Public Safety committee  We're all on the same page here. We're talking the same language.

Public Safety committee  I think there's a lot more common ground in this room than a lot of people would give credit to. I don't have a problem with firearms classification, but let's have the definitions clearly defined so that I can go to a designer or a manufacturer and say, “This is what we have to

Public Safety committee  Absolutely.

Public Safety committee  Yes, because we'll get a much more informed decision. We'll get a better decision.

Public Safety committee  It's the access to fast, accurate records. We don't sell a firearm, of any class, or a box of ammunition out of our store without doing a PAL verification. Gail, the young lady who works for us, is responsible for that. She has a good rapport with the CFC. We do a check on everyt

Public Safety committee  Yes. We currently do that. That's all a retail customer needs to do. They don't need to keep records. They need to call in. It's a simple question: is it valid or not? It's like using a credit card in a store. If your credit card is declined, you're not told why it's declined. T

Public Safety committee  I guess you could purchase 100 guns from one store, or you could purchase one gun from 100 stores. I'm not sure that I can give you an answer there. There's a lack of trust between the authorities and the firearms businesses, and there are bad apples in every barrel. There have

Public Safety committee  On our premises, we store a huge number of firearms. I think their security is more important than the records. If the security is good enough for the firearms, I think it follows that our records are okay.

Public Safety committee  We have to keep records as a responsible business for Canada Customs, for the CFC, for GST, for PST. There is no end of reasons why we keep records, not just specifically to trace firearms.

Public Safety committee  It depends on the format, but, as Matt was also saying, if the RCMP didn't have a search warrant, they would have to produce a production order before we would hand over information. I was unaware of that until Matt joined us. Prior to that, if the RCMP contacted us on whether

Public Safety committee  Technology evolves. When I started shooting, I wanted a blued steel and a walnut stock. Then it shifted to stainless steel and synthetic. Now everybody wants polymer, black Parkerized finish, sniper stocks, and ventilated handguards, because this is what people see on the video g

Public Safety committee  Okay, there are two different scenarios here. With the Thompson, the OPP armourer, who was a very experienced individual, was able to sit in court with a couple of hand tools and modify the gun and make it go fully automatic. The judge ruled this was a prohibitive firearm. I thin

Public Safety committee  Yes. We cannot get detailed reports from the RCMP on how they manage to convert a firearm. In the early days we could. We could apply under access to information and get a full forensics report detailing what they did. That is now blocked. We can no longer get a detailed report.

Public Safety committee  If the definitions that were used to classify firearms were clearly defined, I would have no objection to anybody's classifying a firearm. Anybody in this room could classify a firearm, if they were given certain criteria.

Public Safety committee  Yes.