The RCMP encourages police officers to treat law-abiding citizens almost the same way they would treat dangerous criminals.
Is this supported by Statistics Canada homicide statistics? How many killers of police officers hold a valid firearm licence or FAC?
Every night, the police check all licensed firearms owners. As if that was not enough, the RCMP encourages officers to check before attending a call to see if anyone has a firearms licence at their destination. Licence information is made readily available on the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC) virtually without restriction through the portal to the Canadian Firearms Registry Online (CFRO).
Typically, police are required to apply to court for a warrant to access important personal information on law-abiding Canadians. But not for law-abiding firearms owners. The RCMP justifies routine access to information about firearms licences by arguing that merely owning a gun poses a threat to public safety. The police say they need to know who has guns.
To make this claim, the RCMP must ignore strong evidence that this policy is wrong headed.
The police argue that, “more information is better,” saying it is important to have as much knowledge as possible before an officer shows up at a door. This is a delusion: more information is not always better. The challenge of sorting and evaluating complex information increases exponentially as the number and variety of facts that must be considered increases.
To know if law-abiding firearms owners pose a risk to police, it is necessary to examine police killings specifically to discover the number of murderers who hold a firearms licence. Only in this way can it be determined just how often licensed gun owners have shot and killed law enforcement officers.
This article presents what I found when I submitted a Special Request to Statistics Canada asking that they examine the homicide statistics and report to me how many police officers were victims of firearm-related homicide between 1997 and 2013, and, how many accused held a valid firearm licence or FAC. (When I made this request, 2013 was the most recent year data were available).
Take a look at the facts:
Do licensed firearms owners pose a threat to police officers?
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