NCJ Number
203438
Journal
Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice Volume: 45 Issue: 4 Dated: October 2003 Pages: 473-478
Date Published
October 2003
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This article discusses the cost and efficiency of firearm licensing and registration in Canada.
Abstract
It has been estimated that firearm licensing and registration will cost more than $1 billion by 2005, 10 years after its inception. However, the effectiveness of the program has not been determined. Between 1989 and 1999 the rate of firearm death dropped from 5 per 100,000 to 3.3 per 100,000, which included declines in homicide, accidents, and suicides. Changes to firearm regulation, beginning in 1978 and culminating in the 1995 approval of the Canadian Firearms Program, predate these declines. It is difficult to determine whether there is a cause-effect relationship between legislative and regulatory changes and the incidence of firearm deaths in Canada. Canadian police forces are currently accessing the online firearms registry more than 1,500 times each day. Since 1995, more than 7,000 firearms licenses have been either refused or revoked, a number 50 times that for the 5 years preceding the program’s inception. The new law requires that all firearms owners have their licenses renewed every 5 years and that spouses must be notified of the license application. Critics of licensing and registration of firearms have pointed to the cost overruns of the program, but they have neglected to mention the reasons for this cost overrun, to situate these costs alongside the costs of other comparable government programs, and to acknowledge the reality that expenditures peaked 2 years ago and can be expected to continue to decline and stabilize. Opponents of gun registration challenged the law to the Supreme Court of Canada and delayed the implementation of the program by 2 years. Most provincial jurisdictions chose not to cooperate in administering the new system, forcing the Federal government to create a more costly centralized form of administration. The government waived the fees for licensing and registration in an effort to increase compliance with the law. Almost half of the license applications were filled in incorrectly, imposing additional costs. These costs have nothing to do with mismanagement or bureaucratic excess. 7 references