Canada introduces new legislation to ‘freeze’ handgun ownership

New invoice will implement ‘nationwide freeze’ on shopping for, promoting and transferring handguns in Canada, authorities says.

Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau speaks during a news conference
Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks at a information convention about new gun management measures, in Ottawa, Canada, Might 30, 2022 [Blair Gable/Reuters]

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has introduced new laws that his authorities says will usher in “a few of the strongest gun management measures” in many years, together with a “freeze” on the shopping for and promoting of handguns within the nation.

In a information convention in Ottawa on Monday night, Trudeau invoked a string of mass shootings in Canada over the previous many years, in addition to latest assaults in the USA, as a part of his authorities’s impetus to introduce Invoice C-21.

“Canadians all agree that we'd like much less gun violence. We can not let the weapons debate grow to be so polarised that nothing will get achieved. We can not let that occur in our nation,” Trudeau instructed reporters.

“Gun violence is a fancy drawback, however on the finish of the day, the maths is basically fairly easy. The less the weapons in our communities, the safer everybody can be.”

Canada has stricter gun possession restrictions than the US, however gun management advocates in recent times have referred to as for more durable measures amid a string of mass shootings, together with a 2017 assault on a Quebec mosque that killed six worshippers and a lethal capturing in Toronto in 2018.

In 2020, Trudeau’s authorities banned greater than 1,500 fashions and variants of “assault-style” firearms within the aftermath of a lethal assault within the japanese province of Nova Scotia that 12 months.

That ban included the AR-15, which was utilized by a gunman to kill 26 adults and kids in the Sandy Hook bloodbath within the US in 2012, and the Ruger Mini-14 rifle, which a gunman used to kill 14 girls at a Montreal engineering college in 1989.

Throughout Monday’s information convention, Canada’s Public Security Minister Marco Mendicino additionally mentioned the federal government plans to launch a compulsory buy-back programme for these “assault-style” weapons that had been beforehand banned.

“As we speak our authorities launched Canada’s most important motion on gun violence in a technology,” mentioned Mendicino, who instructed reporters that roughly 1 million handguns are believed to be in circulation in Canada.

“Mixed with the measures we’ve already put in place, this marks the subsequent vital step in our struggle to remove gun violence,” he mentioned.

In a assertion providing extra particulars on Invoice C-21, the federal government mentioned the laws would implement “a nationwide freeze on handguns to stop people from bringing newly acquired handguns into Canada and from shopping for, promoting, and transferring” them within the nation.

It mentioned the general public security minister has already launched regulatory amendments to “assist cease the expansion of personally owned handguns in Canada”, and the measures are anticipated to come back into power within the subsequent few months.

The laws will enable Canada to revoke firearms licenses from people concerned in acts of home violence and harassment, together with stalking, Ottawa additionally mentioned, whereas a brand new “pink flag” regulation would enable Canadian courts to require people deemed harmful to give up their firearms.

The federal government may also require long-gun magazines to be completely altered to allow them to by no means maintain greater than 5 rounds, and can ban the sale and switch of large-capacity magazines.

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