NEWS RELEASE

December 13, 2001                                                                                              For Immediate Release

MILLIONS MORE GUNS IN CANADA THAN THE GOVERNMENT WILL ADMIT

“Where did the millions of guns go between 1974 and 1994?  Why is the government misleading us?"

Ottawa – Today, Garry Breitkreuz, the Official Opposition’s gun control critic, threw another monkey wrench into the Liberal’s problem-plagued gun registry.  No matter how you count the number of guns in Canada, the government’s own reports show that there are millions more guns in Canada than the government is willing to admit.  “This research will be an embarrassment to the government because the Justice Department is busy conducting new polls to once again lower the estimate of the number of firearms they have to register before the end of December 2002,” said Breitkreuz.

“There are two ways of counting guns.  One is to examine official records and the other is to survey firearm owners.  On both counts the government’s current estimate of 7 million non-military firearms is vastly underestimated,” revealed Breitkreuz.  (Note: Research paper is available here )

ACTUAL NUMBER OF FIREARMS IN CANADA

In 1945, despite massive non-compliance, the RCMP managed to register nearly 2 million firearms, comprised of 1.7 million rifles and shotguns and the remainder handguns.  Add to this the nearly 8 million firearms imported between 1945 and 2000 and you get 10 million firearms. 

Please note that to arrive at this figure of 10 million firearms we did not:

GOVERNMENT ESTIMATES OF THE NUMBER OF FIREARMS – 1974-1976

In May of 1976, Liberal Justice Minister Ron Basford published a report that stated: “At the same time, there has been a steady increase in the number of firearms in Canada.  Estimates place the number at over ten million in 1974, with almost one-quarter million added to the stock every year.  Most of these firearms are long guns (rifles and shotguns).” [Emphasis added] The Minister was no doubt referring to an extensive Statistics Canada survey that reported that in 1974 the Firearms Stock in Canada consisted of 11,186,000 firearms.

Using the Justice Minister’s 1974 estimates I calculated: 10 million firearms + 6,500,000 (250,000/year x 26 years) = 16,500,000 firearms in Canada in 2001.

GOVERNMENT ESTIMATES OF THE NUMBER OF FIREARMS – 1994-1998

Over the next eighteen years, despite the importation of 5 million firearms, the government lowered their estimates of the number of firearms in Canada from 10 or 11 million in 1974 to 7 million in 1994.  A Justice Department briefing note dated March 9, 1994 stated: “In total, it is estimated that 7 million guns are owned by 3 million gun owners…2.7 million households contain 2.7 guns each.”  RCMP documents obtained though Access to Information indicate that this number was only the “Low End” estimate and that the government’s “High End” estimate was over 11 million firearms. 

“Since 1995, I’ve been asking the government to explain where millions of guns went between 1974 and 1994,” said Breitkreuz.  Without even counting the 5 million guns imported since 1974, there is still a 4 million-firearm discrepancy between Statistics Canada’s 1974 survey and the government’s current estimates.  “The Liberals have never answered the question.  I wonder why the government is misleading us?”

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