Dear Honourable Members of the SECU, Thank You for Accepting This
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Dear honourable members of the SECU, Thank you for accepting this brief regarding Bill C-71, An Act to amend certain Acts and Regulations in relation to firearms. The following document contents are my personal observations, suggestions, and reasonings for such. Background: I am a first generation Canadian and have lived in Ontario for all of my forty something years. Like many people I commute daily to my place of employment. I have been married to my soul mate for almost half of that and have two wonderful, if rambunctious pre-teen sons. I have also been a firearms owner for nearly two decades, yet I am solely a target shooter, also known as “a paper puncher”. I do not hunt, although I respect the skill and time taken by those who harvest game responsibly and ethically. General Observations: Overall Canada is a safe country to live in. Statistics Canada stated that the homicide rate in 2013 was the lowest level it had been since 1966. In 2013 firearm-related homicides were the lowest they had been since 1974. 1 Yet this bill continuously references 2013 as the year to compare homicides to those in 2016. 2016 saw an increase in homicides to 611, which is the average number when one traces homicides back to 1971. Is it an increase from the lowest number since 1966? Yes. The number of homicides committed via a firearm did indeed see a significant jump from the previous years. Unfortunately, this “cherry picking” of 2013 shows a calculated attempt at defining the argument and to create a false correlation between firearms ownership and firearms violence in Canada. Using that same misleading start point, one can imply that firearms violence has increased since 2013 when Justin Trudeau became the leader of the Liberal Party. An obviously false statement that uses a specific timeframe to determine a correlation. As all of the political parties always pander to their voting base, the usage of choice statistics and selective examples, has made me very wary when any proposed legislation is submitted that claims to be able to effect groups that ignore laws. It is always easier to impose placebo regulations on those that follow the laws than to confront those who break the law. I find that Bill C-71 is exactly that. More regulation and bureaucracy that will do minimal, if any, means to prevent criminal misuse of a firearm. Therein lies the entire issue. This is why I have decided to write this brief regarding Bill C-71. Enclosed in the following pages are seven topics regarding Bill C-71 and my recommendations. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. I am submitting this brief via the online portal. Many thanks, M. Duynhoven 1 http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/2013-homicide-rate-in-canada-lowest-since-1966-1.2856143 Bill C-71 seeks to implement the following amendments to the Firearms Act as well as the Criminal Code. 1. Remove the 5-year limit period for background checks for firearms licence eligibility 2. Verification of firearms licence validity during the transfer of non-restricted firearms 3. Requires record keeping of all firearms sales by businesses 4. Remove certain automatic authorizations to transport for restricted and prohibited firearms 5. Repealing non-prohibited classification of certain firearms 6. Creation of new prohibited class for previously mentioned firearms and their owners 7. Removes the ability of Government to impose classification of firearms I will address each of these amendments in order: 1. Remove the 5-year limit period for background checks for firearms licence eligibility Stated Purpose: To allow additional timeframe for determining viability of prospective firearms licence eligibility. Lifetime background will increase the detection of possible safety concerns. Observations: Existing firearms licences are renewed every 5 years as per the Firearms Act. The RCMP rationale for such is for updating of photo identification, updates personal history which are not normally accessible to the Firearms Program, marital status, etc. Initial screening against police and court databases is performed to ensure no documented safety concerns. One issued, licence holders are checked daily for continuous eligibility. If concerns are identified, automatic notification is provided to the appropriate Chief Firearms Officer (CFO). 2 The current Firearms Act already has provisions for the CFO or Registrar to require an applicant for a firearms licence to submit additional information they regard as relevant for licence eligibility. 3 Suggestions: Remove this component of Bill C-71. Reasoning: This section of the bill contains nothing additional as the CFO and Registrar may already look back as far as they want for history of any applicant. There is no purpose to this section of Bill C-71 as it already exists in the Firearms Act. 2 http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/pubs/fire-feu-eval/apph-eng.htm 3 http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/PDF/F-11.6.pdf , Section 55 (1) of the Firearms Act. 2. Verification of firearms licence validity during the transfer of non-restricted firearms Stated Purpose: To ensure that purchasers of non-restricted firearms have valid licences at the time of the sale. Currently it is interpreted as: If the seller has no reason to believe the buyer’s licence is invalid, the sale may proceed. Observations: While phoning up the CFO to confirm validity of a license currently exists as an option, many people who sell firearms to others visually inspect a buyer’s license for photo identification, and that the licence has not expired. It is currently illegal and an offence to do the following: • Possess a firearm without a valid license 4 • Failure to deliver up a revoked license 5 Upon the expiration of a licence, the holder of the expired license now has a 6-month grace period in which to renew. This is to allow individuals who have been unable to comply with expiration of their licence an opportunity to re-validate their licence in order to be compliant with the law. During this time the expired licence holder may not use their firearms nor acquire firearms and ammunition until the license is renewed. Following the expiry of the six-month grace period, those in possession of firearms without having renewed their licence are in illegal possession of the aforementioned firearms. 6 The example given of a long-time associate being sold a firearm without checking the validity of the buyer’s licence is plainly ignoring the law already. Selling a firearm requires that the buyer has a valid license AND that the seller has no reason to believe that the buyer is not authorized to have that firearm 7. Suggestions: Remove this component of Bill C-71 or modify Section 23(b) of the Firearms Act that the seller must visually identify validity of licence (not expired) or make licence validation simple as a number check for validity (automated phone interface, online interface. Enter licence number, valid or not). Reasoning: It is illegal for an individual to fail to deliver a revoked license. The continuous eligibility screening for existing licence holders would give an immediate notice to the CFO that the license has been revoked. Do the RCMP who are enforcing this aspect of the law, ensure that revoked licences are not still in an individual’s possession? This would conform to the notion of removing firearms from the hands of individuals who are unauthorized to possess them. A seller cannot sell a firearm to a person without a valid licence. An expired licence is as valid as no licence for the purposes of selling a firearm. It is illegal. The act of “straw-purchases”, where a valid licence holder buys firearms and sells them knowingly to individuals without licence holders is already an issue and, surprise, illegal. Adding in this requirement will not dissuade these criminal acts. The government’s example of selling a non-restricted firearm to a long-time acquaintance because the seller has no reason to believe the friend’s licence is no longer valid, is very circumspect. The seller knows the buyer well enough to trust him with a firearm sale but is ignorant enough to not know that there may be issues with the buyer? That seems highly unlikely in today’s age of technology and instant information and the tradition speed of gossip. Why does the Registrar need to issue a transfer number and record both a seller’s and buyer’s licence number? Where is the benefit except as a metric generating bureaucracy? A make work concept at best. 4 http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/PDF/C-46.pdf , Section 91 (1) of the Criminal Code of Canada 5 http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/PDF/F-11.6.pdf , Section 114 of the Firearms Act 6 http://www.gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p2/2017/2017-11-15/html/si-tr70-eng.html 7 http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/PDF/F-11.6.pdf , Section 23 of the Firearms Act 3. Requires record keeping of all firearms sales by businesses Stated Purpose: To ensure that businesses keep full records of ALL firearms sales to allow for police to have the ability to subpoena these records for criminal investigations. Must be kept for 20 years or longer. If business closes records to be given to transmit any records to a prescribed official. Police will need a warrant to obtain. Observations: In my experience I have never yet seen a business that sells firearms “take my word for it” that I have a valid firearms licence. I have at the very least had to show my licence just to inspect a firearm.