Gun Control Challenge

Provinces Challenge Firearms Act in Supreme Court

Dateline: 02/28/00

The Alberta government, along with five other provinces and two territories, has challenged Canada's federal Firearms Act in the Supreme Court. Alberta claims that some provisions of the Firearms Act fall within the exclusive powers of the provinces over property and civil rights. The federal government maintains it has the authority to implement the national gun registry in the interest of crime prevention and public safety.

The Firearms Act was passed in 1995 and established a program for licensing all owners of firearms in Canada, as well as a registration program for firearms. Provisions of the law are gradually being phased in until 2003.

Some of the provisions of Canada's gun control law are:

• all gun owners will need to have a license to own or obtain a gun by 2001

• safety checks will be made on an applicant before a license is issued

• spouses and partners of applicants will be notified when a new applicant wishes to acquire a gun

• new applicants will have to pass a safety course

• all firearms must be registered by 2003. To register a firearm, applicants must have a license.

• eventually firearms brought into Canada will be recorded at the point of entry

• all firearms must be stored unloaded and made inoperable.

The Canadian Firearms Centre claims that the Firearms Act is already making a difference. It reports that more than 1000 firearms licenses have been refused or revoked since 1998 - a tenfold increase over the previous five years. Opponents to the law say these statistics are irrelevant, since criminals don't sign up for licenses. They claim the law will simply create a thriving black market in guns, as well as a cumbersome bureaucracy for the gun registry.

Like many other government projects, the gun registry is facing severe cost overruns. Original cost estimates of $50-million over five years have already been bumped up by nearly fifty percent.

Firearms can be registered online on The Canada Firearms Centre site or you can download or order application forms.

Related Links

• Canadian Gun Control
• Issue - Gun Registry in Canada