Under the gun

We received numerous complaints in 2020-2021 about delays in approvals by Ontario’s Chief Firearms Officer (CFO) for transfers of restricted firearms. We learned that this backlog was largely due to COVID-19, as the office was struggling with staff shortages and technological limitations related to working from home, while dealing with an increase in applications. Our staff confirmed that the CFO had put out messages to advise the public of possible delays. We also worked with CFO staff, through a spreadsheet system, to ensure that each application related to a complaint we received was processed.