Gun Politics in Canada - Canadian Firearms Program

Canadian Firearms Program

There are four major areas within the Canadian Firearms Program, which are managed by the Deputy Commissioner Policing Support Services (PSS):

• Firearms Administration Centre (for licensing, registration, customer service and operations);
• Firearms Investigative and Enforcement Services Directorate (who assist police in countering illegal movement and criminal use of firearms);
• Strategic Integration and Program Management Services (program support policy, research and planning, business management);
• Partnership and Outreach (communications, client/partner and stakeholder relationship)

The CFP offers a wide variety of investigational support services to police:

• Firearms Reference Table (FRT) is a comprehensive firearms database with over 130,000 entries which establishes a systematic, standard method of identifying, describing and classifying firearms.
• Firearms Identification, for questionable firearms
• Firearms Analysis, for potential evidence in crimes
• Tracing of illicit firearms, the CNFTC (Canadian National Firearm Tracing Centre) assists police in tracing illegal firearms
• Investigational support and assistance helps police in preparing, obtaining and executing search warrants, location search and seizure, exhibit identification and organisation and court preparation
• Expert firearms advice and witness provides firearm-related guidance for testimony and court preparation and acts as liaison with partner agencies that can provide these services
• Firearm Case Law Database, firearm-related cases can be researched, and are distributed to investigators
• Crown Attorney Program, working with crown attorney offices, a network that specializes in firearms investigations
• Firearms Operations and Enforcement Support (FOES), intelligence support to firearm investigators and research that identifies trends and patterns in the criminal use of firearms in Canada.
• Pricing of illicit firearms, a record of firearm "street prices" is maintained and the information is made available to investigators
• Access to specialized firearms information databases, Canadian Firearm Information System (CFIS), Canadian Integrated Ballistic Identification Network (CIBIN) and the Suspect Gun Database
• Training, lectures, conferences, outreach and learning material available across Canada are available on a broad range of topics involving firearms
• Firearms registration information, querying records contained within the Canadian Firearms Registry Online (CFRO)
• Public Agent Firearms Reporting assistance, helping public agents use the Public Agency Web Services (PWS) to report agency and protected firearms and assisting Public Agents understand their obligations under the Public Agents Firearms Regulations