New handgun restrictions expected in federal firearm-control bill today
New measures to curb handguns are anticipated to be a central characteristic of federal laws tabled this afternoon, the Liberal authorities’s newest — and sure boldest — suite of proposed actions to manage entry to firearms in Canada.
Public Security Minister Marco Mendicino will current the invoice after the every day query interval earlier than becoming a member of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and supportive voices, together with some metropolis mayors, from throughout the nation for a press convention at Ottawa’s Chateau Laurier lodge.
The laws will revive some federal measures that didn’t go earlier than final 12 months’s normal election and flesh out new proposals made in the course of the subsequent marketing campaign.
They embody a compulsory buyback of weapons the federal government considers assault-style firearms, a crackdown on high-capacity firearm magazines and efforts to fight gun smuggling.
The Liberals additionally promised to work with provinces and territories that wish to ban handguns outright.
Although a nationwide ban isn’t anticipated within the invoice, the federal government might take steps in that route by phasing out handgun possession with a cap on the variety of firearm licences, outlawing the importation and manufacture of recent handguns, or enacting harder storage guidelines.
Outstanding gun-control advocacy group PolySeSouvient has criticized the federal government’s strategy of leaving a handgun ban as much as particular person provinces, saying it could create an ineffective patchwork of guidelines in Canada.
Trudeau defended the strategy final week, citing “a spread of opinions and views throughout the nation.”
Talking in regards to the Robb Elementary Faculty taking pictures that killed 19 kids and two adults in Uvalde, Texas, Trudeau stated Canadians are “remarkably united” in wanting to cut back gun violence” at residence.
“That unity is what we will transfer ahead with as we take new steps within the coming weeks on gun management,” Trudeau stated at a press convention in Saskatchewan final Tuesday.
Gun-control advocates pushing for extra reform
An “assault-style” firearm ban — the federal government’s flagship gun-control promise to this point — includes transferring ahead on a compulsory buyback of fashions the federal government outlawed in Could 2020.
The plan has received reward from gun-control advocates, however Conservative MPs and others against the plan have steered it targets official gun house owners relatively than stopping unlawful firearms from falling into the flawed fingers.
The buyback will cowl some 1,500 fashions of firearms the federal government banned by means of order-in-council on the idea they don’t have any place in searching or sport taking pictures.
However some comparable fashions stay authorized, and gun-control advocates say Canadian producers have managed to avoid the principles by introducing new firearms.
PolySeSouvient has urged the federal government to vary the firearm classification system to get rid of loopholes and seize all present and future weapons that fall into the class.
A number of girls’s teams have additionally implored the federal government to put off a provision within the earlier iteration of the invoice that referred to as for potential victims to hunt a courtroom order to deprive a stalker or abuser of their weapons.
WATCH | U.S. President Joe Biden vists Uvalde, Texas:
U.S. President Joe Biden and first woman Jill Biden mourned with households affected by the mass taking pictures at a Texas elementary faculty that killed 19 college students and two lecturers.
The Nationwide Affiliation of Ladies and the Regulation and a number of other different teams warned in a letter to Mendicino this month the so-called purple flag provision downloads duty for gun-law enforcement from authorities onto others, together with potential targets of violence.
“There is no such thing as a help for downloading or eroding the duty of regulation enforcement and different authorities officers to implement gun legal guidelines,” the letter stated.
“Residents or different organizations, a lot much less potential victims, shouldn’t be anticipated to place themselves in danger by going to courtroom to request motion that must be quick and throughout the direct duty of police.”
