NOTE: Versions of this article also appeared in the Ottawa
Citizen,
PUBLICATION:
National Post
DATE:
2005.02.05
EDITION:
National
SECTION:
PAGE:
A4
BYLINE:
Tim Naumetz
SOURCE:
CanWest News Service
DATELINE:
OTTAWA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Firearms centre loses track of 46,000 gun owners: Tens of
thousands of letters to licence holders returned as 'undeliverable'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Public
Safety Minister Anne McLellan disclosed in response to questions from
Conservative MP Garry Breitkreuz that 46,409 letters to licence holders came
back from Canada Post as "undelivered" mail.
The letters were among 773,218 renewal notices for gun-possession licences the firearms centre sent out as part of a firearms centre initiative to stagger renewals in order to avoid backlogs at a processing centre in Miramichi, N.B.
Ms.
McLellan told Mr. Breitkreuz that Canada Post did not specify reasons for the
returned mail, although that claim has been put into question by a postal
official.
Mr.
Breitkreuz said the information gap could have drastic consequences if police
officers approach houses or apartments and either mistakenly believe a gun is on
the premises or incorrectly assume there is no gun.
Either
scenario could happen if gun owners are not notifying the firearms centre that
their home addresses have changed, Mr. Breitkreuz said.
"Someone
could just be reaching for a cellphone," said the Saskatchewan MP.
"Or, there could be a gun and they don't know it. Either way, it could be
very bad."
The
firearms centre mailed the notices to holders of firearms-possession licences to
inform them their permits had been renewed for periods of one-to-four years
without charge.
Possession licences expire after five years, and the centre used a computer to randomly assign free extensions to avoid the logjam that would have been created had all the licences expired at the same time. The possession licences were available to individuals who already owned guns when the Canada Firearms Act took effect in 1998.
Gun
owners with possession and acquisition licences, which, unlike possession-only
licences, allow them to buy or acquire firearms, were not part of the renewal
program.
Mr.
Breitkreuz noted the Canada Firearms Act requires licence holders to notify the
Canada Firearms Centre if they change addresses. It is a Criminal Code offence
to ignore the requirement, and penalties for conviction range up to a two-year
prison sentence.
"People
may be criminals, and they don't even know it," Mr. Breitkreuz said.
A
spokesman for the Canada Firearms Centre said the undelivered return-mail rate
for the renewal notices was lower than "industry standards" for large
mailouts.
"More
than nine out of 10 were successfully delivered," said spokesman Jamie
Deacon, adding the centre continually renews information on the gun registry's
computer data base.
Mr.
Deacon also argued police officers have confidence in the firearms information
system because law enforcement officials access the registry up to 2,000 times a
day.
A
Canada Post spokesman said it would be unusual for mail to be returned to a
sender without any explanation, such as an incorrect address or an indication
that the recipient is no longer at the specified address.
"It's
probably a policy that we let the sender know why it's being returned," the
official said.
The
firearms centre says there are 1.27 million valid possession-only licences and
714,000 valid possession and acquisition licences. Nearly seven million firearms
have been registered.
OTHER FIREARM OWNERS LOST BY THE INFAMOUS GUN REGISTRY
FEB
27, 2002 - NUMBER OF GUN LICENCE HOLDERS GOV'T HAS LOST TRACK OF = 38,629
http://www.cssa-cila.org/garryb/publications/registrationmailings.htm
JAN
6, 2003 - MORE GUN LICENCE HOLDERS GOV'T HAS LOST TRACK OF = 24,600 http://www.cssa-cila.org/garryb/publications/firearmscentrelosesguns.htm
NOV
18, 2002 - NUMBER OF REGISTERED HANDGUN OWNERS RCMP LOST TRACK OF = 11,801
http://www.cssa-cila.org/garryb/publications/lostowners.htm