Statistics

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Quick Facts about the Canadian Firearms Program as of June 30, 2006

Firearms Licences and Registration of Firearms

• Of the 2 million firearms licences issued to individuals under the Firearms Act, there are:
  
• 1.14 million Possession Only Licences (POLs)
• 793,000 Possession and Acquisition Licences (PALs)
• 5,700 Minors Licences
  
• 1.62 million individual licence holders have at least one firearm registration certificate.
  
• There are 4,488 valid business licences - purposes for a business licence include:
  retail / wholesale of firearms, manufacturing, auction, display in a museum and gunsmithing.
  

Individual Licence Refusal and Revocation

• 17,861 firearms licences have been refused or revoked by Chief Firearms Officers for public safety reasons between December 1, 1998 and June 30, 2006.
  
• 6,392 applications have been refused
  
• 11,469 firearms licences have been revoked.

Note : Reasons why firearms licence applications have been refused or licences revoked include: a history of violence, mental illness, the applicant is a potential risk to himself, herself or others, unsafe firearm use and storage, drug offences and providing false information.

Canadian Firearms Registry On-line

• Law enforcement officers have queried the Canadian Firearms Registry On-line over 6.3 million times since it was launched on December 1, 1998. Over the last quarter, on average 6,700 queries have been made daily (see table below for breakdown by query type).

Note : The Canadian Firearms Registry Online service provides police officers access to firearms licence and registration information in the Canadian Firearms Information System through the Canadian Police Information Centre. This information helps the police to intervene and respond to calls effectively in order to prevent injury and crime, assists in the investigation of firearm-related crimes and helps the police to identify and return stolen and lost firearms to their rightful owners. Toronto Police Services auto-query on address and British Columbia Police Services auto-query on name.

Affidavits

• More than 7,800 affidavits have been provided by the Canadian Firearms Registry to support the prosecution of firearms-related crime and court proceedings.
  
• the Canadian Firearms Registry prepared 878 affidavits in the second quarter of 2006

Firearms Transfers

• 1,214,886 applications for firearm transfers have been completed since December 1, 1998.

Note : Transfer breakdowns do not include transfers to public agencies or museums.

Firearms Exported, Destroyed, Deactivated or Removed

• 1,206,230 firearms have been exported, destroyed, deactivated or have been removed from the Canadian Firearms Information System since December 1, 1998. This helps to ensure a complete and current record of firearms within Canada.

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