Public Safety committee  The changes proposed in Bill C-42 in no way impact on public safety. They merely reduce the amount of red tape that a firearms owner who wishes to transport his firearm must undergo, and the amount of bureaucratic busyness that is imposed on the chief firearms officer. The police have the same information.

Public Safety committee  Speaking for myself, I definitely agree with you. I think this is a common-sense bill, and strengthening the restrictions on people who have been convicted of domestic abuse from owning or possessing firearms is an excellent idea.

Public Safety committee  I would think right now that it is indeed necessary and proper for the minister and by implication cabinet to have final discretionary power over such decisions. They should of course be advised by a technical committee who knows the details, but it is in fact a decision that should not be left to unsupervised people such as the police or a technical expert.

Public Safety committee  Thank you for your question. I think it is an excellent idea and it would encourage public safety to allow and encourage people to take these kinds of courses. That is not always possible in physical locations, particularly small towns. For example, in British Columbia we have hunter safety training that's available through the Internet, although the backbone of the Internet is often unobtainable in small towns.

Public Safety committee  Thank you very much for your question. I am exceedingly concerned about access to federal firearms safety courses, or firearms safety courses in general, in the rural parts of Canada, certainly for the native bands, the residents who live on small ranches and small farms, and the people who live in exceptionally small towns.

Public Safety committee  No, I do not think that any of the changes in Bill C-42 would increase the danger to women or children through guns. At the present time, only 2% of accused murderers have any kind of a firearms licence. That's a PAL, POL, or the old FAC. So this is very small group of people and nothing would change.

Public Safety committee  Good morning. This works fine for me.

Public Safety committee  Thank you very much for inviting me here. It's a pleasure to present my views to the committee. First of all, I would like to congratulate the government for honouring its promises to reduce red tape for law-abiding firearms owners. I would like to make two points this morning.

Public Safety committee  Certainly. By all means.

Public Safety committee  --keeping serious offenders in jail longer.

Public Safety committee  That's correct.

Public Safety committee  The population has increased, as you know.

Public Safety committee  Yes.

Public Safety committee  The journal that he—

Public Safety committee  In terms of actual number of suicides, the numbers, as you correctly state, are increasing. In 1991 there were 3,593 suicides in Canada. In 2008, in the most recent number, there were 3,700. As you also realize, the population in Canada has increased substantially since 1991, so the rates have gone down while the raw numbers have increased.