FIREARMS FACTS

FIREARMS FACTS - UPDATE

STATISTICS CANADA REPORTS ON THE NUMBER OF VIOLENT CRIMES COMMITTED WITH FIREARMS

GOVERNMENT RESPONSE TO BREITKREUZ’S HOUSE OF COMMONS ORDER PAPER QUESTION Q-149 – JUNE 3, 2002

(k) In what percentage of all violent crimes are firearms actually used in the commission of the offence?

STATISTICS CANADA RESPONSE: (k)

In 2000, 3% of all violent crime incidents were committed with firearms.
In 1999, 4% of all violent crime incidents were committed with firearms.
In 1998, 4% of all violent crime incidents were committed with firearms.
In 1997, 4% of all violent crime incidents were committed with firearms.

Note: Excludes “other firearm-like weapons” (e.g. pellet gun, nail gun).

BREITKREUZ’S OBSERVATIONS: (k) When Statistics Canada released their Crime Statistics for 1999, they reported on page two: "Police reported just over 291,000 incidents of violent crime in 1999." The last paragraph on the same page stated: "In 1999, 4.1% of violent crimes involved a firearm." Unfortunately, this 4.1% statistic was overstated because Statistics Canada defines “involved” not as “used” in the commission of the offence but only as “present” at the scene of the crime. That’s why the RCMP statistics on firearms involved in violent crime are dramatically lower.

In July 1997, the Commissioner of the RCMP wrote the Deputy Minister of Justice to complain about the department’s misrepresentation of RCMP statistics. The Commissioner set the record straight: “Furthermore, the RCMP investigated 88,162 actual violent crimes during 1993, where only 73 of these offences, or 0.08%, involved the use of firearms.”

The Library of Parliament Research Branch examined two different reports published by Statistics Canada on violent crime in 1999. They determined that the “Presence of a Firearm in Violent Incidents” was 4.1%, but the “Use of a Firearm in Violent Incidents” was only 1.4% - three times lower than the figure normally reported by Statistics Canada and accepted and repeated by the media without any explanation. If the government hopes to reduce violent crime, law abiding firearms owners are clearly the wrong targets!