The Firearms Act has many goals. Although the program is still in its implementation stage, these objectives are already being met. Each objective fulfilled is another significant step towards making Canada safer. The program began on December 1, 1998. This is over 26 times more revocations from potentially dangerous individuals than the total for the last five years of the previous system.
Police now have an online registry of owners and their firearms.
RCMP 1999 Annual Report Number of New Firearms Registered 650,000 Firearms in the system 1,800,000 Registration Applications in Process 216,000 Firearms Known to Police 2,016,000 Keeping guns out of the wrong hands The success of the registration and licensing system is not just about numbers. There are good examples of the difference the Firearms Act is making by enhancing public safety and combating crime. Nearly 23,000 firearms and their components were seized. In February 2000, in Alberta, a hearing was held for an individual who had been refused a possession and acquisition licence. The licence was refused due to a psychiatrist's opinion that the applicant should not have firearms.