June 19, 1995

Dr. Robert Beveridge
c/o Canadian Association of
Emergency Physicians
Ottawa, Ontario

Dear Dr Beveridge:

This correspondence is in reference to your letter supporting Bill C-68 which appeared in the June 3rd edition of the Telegraph Journal. The New Brunswick Firearms Alliance shares your concerns over the criminal misuse of firearms and advocates legislation that addresses such, as well as encourages the safe use of firearms by law abiding Canadians. Unfortunately, your position in support of firearms registration are unfounded and will not save lives.

Your first reason in support of registration concerned safe storage. Safe storage is already law in this country and clearly compliance would benefit more from education rather than costly registration. You also suggest that suicide would be reduced if access to firearms was limited. Such is untrue as there exists many ways to commit suicide. Research by the World Health Organization shows that suicide rates are primarily affected by culture not the availability of firearms. For example, Canada has a higher suicide rate than the US even though the US has twice as many firearms per capita. To further illustrate, Japan which has essentially no private firearms, has a higher suicide rate than Canada.

Your second reason for supporting registration is that you believe it will give a more accurate perspective of the numbers and types of firearms which would facilitate better research into the causes of firearm deaths. For such research to be valid, you are assuming that the registration system will be perfect and that all guns would in fact be registered. This will not occur as many people will not register their guns. The reasons for this include, people simply not being aware of the requirement to do so, non compliance out of fear of confiscation and the fact criminals will not register their guns. To illustrate, in 1992 Bill C-17 required the registration of a number of semi-automatic rifles. Current RCMP estimates are that less than 10% were registered. Research based upon registration data would not be legitimate.

You go on to further state registration would be useful as a law enforcement tool. Countries similar to ours such as the UK, Australia, and New Zealand have had registration for years and none of these countries have found the system to be effective. Registration diverts police resources away from more important duties. New Zealand and parts of Australia have terminated registration programs on the advice of police.

In conclusion, it is disturbing that people such as yourself would advocate spending millions on an ineffective firearm registration system in the name of public health. The New Brunswick Firearms Alliance contends that public health would be better served by spending this money on research into diseases such as HIV, breast cancer, etc. or on public safety/health education. We urge you to reconsider your support of Bill C-68.

G.D. Calhoun
President

CC: Telegraph Journal
Frank McKenna, Premier
Jane Barry, Solicitor General