A shotgun is a short-barreled rifle that has greater range accuracy than a shotgun or shotgun. “The RCMP seems to be making up for lost time in the initial development of the rifle program,” said Christian Leuprecht, a professor at Royal Military College and Queen’s University in Kingston, OD, who specializes in police and security issues. The issuance of RCMP officer rifles was a key recommendation of an expert report in 2010, following the 2005 tragedy in Mayerthorpe, Alta, in which four officers were killed. A review of the 2014 shooting in Moncton, in which three Mountains were killed and two wounded, renewed the urgency of delivering more rifles to front-line officers. The officers who died, and two others who were injured, did not have rifles. Instead, they had 9mm pistols. As of this month, the RCMP has 6,650 rifles distributed to the approximately 8,500 front-line members in units across the country. This is a major leap from the 1,500 rifles in service at the time of the Moncton shooting, according to National RCMP spokesman Robin Percival. At the time of the Nova Scotia mass shooting in April 2020, in which 22 people were killed by gunmen, including an untrained mountie, Percival said the RCMP had about 8,700 front-line members and more than 5,700 rifles spread across the Country. In December 2020, about eight months after the Nova Scotia massacre, the RCMP updated its national standards to ensure that as many front-line officers as possible were qualified to use rifles. As part of these standards, the Mounties set a benchmark that by March 31, 2022, at least 65 percent of front-line business members in each detachment would have been trained in the carbine.

Mounties will not share the detachment rate

The RCMP declined to say what their progress is on this goal. In an email Thursday, Percival said it could not analyze the response capabilities of RCMP departments, areas or snippets for security reasons. “These capabilities could not be made public as they provide information on the type of response / tactics available to RCMP officers – potentially endangering both the public and the police,” Percival said. As of April 1, 2022, at least 72 percent of RCMP members in Nova Scotia, where the Mounties handle front-line policing, have been trained in rifles, but it is unclear where these officers are in the province.

RCMP staffing challenges affect training: specialist

Percival said nationwide 78.4 percent of all front-line members across Canada had also been trained in rifles since April 1. The bigger issue is that the RCMP is lacking nationally, Leuprecht said, so the organization is faced with difficult choices about where to place its people, training and equipment. However, Leuprecht said RCMP officers were “disproportionately at risk” as they often operate in rural areas where officers are also more likely to be injured or killed in the line of duty. “The RCMP has a disproportionate interest in ensuring that its members have the equipment they need,” Leuprecht said. “Your backup can be very far away, unlike in urban areas where your backup is a few minutes away.” Christian Leuprecht is a security and defense expert who teaches at the Royal Military College of Canada and Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont. (Submitted by Christian Leuprecht)
Leuprecht said he would not be “surprised” if the lower-percentage detachments fell to areas farther away from the firing range. While some larger police forces may have firing ranges in their basements, making it easier for members to complete annual rifle retraining, Leuprecht said, in many parts of the country the Mounties have to drive for hours to reach an area. “So you remove a member from a shift, and many of those quotes are already understaffed,” Leuprecht said. Cpl. Rodney Peterson of the Bible Hill detachment, who responded to the April 19 mass shooting and passed the gunman that morning, told investigators with the committee leading the investigation that he had been trained as a firearms trainer. He completed the instructor’s course while at the nearby Millbrook Detachment, and Peterson said the goal was to have full-time firefighters trained and qualified throughout the year. “Unfortunately, I could not give many instructions because … we had a shortage of staff,” Peterson said in an interview with the committee. Const. Charlottetown Police Ron Kennedy appears with a carbine in 2017. The RCMP says that as of April 2022, 78 percent of their total force is trained in a carbine, but will not analyze the numbers in specific sections. (Brian Higgins / CBC)
Those patrol members who are always out in the community “should have priority” on rifle certifications and always have them in their cars, Leuprecht said. With many municipal forces in urban areas, Leuprecht said it was “very typical” to see patrols with rifles and armor in their vehicles. These tools are vital in active sniper situations, Leuprecht said, as the best strategy is to engage the sniper immediately and try to limit him. The ongoing public inquiry into the mass shooting in Nova Scotia has revealed that Const. Heidi Stevenson, who was killed by a gunman in Subenacad after arguing with him, had not been trained in the carbine. Brian Sauvé, president of the National Police Federation (NPF), said this was irrelevant because Stevenson had approached the gunman at close range, so her service pistol was her best choice anyway. The NPF represents thousands of RCMP members below the rank of inspector.

Other NS officers who have not been trained in carbine in 2020

Leuprecht said on this particular occasion that it is probably true, but rifles are a common theme in most medium and large municipal police forces in Canada “precisely because it is difficult to predict when and where you may find yourself in a situation where a rifle can is necessary to ensure the safety of the public or your own safety. “You do not want to appear with a knife for a fight,” said Leuprecht. Apart from Stevenson, other RCMP officers who responded to the mass shooting were not trained to use rifles. They included Const. Vicki Colford of the Bible Hill Squad, who was one of the first RCMP officers on stage at Portapique on April 18, and Cpl. Milbrook’s Natasha Jamieson who also responded that night. Peterson had been trained in a carbine, but it is not clear from his interviews with police and the commission if he had a carbine in his car. The police union’s Sauvé said in a recent interview that rifle training is mandatory for the RCMP, as it encourages all general duty officers, but “everyone is human and not everyone can take every course”.

The RCMP targets 80% over the next 3 years

“If you can overcome it, if resources allow and we have the opportunity to put you in this course, then we will bring you to this course. It is a plus,” Sauvé said. By 2025, Percival said the percentage of first-line rifle officers trained will increase steadily until each RCMP quote reaches at least 80%. Leuprecht said that achieving 100% is probably not a useful goal, as there will always be a certain number of officers who do not need rifle qualifications, such as those in command, to do covert work or be deployed abroad as liaisons.