Please add Google API key in the Options.

Harper Government Spending on Liberal Firearms Program Nears Half a Billion Dollars

Canada’s National Firearms Association revealed today that the Conservative Government is spending much more on gun control that you might expect. In fact, spending on the firearms program continues to be out of control, with nearly half a billion dollars wasted on the program in the past eight years. Recent information obtained through access to information by NFA Life Member and researcher Dennis Young indicates that the cost of the firearms program remains out of control despite the government ending the firearms registry. These costs used to be generally available but can only be obtained through ATI requests (click here for spreadsheet).

NFA President Sheldon Clare pointed out, “If Stephen Harper’s government had repealed Bill C-68 in 2006 as promised instead of spending close to half a billion dollars in the last 8 years, they would have spent just $120 million over the same number of years. Instead we are continuing to see tremendous amounts of money being wasted on a program that fails to provide any tangible benefit to Canadian society and merely increases hardship for the firearms owning public.

Clare continued, “Many do not realize that the firearms control regime prior to Kim Campbell’s gun control program of 1992 was just as effective as the later legislation. It involved a certificate of a police record check to allow people to acquire firearms. There are significant cost savings to the taxpayer that could be realized beyond the $60 million a year the government is spending now and the $15 million a year that the government was spending on gun control programs in 1994 by also repealing the emotionally driven 1992 legislation without jeopardizing public or police safety in the slightest.”

“Canadian research by Professor Caillin Langmann, MD, PhD published in 2012 in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence failed to find any correlation between Canadian firearms control efforts from 1974 to 2008. The Canadian government stands to reap significant benefits by repealing these unnecessary and expensive laws that have caused much damage to Canadian society,” Clare concluded.

Canada’s National Firearms Association is this country’s largest and most effective advocacy organization representing the interests of firearms owners and users.

-30-

For more information contact:

Blair Hagen, Executive VP Communications, 604-753-8682 [email]Blair@nfa.ca[/email]
Sheldon Clare, President, 250-981-1841 [email]Sheldon@nfa.ca[/email]
Shawn Bevins, Executive VP, 819-313-2887 [email]Shawn@nfa.ca[/email](français)
Canada’s NFA toll-free number – 1-877-818-0393
NFA Website: www.nfa.ca