NEWS RELEASE

November 1, 2002 For Immediate Release

PROMISES BROKEN - GUN REGISTRY CAN’T TELL POLICE WHERE THE GUNS ARE

“The registry is useless to police because of fatal flaws, horrendous error rates and bureaucratic bungling.”

Yorkton – Garry Breitkreuz, Official Opposition Critic for Firearms and Property Rights, blew the lid off the Justice Minister’s worst kept secret. The Liberal’s billion-dollar baby can’t tell police where the guns are!

On June 3, 1998, The Canadian Police Association wrote to Justice Minister Anne McLellan stating: “It was particularly gratifying to note that the system will have the capacity to provide firearm registration information to dispatched patrol officers referenced by both name and address.” Breitkreuz commented, “The sad fact is that the police on the street were sold a bill of goods. Even sadder is that taxpayers are paying the bill; and sadder yet, the bill is quickly approaching one billion dollars.”

A letter from the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police published in the Toronto Star on July 26, 1999, stated: “Finally, licencing and registration combined will help curb the illegal gun trade by allowing us to trace guns to their original owners and enforce the requirement that guns only be sold to licenced individuals.” Breitkreuz asked, “After the rash of criminal shootings in Toronto this year, I wonder if Chief Julian Fantino still supports his association’s statement?”

The evidence amassed is so bad that the Justice Department’s own website is no longer true. A document titled, “Firearms Registration – A Valuable Tool for Police”, states: “With registration, the police will know how many guns are in the residence.” Breitkreuz exclaimed, “FALSE!”

Today, Breitkreuz summarized documents he has obtained using the Access to Information Act showing why police can’t rely on the billion-dollar gun registry to do anything the Liberals promised:

Police will not know where the guns are because the government does not require the 131,000 most dangerous persons who are already prohibited from owning firearms to report their change of address to police.
Police will not know where the guns are because there is no legal requirement for gun owners to store their registered firearms at their home addresses or tell the government where they are stored.
Police will not know where the guns are because the government does not keep track of registered firearms that are loaned between licenced firearms owners.
Police will not know where the guns are because between half-a-million and 1.3 million gun owners failed or refused to obtain a firearms licence and can’t register their guns without one.
Police will not know where the guns are because the government has lost track of at least 300,000 guns in the old handgun registration system.
Police will not know where the guns are because the government still has to register between 3.4 and 12 million guns before the government-imposed registration deadline at the end of this year.
Even if police do find the guns, there are so few identifying characteristics on the registration certificates that it is impossible to verify that it is the firearm registered in the system. For example, 4.5 million registration certificates have been issued without the owner’s name. There are 3.2 million blank and unknown entries on gun registration certificates that have already been issued - more than three-quarters of a million don’t have serial numbers.

"The front line police officers in Canada know that the gun registry is nothing more than a billion-dollar bust and it is time for the executive of the CPA and the Chiefs of Police to represent their members and call on the Federal government to end the registry,” said Breitkreuz. “There are lots of things police could do with a billion dollars to control the criminal use of firearms, but registering millions and millions of duck and deer guns surely isn’t one of them.”

-30-