The transfer, introduced by Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino and Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly, follows a invoice launched by the federal government in May to implement a “national freeze” on shopping for, importing, promoting and transferring handguns.
The regulatory measure introduced Friday permits the federal government to impose that freeze with out ready for Parliament, which is on a summer time break till September, to go that laws. It’s anticipated to come into impact in two weeks, lowering the window for gun shops to amass merchandise.
Local media have reported that handgun gross sales have skyrocketed since Trudeau’s authorities introduced the freeze, prompting some lawmakers to categorical concern a few run on handguns from authorized gun homeowners wanting to replenish earlier than the laws handed.
Gun management enjoys broad assist right here. But critics say the deal with limiting handgun possession unfairly targets law-abiding homeowners whereas doing little to stamp out the basis drawback: Guns smuggled illegally throughout the border.
Toronto’s police chief stated in November that roughly 80 % of the firearms concerned in gun violence in Canada’s most populous metropolis come from the United States, which he famous has a big gun tradition, making it a “very difficult” subject to tackle.
“The biggest problem we have in the city is the volume of guns coming across border,” Chief James Ramer stated.
The laws launched in May, often known as C-21, additionally consists of “red flag” legal guidelines that may permit judges to briefly take away firearms from folks deemed to be a hazard to themselves or others, the elimination of gun licenses from individuals who have dedicated home violence and stiffer penalties for gun smuggling and trafficking.
The laws and the ban each embrace exemptions for these, similar to armed safety guards, who maintain an Authorization to Carry as a part of their work, those that have an Authorization to Carry for defense, and licensed high-performance sport capturing athletes and coaches.
Canada imported greater than $28.2 million in revolvers and pistols in 2021, in accordance to authorities information, with almost two-thirds of that quantity coming from the United States. Total imports have been up 7.7 % from the earlier yr, however down from a latest peak of $34.7 million in 2018.
Mass shootings are comparatively uncommon right here in contrast to within the United States, however the charge of firearm-related homicides has elevated since 2013, in accordance to information from Statistics Canada.
The authorities statistics company reported that greater than 60 % of gun-related violent crime in city facilities in 2020 concerned handguns. But it additionally stated there have been “many gaps” and limitations within the information, together with on the “source of firearms used in crime” and “whether a gun used in crime was stolen, illegally purchased or smuggled into the country.” No province requires investigators to ship weapons utilized in crimes for tracing.
The Canada Border Services Agency stated it seized 1,203 firearms from 2021 to 2022. In May, a Yorkshire terrier named Pepper thwarted an try to smuggle 11 handguns throughout the border from Michigan to Ontario utilizing a six-rotor drone.
Some 2.2 million people in Canada are licensed firearms owners, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police reported in 2020, and greater than 1.1 million firearms are registered.
Trudeau’s authorities pledged stiffer gun-control measures throughout the federal election marketing campaign final yr.
In 2020, Trudeau introduced a ban on 1,500 makes and fashions of “military-style assault weapons,” after a gunman posing as a police officer rampaged across Nova Scotia over two weekend days, setting constructions ablaze and killing 22 folks together with a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer in Canada’s deadliest mass capturing.
Last week, the federal government outlined how a lot it’s proposing to compensate gun homeowners who flip in these weapons below a compulsory buyback program.
During hearings in a public inquiry this yr on the “causes, context and circumstances” of the Nova Scotia assault, proof was offered on the origin of the shooter’s massive cache of weapons.
Gabriel Wortman, a denturist, didn’t possess a firearms license and obtained his weapons illegally. The fee heard that there have been “two, and potentially three,” cases through which police acquired details about his entry to firearms. Little, if something, was achieved, in accordance to testimony.
Several of the weapons have been traced and sourced to gun shops in Maine. A buddy there informed police that Wortman took a number of of the weapons with out his data or permission, whereas he gave the shooter a Ruger P89 “as a sign of gratitude” for his assist with “tree removals and other odd jobs at his residence.”
An AR-15 got here from a gun store in California, however Wortman first noticed it at a gun present in Maine and one other individual purchased it for him. Witnesses informed police after the capturing that Wortman would disassemble the firearms and roll them up in his pickup truck’s payload cowl to smuggle them throughout the border.
Wortman was shot to dying by Royal Canadian Mounted Police at a service space in Enfield, Nova Scotia, ending his rampage. Police haven’t charged any of the people who helped him get hold of the weapons, together with those that might need damaged U.S. legal guidelines.