MEMORANDUM

DATE:February 4, 1997

TO:Sub-Committee Reviewing Draft Firearms Act Regulations

Russell MacLellan, MPGordon Kirkby, MP

John Maloney, MPSusan Whelan, MP

Pierre de Savoye, MPJack Ramsay, MP

FROM: Garry Breitkreuz, MP

SUBJECT: INSURANCE COMPANIES CLAIM HOMES WITH GUNS ARE "SAFE"

Your sub-committee's review of the draft Firearms Act regulations are of great interest to my constituents. I have noticed that a number of witnesses appearing before your committee have testified that homes with firearms are "unsafe". During the debate of Bill C-68 I investigated this claim by going to the experts on assessing activities that are considered "unsafe"; namely, insurance companies. I released my findings in the House of Commons on May 30, 1995:

"The legislative measures proposed in Bill C-68 imply that gun owners are a risk to both themselves and to others and thereby a threat to public safety. The Minister of Justice is unable or unwilling to provide empirical evidence to prove that gun owners present a greater risk to themselves, to the people they live with or to their neighbours.

The Library of Parliament has been in contact with the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association and the Insurance Bureau of Canada and has learned that insurance companies do not ask their applicants if they own a gun because they are "not an identifiable risk group".

If gun ownership represented any risk or liability, insurance companies would charge gun owners a higher premium for life, health, disability, liability and property insurance - they do not! How can the Justice Minister say gun owners are an identifiable risk when insurance companies disagree? Unlike the Minister who makes his arguments based solely on emotion, insurance companies make their decisions based on "empirical evidence" because they make their living assessing real risk."

If guns are such a big risk, why do insurance companies not ask us all if we own one? Before you conclude your deliberations please get a definitive answer to this question from each of the witnesses who appear before you and from insurance and actuarial experts.

Thank you.