Important statistics about firearms license holders who are ‘involved in an event involving violence or other offences’ are not tracked. Ontario CFO FOIP Response dated December 31, 2018 – Received January 9, 2019 by Dennis R. Young.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
(A) RCMP AUDIT OF THE CANADIAN FIREARMS PROGRAM CONTINUUM OF ELIGIBILITY FOR FIREARMS LICENSING http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/en/audit-the-canadian-firearms-program-continuum-eligibility-firearms-licensing
(B) THE CANADIAN PRESS ARTICLE FIREARMS LICENCE SCREENING BACKLOGS POSE SAFETY RISKS: RCMP AUDIT – Excerpt: However, there were “significant delays in both initiating investigations and in the duration of eligibility investigations themselves.” For the 27 files in the sample that were still under review, an average of 331 days had passed since the incident in question. By Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press – Published Friday, November 16, 2018 https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/firearms-licence-screening-backlogs-pose-safety-risks-rcmp-audit-1.4179698
(C) THE FIREARMS COMMISSIONER’S 2016 REPORT TO PARLIAMENT WHICH STATES: CONTINUOUS ELIGIBILITY SCREENING OF FIREARMS LICENCE HOLDERS: “The Canadian Firearms Information System (CFIS) contains current and historical firearms licence holder data. If a licence holder is involved in an event involving violence (or other offences specified in Section 5 of the Firearms Act), it is reported in CPIC via a Firearms Interest Police (FIP) event and sent to the relevant CFO for review. Licence holders are regularly screened to assess their continuous eligibility to remain licensed. There were 29,487 FIP events in 2016 that were matched to a person with a firearms licence. 8,408 FIP Events in Ontario (Table 8).” http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/en/2016-commissioner-firearms-report