WHERE IS THE EVIDENCE CANADA’S GUN CONTROL PROGRAMS ARE WORKING?
Maybe Senators can get the answers that my Access to Information requests can’t? By Dennis R. Young – Updated: January 13, 2019
ONTARIO CFO DOES NOT TRACK FIREARMS INTEREST POLICE (FIP) STATISTICS
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
STOP WASTING SO MUCH EFFORT ON GOOD GUYS WITH GUNS
GUNTER: Yet another example of how legal gun owners — and not the criminals — face all the hassles
GUNTER: YET ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF HOW LEGAL GUN OWNERS — AND NOT THE CRIMINALS — FACE ALL THE HASSLES
If governments want to reduce gun crimes, they need to stop wasting so much effort on good guys with guns. By Lorne Gunter, Toronto Sun – January 8, 2019
14 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT VIOLENT CRIME AND FIREARMS IN CANADA
The debate over the regulation of firearms in Canada is often influenced more by emotion than by facts. Since good public policy should be based on solid evidence, following are a few facts for consideration. By Senator Don Plett – January 4, 2019 http://www.donplett.ca/my-work/articles-and-speeches/14-things-you-should-know-about-violent-crime-and-firearms-in-canada/
Senator Donald Neil Plett – Province: Manitoba (Landmark) Affiliation: Conservative Party of Canada Telephone: 613-992-0180 , 613-992-3790 Email: don.plett@sen.parl.gc.ca
CANADA’S GUN CONTROL DEBATE IS STILL TAINTED BY BAD INFORMATION
COMMENTARY: Despite a correction, Canada’s gun control debate is still tainted by bad information
EXCERPT #1: Policing and reporting are both supposed to be about the truth. The police and the CP had combined to put out inaccurate information, and that inaccurate information was driving public debate. At minimum, a correction, or some comparable acknowledgement, was absolutely required. Canadians have spent four months having a debate, including public consultations, based in part on bad information. Information that was known to be bad months ago, but that went uncorrected until two days after Christmas, when news readership is typically way, way below usual levels.
EXCERPT #2: But there is simply no evidence that there is a worsening problem among lawful Canadian handgun owners, the people targeted by the proposed ban — in effect, held up as partially responsible for tragic deaths and senseless crimes. The Toronto police numbers don’t show it. Nationally, the Public Safety Ministry has conceded that it has no data to support claims by Minister Ralph Goodale that domestic owners now provide the majority of crime guns. That entire narrative, embraced wholeheartedly by the mayor and somewhat more cautiously by federal Liberals, is based on bad information that should not have been reported. To call all this disappointing would be an understatement. In an era when news organizations all over the world are being accused of peddling fake news, and when every police force recognizes the challenge of retaining public trust, this is absolutely appalling.
By Matt Gurney, Radio Host 640 Toronto, Global News January 5, 2019 https://globalnews.ca/news/4815321/despite-a-correction-canadas-gun-control-debate-is-still-tainted-by-bad-information/
ACCESS REQUEST ON PROPOSALS TO BAN GUNS TO TAKE UNTIL JUNE 26, 2020
“An extension of 545 days beyond the statutory time limit is required to process this request. . .” Excerpt from Public Safety Canada Acknowledgment Letter dated Dec 18, 2018 Received Dec 27, 2017 by Dennis R. Young
Requested studies and proposals for gun control measures considered by the government including the following: Banning handguns, Banning semi-automatic firearms, Banning all firearms, and Central Storage/Repositories for firearms in urban centres.
CTV – NO ‘MAGIC LEVER’ TO SOLVE GUN CRIME: EXPERT
https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/no-magic-lever-to-solve-gun-crime-expert-1.4222841
CTV – NO ‘MAGIC LEVER’ TO SOLVE GUN CRIME: EXPERT – How to get handguns off the streets promises to be a divisive issue in the upcoming election year. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says his government plans to limit access to handguns and assault weapons and has not ruled out an all-out ban. But independent firearms researcher Dennis Young says no statistics bear out the idea that lawful gun owners or their guns are the reason for increased shootings or guns on the streets. In fact, Young says he has yet to find anyone who tracks how many gun crimes are committed by licensed gun owners or how many handguns have been stolen from licensed owners. “If politicians want a handgun ban, they have to fabricate the stats to justify that,” Young told CTVNews.ca in a telephone interview from his home in Airdrie, Alta. According to Statistics Canada, violent crime accounted for 20 per cent of all police-reported crime in Canada in 2016. And of all violent crimes, just 3 per cent involved a firearm. By Meredith MacLeod, CTVNews.ca – Published Friday, December 21, 2018 https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/no-magic-lever-to-solve-gun-crime-expert-1.4222841
RCMP DON’T COLLECT STATISTICS ON HIGH PRIORITY GUN CONTROL TARGETS
RCMP STATISTICS ON VIOLATIONS OF 443,043 FIREARM PROHIBITION ORDERS – NO STATISTICS ON: the number who have violated their firearms prohibition order. NO STATISTICS ON: how many of those violations involved a firearms crime. NO INFORMATION ON: the measures the government has in place to monitor these 422,887 convicted criminals who have been prohibited from owning firearms. RCMP Response to Access to Information Act request dated December 11, 2018 – Received December 18, 2018 by Dennis R. Young
SIGN THIS PETITION TO JUSTIN TRUDEAU: SHOULDN’T POLICE KNOW WHERE THESE BAD GUYS WITH GUNS LIVE?https://www.change.org/p/justin-trudeau-shouldn-t-police-know-where-these-bad-guys-with-guns-live
THE EVIDENCE SIMPLY DOESN’T SUPPORT CALLS FOR GUN BANS IN CANADA
Opinion: The evidence simply doesn’t support calls for gun bans in Canada
Here is a simple question for Canada to answer: has a single place, anywhere in the world, ever seen its murder rate decline after banning all handguns or all guns? We can’t find such a place. Every single time that guns have been banned, murder rates have gone up — often several-fold. By John R. Lott and Gary Mauser, National Post – December 17, 2018. John R. Lott is the president of the Crime Prevention Research Center and the author most recently of “The War on Guns.” Gary Mauser is professor emeritus at Simon Fraser University. https://nationalpost.com/opinion/opinion-the-evidence-simply-doesnt-support-calls-for-gun-bans-in-canada
BILL C-71: AN OVERLOOKED ISSUE
2017 RCMP COMMISSIONER OF FIREARMS REPORT AND an OVERLOOKED ISSUE By Edward L. Burlew, LL.B. Barrister & Solicitor – December 9, 2018