms fail to meet their obligations under international law particularly with respect to the safety of women and children.

 Facts: Gun Control Works (from the Coalition for Gun Control)

• The evidence shows that our gun control law is working to save lives, reduce gun violence, and limit injuries from firearms.
• 400 fewer Canadians died of gunshots in 2007 (723) compared to 1995 (1125). Most firearm-related deaths in Canada are caused by rifles or shotguns, which are classified as “nonrestricted firearms”. All guns are lethal, and any gun in the wrong hands is dangerous; we need controls on ALL guns.
• The rate of women murdered with firearms by their intimate partner has decreased by 69% since 1995. 
• Since the long-gun registry and its related requirements for safe storage of guns were introduced, youth suicide rates by firearms have declined in relation to suicide rates by other means. While the rate of suicide by firearm has dropped 48% since 1995, the rate of suicide without firearm has remained stable. Murders with rifles and shotguns have decreased dramatically, from 61 in 1995 to 36 in 2010.  Crime researchers have concluded that stronger controls on firearms were followed by a significant drop in gun homicides and that no tactical displacement to other methods was observed. 
• Rates of robbery committed with firearms have plummeted (-43%) while rates of robbery committed by other means have only decreased by 9%. 
• While rates of homicide without firearms are comparable between Canada and the U.S., rates of homicides with firearms are 6.4 times higher in the U.S.

Why license all gun owners and register all firearms? (from the Coalition for Gun Control)

Rifles and shotguns are often recovered in crime, and are the firearms most often used in domestic violence, in suicide and in the murders of police officers, particularly in rural areas because of their accessibility.

1- Screening and licensing firearm owners reduces the risks that dangerous people will have access to weapons, and registration is essential to enforcing licensing. The licensing system reduces the chances that those who are a threat to themselves or others will get access to firearms.

 2- Registering all firearms assists police in removing guns from dangerous people, to enforce prohibition orders, and to take preventative action when there is a risk of domestic violence, or suicide in the household. If a legal owner acquires a large number of firearms over a short period of time, flags may be raised. Front line crisis workers including rural women shelter workers and emergency physicians have testified that police consult the long-gun registry to remove all firearm(s) from potentially deadly situations and deliberately search for the presence of firearms in the home when they are called to a domestic violence incident. The Canadian Paediatric Society, the Canadian Association of Adolescent Health and suicide prevention centers have argued that the significant decline in suicides is due to an increased sense of personal responsibility and accountability on the part of gun owners who know that registration links them directly to their firearms, reducing impulsive access to firearms to those at risk. For example, the registry allowed Montreal Police to remove firearms from a potential copycat shortly after the Dawson College shooting.

 3- Firearm registration promotes accountability. The registration of automobiles encourages drivers to conduct themselves responsibly, and allows police to enforce the law and crack down on car theft.  The same principles apply to firearms. By ensuring gun owners are held accountable for each and every firearm they possess, the registry enforces the legal obligation to report lost or stolen guns, and encourages safe storage, which helps reduce gun theft and the diversion of legal guns into illegal markets and criminal use.

 Too often, guns from Canadian gun owners end up in the wrong hands. While there are currently safe storage requirements defined by law, many gun owners do not store their guns in accordance with the law. For example RCMP Constable Dennis Strongquill was shot and killed in Manitoba with a rifle stolen from a car in Alberta.

 4- While the gun registry does not prevent all tragedy, it has provided useful tool to help police bring criminals to justice. It enables police to trace guns back to their original owners which allows police to determine the circumstances which led their misuse, lay charges where appropriate and provide a potential lead for investigators searching for a suspect following a violent occurrence. It also allows police to prove legal ownership of firearms, and provides valuable information for prosecuting gun theft and illegal possession charges.

Police have testified that each and every response raises the possibility of the presence of a firearm and a corresponding risk to the safety of the public (for example, a victim of domestic violence) and officers. While the information in the long-gun registry may not be perfect – it has been weakened by the successive amnesties- they prefer to have more information rather than less. We know that the DNA and the fingerprint databank do not have information on all Canadians, but it is still used on a regular basis to support criminal investigations. Two men were identified and convicted as accessories to the murder of 4 RCMP officers in Mayerthorpe, Alberta, in part because a registered gun was left at the scene of the crime.

5- Canada’s gun control law helps curb the illegal gun trade by ensuring that firearms are sold only to licensed individuals. Most illegal firearms begin as legal firearms, and registration helps prevent diversion from legal to illegal markets. Under the old system, an individual could buy an unlimited number of rifles and shotguns over a five-year period, with little accountability. By ensuring that all firearms can be traced back to their original owner, the registration and licensing system help reduce the number of legal firearms being diverted to the illegal market.