Statistics

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Quick Facts about the Canadian Firearms Program as of December 31, 2005

Firearms Licences and Registration of Firearms

• Of the 2 million currently valid firearms licences issued to individuals under the Firearms Act, there are:
  
  
  • 1.20 million Possession Only Licences (POLs)
  • 766,000 Possession and Acquisition Licences (PALs)
  • 5,570 Minors Licences
    
    

• 1.67 million individual licence holders have at least one firearm registration certificate.

• There are 4,381 valid business licences- purposes for a business licence include: retail / wholesale of firearms, manufacturing, auction, display in a museum and gunsmithing.

• Of the over 7.1 million firearms currently registered:
  
  
  • 6.89 million firearms are registered to individuals
  • 194,000 firearms are registered to businesses
  • 44,500 firearms are registered or recorded to public agencies & museums

Individual Licence Refusal and Revocation

• 16,554 firearms licences have been refused or revoked by Chief Firearms Officers for public safety reasons between December 1, 1998 and December 31, 2005.

  • 6,214 applications have been refused
  • 10,340 firearms licences have been revoked.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 5.1 million times since it was launched on December 1, 1998. An average of more than 5,000 queries have been made daily, over the last quarter.

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.

Affidavits

• More than 6,190 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 2,400 affidavits in 2005
  • 2,260 affidavits were produced in 2004; building on 1,150 in 2003; and 380 in 2002

Firearms Transfers

• 1,080,510 applications for firearm transfers have been completed since December 1, 1998.

• Use of the Internet for firearm transfers continues to increase – 61% of firearm transfer applications were received via the Internet in 2005 compared to 38% in 2004.

  • Transferring firearms by the Internet is available for firearms involving a business only.
    
    

• As of December 31, 2005, there were 96,500 Internet transfers processed, including:

  • 39,365 Business-to-Business transfers
  • 51,055 Business-to-Individual transfers
  • 6,080 Individual-to-Business transfers

Firearms Exported, Destroyed, Deactivated or Removed

• 1,107,821 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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