Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, with government officials and gun control advocates, speaks at a news conference on gun control legislation presented at the House of Commons in Ottawa on May 30 of 2022.BLAIR GABLE / Reuters
Federal Liberals have introduced new firearms control legislation that would freeze the import, sale and transfer of handguns, but would not go so far as to ban them outright.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the new legislation, Bill C-21, at a news conference on Monday. The measures would allow current owners to keep their guns.
Asked why the government did not propose a ban, Mr. Trudeau said the bill will provide “important tools” to reduce the number of guns in communities and protect people from armed violence. “This is a concrete and real national measure that will go a long way in keeping Canadians safe,” he said.
Proponents of gun control say the new legislation is only the first a step towards curbing gun-related violence in Canada.
Bill C-21 would also allow for the automatic removal of gun licenses from people who have committed domestic violence or participated in criminal harassment, such as harassment. And it would create a new “red flag” law that would allow courts to require people considered dangerous to themselves or others to hand over their firearms to the police.
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Public Security Minister Marco Mendicino told a news conference that the government is also committed to introducing a mandatory weapons repurchase program. He said the details will be released after consultations with the industry.
The Liberals pledged to introduce a mandatory repurchase program during the 2021 election campaign.
The government pledged on Monday to ensure that these firearms are automatically banned when they enter the market in the future. “We will continue to work to ensure that all new weapons that meet the definition of assault style weapon are captured.” said the prime minister’s office in a press release.
The repurchase plan has won the praise of gun control advocates, but Conservative MPs and others opposed to the idea have suggested that it be aimed at legitimate gun owners rather than preventing gun owners from illegal fire fall into the wrong hands.
The government has long been promising actions on firearms. Mendicino said in March that the government would introduce “very proactive” legislation on firearms.
Two years ago, the government announced a ban on more than 1,500 models and variants of what it considers assault weapons. And during the 2019 election campaign, the Liberals promised a repurchase program of “all military-style assault rifles legally purchased in Canada.”
But in 2021 the government introduced a previous arms control bill, also titled C-21, which would have instituted a program of voluntary, non-mandatory repurchase of assault weapons.
The bill would also have allowed municipalities to ban guns and would have created a criminal offense to increase the size of gun carriers beyond legal limits. Legislation died in the order paper when federal elections were called last August.
At Monday’s press conference, Mr. Mendicino said the government has introduced changes to the Firearms Act to enforce handgun bans as soon as possible. A statement issued with the announcement of the new bill said that the regulations will come into force in the autumn of 2022. Both the Minister and the Prime Minister said that they hoped that the opposition parties would help speed up the approval. of the legislation.
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The new bill comes at a time of heightened attention to armed violence, following mass shootings this month in Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, New York. Liberals warned on their 2021 election platform that “American-style armed violence is on the rise” in Canada.
On Friday, Statistics Canada reported that violent gun crimes had increased from 2013 to 2019, after several years of decline. In 2020, there were 29 victims of violent gun-related crimes per 100,000 people in Canada, compared to 19 victims in 2013, according to police reports.
Nathalie Prevost, a spokeswoman for the arms control group PolySeSouvient, said after Monday’s press conference that freezing the weapon is a good first step.
“This is a great victory for those who believe in gun control in Canada. It’s a federal freeze, not just a freeze,” he said. “This is very, very important. We must not downplay the importance of that decision. ” Ms. Prevost was shot four times in 1989 when a gunman stormed Montreal’s École Polytechnique and killed 14 women.
Claire Price, whose teenage daughter Samantha was among the 13 people shot dead in 2018 during a gunman attack in the Danforth area of Toronto, said she was shocked by the size of the gun. “I wasn’t expecting any announcements about the freeze on arms sales,” he said. “I needed to hear those words now.”
“There’s always more to do,” he added. “This is definitely just a piece of a big puzzle.”
Blake Brown, a professor at the University of Saint Mary and author of a book on the history of weapons in Canada, said it would probably take months, if not years, to enact this series of changes if the legislation is passed. After the Federal Firearms Act of 1995 obtained royal assent, he noted, it was years before the gun licensing regime he introduced was fully in place.
Professor Brown noted that freezing the sale of handguns is a much cheaper approach than banning them and buying back the estimated one million registered people across the country.
He added that a multi-pronged approach is needed to address armed violence, including the interception of more illicit weapons flowing into the northern United States.
Police services across the country offer a mosaic of information on weapons used in violent crime. These data suggest most firearms they are not legally bought or stolen from licensed Canadian gun owners, but smuggled in from the U.S.
“You can’t fix that – you can’t break your fingers and spend a little money and make sure no guns ever cross the border,” Professor Brown said.
Mr. Mendicino he told reporters on Monday that 55,000 new guns are registered each year.
That’s roughly how many new weapons will likely be bought in the coming months by enthusiasts who are wary of the impending freeze, according to Rod Giltaca, CEO of the Canadian Coalition for Firearms Rights.
Giltaca said the gun owners of the country’s 1,400 gun clubs are part of a very serious culture that Ottawa is wrongly targeting in its efforts to reduce violence and increase public safety.
AJ Somerset, a hunter and former soldier from Windsor, Ontario, who is also the author of a book on the culture of weapons in North America, said that gun control is valuable and works, but that the proposed measures by the government they will not necessarily stop the violence. affecting several cities.
Ottawa could better solve the problem of gang violence by providing more funding and services to alleviate poverty in cities, Somerset said. He added that the federal government could also legalize some drugs to reduce the violence associated with the illicit market.
Federal Conservatives expressed reservations about the legislation.
Raquel Dancho, the party’s public safety critic, said in a statement that gun crimes are on the rise every year, despite existing restrictions.
Some mayors said yes waiting for more action on the guns.
“Today’s announcement of a national arms freeze is an important step in the right direction, although it must be accompanied by tougher border measures, tougher sanctions and investment in anti-violence programs.” said Toronto Mayor John Tory in a statement.
Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante said the proposed new measures would make her city and others across the country safer.
“We hope that the step taken by the Canadian government today will lead to a total ban on guns and their removal from our streets and from the hands of young people,” he wrote on Twitter.
With a report from The Canadian Press
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