NEWS
RELEASE
September
11, 2003
For Immediate Release
HOW CAN POLICE USE A GUN REGISTRY MISSING GUNS FOR A MILLION GUN OWNERS?
“Using
the Liberal’s 1976 estimates of the number of guns, fewer than 40% of the guns
have been registered.”
St.
Catharines, Ontario –
The government’s own reports reveal that hundreds of thousands of gun owners
have failed to comply with the gun registry.
The documents were obtained by Garry Breitkreuz, Official Opposition
Critic for Firearms and Property Rights under the authority of the Access to
Information Act. Breitkreuz was
in St. Catharines attending a Canadian Alliance Caucus Meeting and a gun show. “How can the Liberals still claim that the police are
using the gun registry when it is missing information on millions of guns owned
by more than a million gun owners. Public
safety would be far better served by putting thousands of police on our streets
to fight real crime than by a billion-dollar bureaucracy trying to register all
the duck guns in Canada,” exclaimed Breitkreuz.
The
Department of Justice’s own statistics show that as of July 5, 2003:
(1)
Number of licenced gun owners that still have to register their
firearms………….
= 428,639
(2)
Number of handgun owners that still have to re-register or dispose of
their guns..
= 324,768
(3)
Number of gun owners that failed to obtain a licence to own their
guns…………..
= 355,000
(4)
Number of owners of registered handguns that failed to get a firearms
licence…..
= 304,375
The
government also admits in these documents that they still have 1.5 million guns
to register and another 645,921 handguns to re-register.
Breitkreuz cautioned, “These numbers are based on the current Liberal
regime’s low-ball estimates that few people believe anymore.
If we use the Liberal government’s 1976 estimates of the number of guns
and the government’s 1998 estimates of the number of gun owners, then we find
that they have actually licenced fewer than 60% and gun owners and registered
fewer than 40% of the guns in Canada. This
is what taxpayers got for their billion dollars?” asked Breitkreuz.
“Convincing
or forcing hundreds of thousands of non-compliant gun owners to comply is going
to cost hundreds of millions more,” predicted Breitkreuz. “Last month, polls showed that only 39% of Canadians still
support the gun registry. Public
support will drop even further when they hear about this most recent example of
Liberal government incompetence. It’s
time to give taxpayers and responsible gun owners a break, and put an end to
this boondoggle,” demanded Breitkreuz.
SUPPORTING
DOCUMENTATION:
(1)
Fact Sheet - How many Gun Owners have complied with the gun registry?
http://www.garrybreitkreuz.com/publications\firearmsfactsupdate09-10-2003.htm
(2)
Spreadsheet - Updated Gun Registration Statistics as of July 5, 2003.
http://www.garrybreitkreuz.com/publications/FirearmsRegistered-2003-07-05.xls
(3)
Firearms Statistics from the Canadian Firearms Centre’s website:
http://www.cfc-ccaf.gc.ca/en/general_public/program_statistics/default.asp
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