Gun control advocates applaud Ottawa’s handgun freeze, but some owners are angry – National
Gun management advocates and the mayors of a number of giant Canadian cities are welcoming the federal authorities’s proposed freeze on the sale and switch of handguns, a central function of latest firearm laws that can be angering some gun homeowners.
The freeze was an surprising addition to the brand new Invoice C-21, which additionally seeks to remove weapons and firearm licences from home abusers and crack down on gun smuggling and trafficking.
“These are substantial, efficient, well-liked and historic measures that may take Canada in the appropriate route,” Nathalie Provost, a survivor of the 1989 mass taking pictures at Polytechnique, stated in an announcement shared by outstanding advocacy group PolySeSouvient.
The laws tabled in Parliament on Monday replaces a earlier model of Invoice C-21 that expired when final 12 months’s election was known as, and didn’t embody the nationwide freeze on promoting, shopping for, importing and transferring handguns.
The Liberals had beforehand promised to help provinces and territories that wished to pursue a full ban, which gun management advocates argued would create a patchwork of ineffective guidelines throughout the nation.
Below the brand new laws, current handgun homeowners can be allowed to maintain their firearms however would solely be allowed to promote or switch to companies and exempt people, mainly worthwhile items carriers and sport shooters.
The invoice wouldn’t ban handguns, however quite search to cap the quantity already in Canada.
Provost, who attended Monday’s announcement together with different gun violence victims, survivors and advocates, stated the inclusion of the nationwide freeze reveals the federal government is listening to these teams.
Nonetheless, she and different members of PolySeSouvient stated they have been hopeful the ultimate model of the invoice will embody a whole ban on assault-style weapons just like the one used within the Polytechnique bloodbath.
Public Security Minister Marco Mendicino promised Monday to ensure such firearms are routinely prohibited once they enter the market in future. A compulsory buyback program for these weapons is about to start by the top of this 12 months.
“Given right this moment’s extraordinarily constructive bulletins, I’m very a lot inclined to imagine (Mendicino’s promise),” Suzanne Laplante-Edward, whose daughter Anne-Marie was killed at Polytechnique, stated in an announcement. “We’ll simply have to attend just a few extra months.”
For now, advocates say the nationwide handgun freeze is a welcome begin.
“It would have a measurable affect to our ER,” Dr. Brett Mador, a trauma and basic surgeon on the College of Alberta Hospital and a member of Canadian Medical doctors for Safety from Weapons, advised World Information.
“As health-care suppliers, we try to deal with illness but in addition attempting to forestall it, and each gunshot is preventable.”
The variety of registered handguns in Canada elevated by 71 per cent between 2010 and 2020, reaching roughly 1.1 million, in response to federal statistics. Handguns have been essentially the most critical weapon current within the majority of firearm-related violent crimes between 2009 and 2020.
NDP public security critic Alistair MacGregor stated his get together needs to imagine the announcement is an pressing precedence and never simply one other political stunt.
“If the Liberals are lastly critical this time, New Democrats are right here to get this accomplished,” he stated in an announcement. “We’re dedicated to addressing gun violence and making our communities safer.”
Mayors of Canada’s largest cities stated they have been grateful the federal authorities moved to successfully ban handguns on a nationwide degree, quite than leaving it as much as provinces and municipalities.
Toronto Mayor John Tory welcomed the proposed handgun freeze as a “step in the appropriate route.”
“Gun violence is a nationwide drawback requiring nationwide options,” he stated. “Toronto metropolis council has been clear that it helps a nationwide handgun ban.”
Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart known as the freeze “an necessary first step in making our communities safer by curbing gun violence.”
“As I’ve stated earlier than, weapons haven’t any place in our cities,” he stated in an announcement, including he’ll proceed to pursue actions that crack down on different sources of gun violence together with untraceable “ghost” weapons and illegally imported weapons.
Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante additionally expressed hope that the freeze will result in a nationwide handgun ban, whereas additionally applauding the steps specified by the brand new laws.
Previous to the announcement, Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek stated Monday she was hopeful such restrictions wouldn’t be “shoved” to municipalities to cope with.
“They should maintain us right here,” she advised reporters.
The invoice would additionally permit for the automated removing of gun licences from individuals who commit home violence or have interaction in prison harassment, resembling stalking.
As well as, it could create a brand new “pink flag” regulation permitting courts to require that folks thought-about a hazard to themselves or others give up their firearms to police.
The federal government says the measure would guard the protection of these making use of by way of the courtroom course of, typically ladies at risk of home abuse, by defending their identities. The choice to defend these identities can be as much as a decide’s discretion.
“We like to see it,” stated Angela Marie MacDougall, government director of Battered Girls’s Help Companies in Vancouver, when requested in an interview in regards to the new laws.
“We expect that gun management is only one a part of an efficient technique in stopping femicide.”
Statistics Canada found in 2019 {that a} lady in Canada is killed by her intimate associate about as soon as each six days.
“Charges of homicide and home violence will increase when there’s a firearm within the residence, and the sheer presence of them is a number one danger consider deadly home violence incidents,” Pamela Di Pinto of the Canadian Girls’s Basis advised World Information.
But some firearm homeowners are expressing frustration, arguing the brand new regulation, if handed, will do little to focus on criminals and the gun violence they unleash.
“I’m indignant and annoyed,” J.R. Cox, proprietor of the Capturing Edge gun vary in Calgary, advised World Information.
“We comply with the principles and abide by the legal guidelines and take care of our firearms and we’re scapegoats. They’re on the assault.”
A World Information investigation discovered many weapons utilized by criminals in Canada got here from the U.S. by way of unlawful trafficking.
The brand new Invoice C-21 contains new measures meant to crack down on trafficking and smuggling by growing prison penalties, offering extra instruments to research firearm crimes and strengthening border measures.
Whereas the Conservative Occasion stated it welcomes these measures, which give new authority to frame brokers to disclaim entry to criminally-involved international nationals and to research transborder crime, it stated the total invoice won’t make Canadians safer.
“Right now’s announcement as soon as once more proves Liberals are centered on headlines, not on security,” public security critic Raquel Dancho stated in an announcement.
Cox agrees, saying solely law-abiding gun homeowners shall be focused. He’s additionally fearful that the proposed legal guidelines will trigger his enterprise and different taking pictures ranges to endure.
“The issues related to bullets flying within the streets of our city and rural communities have nearly nothing to do with authorized, law-abiding gun homeowners taking their firearms to and from taking pictures ranges,” stated Rod Giltaca, CEO and government director of the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights, in an interview.
“This seems to be much more political than it’s about public security.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau famous repeatedly on Monday that the laws won’t go after the “overwhelming majority” of gun homeowners, who he stated “are accountable and comply with the regulation.”
“We’re, nevertheless, dealing with a degree of gun violence in our communities that’s unacceptable, which is why we’re performing” although this newest laws, he advised reporters.
–With recordsdata from Adam Toy, Abigail Bimman and the Canadian Press
