With the passage of the 1995 Firearms Act, Canada established a national registry of all firearms and their owners.

The Act required Canadian gun owners to apply for a license by January 1, 2001, from the Canadian Firearms Centre, a branch of the Justice Department, and register their guns with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) by the beginning of 2003. Associated amendments to the Criminal Code in 1996 increased the penalties for using firearms to commit crimes and for the illegal trafficking and smuggling of guns.

The registration of all handguns has been required by federal law since 1934, and since 1968 permits to carry them have been restricted to a few specific circumstances, for example, use in target practice or competition, protection in extreme cases where police protection isn't adequate, and in certain jobs, such as transporting large amounts of cash or other valuables. Fully automatic weapons have been banned since 1977. The new law extends the registration requirement to unrestricted long guns such as shotguns and rifles and adds short-barrelled handguns and those discharging 25- or 32-calibre cartridges to the list of prohibited weapons.

Gun Ownership and Crime

A national survey commissioned by the Canadian Firearms Centre in 2000 found an estimated 2.3 million firearm owners.

More than 1,000 Canadians die every year from gunshot wounds, most of them by their own hand. In 1996 the total firearm deaths amounted to 1,131, of which 815 were suicides, 45 were accidents and 156 were homicides.

The violent crime rate has been steadily declining in Canada over the last two decades, and progressively fewer crimes are being committed with firearms. In 1978, Canada recorded 661 homicides, a rate of 2.76 per 100,000. Of these, 250, or 37.8%, were committed with guns. In 1998, Canada had 555 homicides, a rate of 1.83 per 100,000. Guns were involved in 151 of the homicides, 27% of the total, the lowest proportion since statistics were first collected in 1961. Robberies using firearms accounted for 18% of all such crimes in 1998, down from 25% in 1988 and 37% in 1978.

"All guns are capable of being used in crime. All guns pose a threat to public safety."

— The Supreme Court of Canada
June 15, 2000

The Firearms Act

The 1995 Firearms Act had three main public safety goals: to deter the misuse of firearms, to control access to them and to control specific weapons. The national firearm registry will make it easier to trace guns used in criminal activity and to return stolen guns to their owners. The licensing requirements, which include extensive background checks and a spouse's signature on the application, are designed to prevent those with a history of criminal behaviour, mental illness or spousal abuse from legally owning a gun. To prevent loss of life through accidental shootings, the law requires an applicant for a firearms license to take the Canadian Firearms Safety Course and pass a test demonstrating a basic understanding of who to handle guns safely and the legal responsibilities of firearm ownership. It also requires that all firearms be stored unloaded and locked.

The 1996 amendments to the Criminal Code created four-year minimum sentences for violent crime committed using a firearm, including attempted murder, manslaughter, robbery, sexual assault with a weapon and kidnapping.

Program Statistics
In the 18 months between December 1, 1998, when the Firearms Act came into effect, and June 1, 2001, 2 million Canadians, almost 90% of the estimated number of owners in Canada, had participated in the licensing process. Some 3,000 firearms licences had been refused or revoked, a figure 27 times the total for the last five years of the previous system. A toll-free telephone hotline established to allow spouses of license applicants and others to express concerns or report crimes committed with firearms had logged more than 22,000 calls.

Legal Challenges

Although polls have consistently shown that a large majority of Canadians support the mandatory registration of all guns, the Firearms Act has been controversial, particularly in rural and western areas. In 1996, the province of Alberta, in a referral to the provincial Court of Appeals, challenged Parliament's constitutional authority to enact the licensing and registration provisions of the law, which, it argued, infringed upon provincial jurisdiction over property and civil rights. The Court upheld the law in a split decision, which Alberta appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada. Five other provinces and two territories, as well as two Aboriginal groups and several gun owners' associations, intervened on behalf of Alberta. On June 15, 2000, the Supreme Court unanimously dismissed Alberta's appeal, affirming Parliament's jurisdiction under the federal criminal law power.

"Guns cannot be divided neatly into two categories — those that are dangerous and those that are not dangerous," the Court wrote. "All guns are capable of being used in crime. All guns are capable of killing and maiming. It follows that all guns pose a threat to public safety. As such, their control falls within the criminal law power."

After the Court released its decision, the Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., the agency that represents the Inuit in interpreting the land-claim agreement creating the territory in 1999, filed a statement of claim against the Firearms Act in the Nunavut Court of Justice. The claim argues that the agreement guarantees the Inuit "the right to hunt and harvest wild game without any form of license or permits." The case has not yet been resolved.

Ballistic Fingerprints and Smart Guns

Technology developed by a Montreal company is being used by law enforcement agencies in the United States and other countries to match spent bullets and casings to the guns from which they were fired.

The Integrated Ballistics Identification System or IBIS, developed by Forensic Technology, Inc., digitally scans bullets and cartridge cases (even damaged ones) for the unique markings left by each firearm, converts the images to mathematical algorithms which it stores in a database, and compares the information to data collected at crime scenes. Early in 2000, the White House announced it would spend US$43.7 million on an expanded database of ammunition prints from gun manufacturers, using IBIS and a new system being developed by Forensic Technology called VSN, or Virtual Serial Number.

Canadian technology is also being used to develop "smart guns" that can be fired only by their owners. Mytec Technologies Inc. of Toronto is working with Smith & Wesson, the world's largest gun manufacturer, to perfect a device that scans the shooter's fingerprints and compares it with data stored in the weapon. Once the user is authorized, a circuit board unlocks the gun. Under an agreement Smith & Wesson reached with U.S. federal, state and local governments in March 2000, it promised to equip all new handgun models introduced after three years with the smart-gun technology.

updated July 2001