RENFREW COUNTY (Pembroke) — Cheryl Gallant, Member of Parliament for Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke, is calling on Public Safety Minister Bill Blair to immediately allow the public to do searches on the RCMP Firearms Reference Table to prevent further criminalizing law-abiding firearms owners. In a press release issued yesterday, she states the bureaucrats have posted a separate document on the internet for the public and “the problem being it is outdated, leaving lawful firearms owners at risk of arrest.”
“Bill Blair’s bungled Order-In-Council banning any firearm he finds scary, is a complete mess,” said MP Gallant. “The RCMP are continually banning additional firearms, but only publishing the changes later. Just police have access to the real-time database. Everyone else, who wants to search the classification of a specific firearm, must sift through a hundred thousand page pdf file at least a week later.”
According to the most recent document (PDF) of the firearms reference table, people could be in possession of non-restricted firearms one day, which then become prohibited the next day, without being notified. This means they run the risk of illegally transporting these firearms and are subject to arrest.
“Bill Blair has made a mess, and the RCMP in the lab are helping him to make it worse,” stated MP Gallant. “The least they could do is make the firearms reference table as easily accessible to the taxpayers, who fund it, as they do for themselves.”
To ensure they are in compliance, law-abiding firearms owners must now download a large PDF each week. They must have a computer with the capacity to do so. Then each entry must be checked for every firearm owned to ensure it has not been summarily prohibited on the basis of its appearance, for example.
“Forcing people to search a massive pdf file, or risk becoming criminals, while restricting access to a searchable database is deceitful,” declared MP Gallant. “This government has no respect for lawful firearms owners, no respect for tax-payer dollars, and no respect for democracy. If the Liberals cannot even tell the public the law, how can we trust the government not to put us under arrest?”
MP Gallant is asking Canadians who believe the firearms reference table should be open, transparent, and accessible in real time, to visit www.cherylgallant.com/frt and send a letter to the RCMP Commissioner.
