TheGunBlog.ca — The Canadian government said it will require guns to be marked in a way that links them to their owners for police tracing, without saying it’s creating a new registry.

The regime will take effect on Dec. 1, 2020, as a rewrite of the UN-inspired Firearms Marking Regulations, the Ministry of Public Safety said in today’s Canada Gazette. Successive governments have deferred the regulations nine times since they were adopted in 2004, most recently on Nov. 9.

The new measures by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau add to his planned gun bans and  restrictions on millions of hunters and sport shooters as a tactic to win re-election next year. Polls show a majority of potential voters for his Liberal Party are hostile to firearm owners.

Beyond Make, Model, Serial Number?

The Gazette didn’t provide details of the new marking system. The entry in the official government newsletter suggests it will go beyond the firearm industry’s practice of engraving or stamping the manufacturer, model and a unique serial number on every gun.

The existing text of the Firearms Marking Regulations says guns entering or made in Canada must be stamped or engraved with “Canada” or “CA” and the last two digits of the year, such as “CA18.”

Ministry of Public Safety in Today’s Canada Gazette:

The efficiencies of tracing are realized when a record of the most recent legal owner can be linked to a specific combination of information (serial number, name of manufacturer, etc.), which is marked on the firearm. Consequently, the requirements of the existing Regulations are not sufficient to uniquely identify the legal owner of the firearm in order to facilitate tracing.

Objectives

The deferral of the coming into force of the Regulations permits the Government of Canada to continue developing amendments to the Regulations so that they achieve their intended purpose of enabling the tracing of crime guns by law enforcement agencies. Over the course of the next 24 months, a marking regime will be developed in order to improve the effectiveness of the Regulations.

1,000 Guns a Day

The Canadian Sporting Arms and Ammunition Association, the main industry group, said two years ago the marking regulations would cause “catastrophic damage” to small businesses, raise gun prices and require a costly logistics overhaul to mark the almost 1,000 guns bought in Canada each day.

Hunting is at the heart of Canadian heritage and culture, and target shooting is one of the country’s safest and most-popular sports. More people have a firearm licence than play golf or hockey.

Read: Gun Licences Rise to Record in June After 21 Quarterly Increases

New Gun Registry?

The government already uses a registry to link gun owners to their handguns and some rifles. The previous government destroyed the much larger Long-Gun Registry of rifles and shotguns over its soaring cost and low benefit for public safety.

Trudeau is planning Bill C-71 as a law requiring gun stores to register details of gun owners and the firearms they buy so police can link the two, and to require sellers to check with the federal police before selling firearms. Opponents view the measures as an indirect or backdoor registry.

Prevent vs. Investigate

Critics say the government and police would be smarter to focus on preventing violent crime instead of researching the history of crime tools after people have been injured or killed.

There’s also concern the government is distorting the original intent of the Firearms Marking Regulations.

Canada adopted them to trace international gun shipments as part of the United Nations Firearms Protocol against illegal trafficking and for a convention of the Organization of American States against illegal manufacturing and trafficking.

“It appears they’re trying to implement a domestic tracing system under the guise of adhering to the UN treaty,” Wes Winkel, president of the industry group, said today by telephone.

Industry Not Consulted

The Gazette said the government has consulted the federal police, the border agency, the ministry of trade and the Canadian Firearms Advisory Committee. It didn’t say if it consulted firearm manufacturers, importers, distributors or retailers.

The government also didn’t say if it consulted with gun smugglers or violent criminals who obtain and use their firearms illegally, regardless of how they are marked.

Policy Lobby

The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, which lobbies the government for stricter penalties on lawful hunters and sport shooters, “is disappointed with the delay to implement firearm marking regulations,” Natalie Wright, a spokeswoman for the group, told TheGunBlog.ca by e-mail on Nov. 16.

The association formed a committee to review its firearm priorities, including the marking regulations. Wright declined to elaborate until the committee reports next year.

Read: Police Lobby Group to Create Special Committee on Firearms

‘Markings Help Law Enforcement’

“The marking regs help LE [law enforcement] to accurately id/source firearms used in crime & does not pose any threat to law abiding firearm owners,” Timothy Smith, the main lobbyist for the police association, said Nov. 10 on Twitter. “Serial [numbers] are not unique identifiers, far from it & give us no idea as to when a firearm came into Canada.”

Smith also declined to comment further.

James, respectfully, that is just not true! The marking regs help LE to accurately id/source firearms used in crime & does not pose any threat to law abiding firearm owners. Serial #’s are not unique identifiers, far from it & give us no idea as to when a firearm came into Canada

— Timothy M. Smith (@timsmith2000) November 10, 2018

“The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police doesn’t have the luxury of re-writing 400 years of firearm history,” Tony Bernardo, the executive director of the Canadian Shooting Sports Association, told TheGunBlog.ca. “The firearms industry uses serial numbers to uniquely identify firearms. It’s how they track manufacturing and inventory. The serial number by itself is not a unique identifier. You also need the make and model of the firearm. Once you know those three, you’ve uniquely identified that gun.”

Bernardo said he has studied the marking regulations from before the current text was adopted 14 years ago.

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Related Information

• Canada Defers Gun-Import Restrictions to Avoid Hurting Industry
• Gun Industry Faces Turmoil, Costs as UN Marking Deadline Nears

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