Recently, the Canadian firearms community celebrated the delay of the UN Marking scheme, promised by the Liberal government since the federal election. While this was great news for manufacturers, importers, retailers and gun owners, now is not the time to sit idle. The CCFR worked hard on this matter, as did many in our community, and we continue to this day to keep this wasteful, unnecessary program from being implemented. The Liberals want a "CA" or "CA17" (current year) included in the marking of firearms, which already bear a unique identifying serial number.

Tracey Wilson, VP of Public Relations has a steady stream of ATIP's (Access To Information and Privacy) requests flowing in and out of Public Safety and the RCMP. She noticed there was a huge variance in the actual cost per gun quoted by industry insiders versus the Liberal government. The government's own newsletter, Canada Gazette quoted a mere $20 per gun at a maximum while some importers, retailers and advocates went as steep as $200 per firearm.

Tracey put in an ATIP for the government's own study to see how this low number was established. The first reply from Public Safety merely blew off the request with a "no information available". She re-filed the ATIP and included a mention of the study from The Canada Gazette and provided the link. After a response asking for an extension on the usual time allotment, the study came in. Interestingly enough it's a 2009 study mentioning everything from "tagged homing devices" to laser engraving.

For those interested, we have included the study here

CCFRATIPUNMarkingStudy