Firearms committee aims to educate Sask. residents, make recommendations to government

A new committee is aiming to educate Saskatchewan residents about firearm awareness and make policy recommendations to the province.

Saskatchewan’s new Chief Firearms Officer Robert Freberg said the Firearms Advisory Committee will provide recommendations to the Minister of Corrections, Policing and Public Safety. The committee and its board was announced by the province late last week.

Freberg said they wanted to represent a wide range of groups when appointing the committee’s board members.

“The goal was to represent a broad range of organizations and groups including the Saskatchewan Association of Firearms Educators, the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation, the Trappers Association, the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) as well as hunters, anglers and sport shooters,” Freberg said.

Freberg said they are working towards improving firearm education as well as communication, adding the group has been out to some of the shows with staff to introduce themselves to stakeholders.

“We’re also reviewing some of the proposed legislation that is coming out from Canada, as it is federally mandated we’ll be implementing that in our legislation, but again it is federal,” he said.

Freberg said currently the number one concern they hear is access to the call centre and national headquarters.

“When someone calls to check on a pal or so forth those calls are being directed to a machine which is operated by the RCMP and we’re advocating strongly for residents of the province because I know there is a lot of frustration getting through there,” he said.

Freberg said a current firearms public awareness campaign aims to reach two groups: firearm and non-firearm users.

“It’s a two-pronged approach really that is basically sending two messages out. One to the non-firearms owners community and one to the firearms and stakeholders community,” Freberg said.

Freberg said the campaign states that responsible firearms owners are licensed, store their firearms and ammunition safely and are good mentors to others.

“What we’re really doing is sending out messages to both groups saying this is what we represent and at the same time it’s a safety reminder to firearms owners to make sure they’re locking up and securing their ammunition and firearms safely,” he said.

If people want more information on the campaign they can go to the province’s firearms office at Saskatchewan.ca.

Freberg said people can also email [e-mail].