OTTAWA –
Federal laws geared toward capping the variety of handguns in Canada took impact Friday amid considerations from firearm-control advocates that MPs will weaken the impact by way of adjustments to accompanying laws.
In May, the Liberals introduced a plan to implement a freeze on importing, shopping for, promoting or in any other case transferring handguns in order to assist stem firearm-related violence.
At the time, the federal government tabled regulatory amendments in each the House of Commons and the Senate.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino held a information convention in the Vancouver space Friday to announce the laws had come into impact.
A brief ban on the importation of handguns into Canada that kicked in Aug. 19 stays in place.
“We have frozen the marketplace for handguns in this nation,” Trudeau stated Friday. “This is likely one of the strongest actions we have taken on gun violence in a era.”
Trudeau and Mendicino had been flanked by Eileen Mohan, whose son Christopher was fatally shot in 2007. She praised the federal government for ushering in the handgun freeze.
“Today, the Liberal authorities has chosen life over dying,” Mohan stated.
Accompanying legislative measures that will reinforce the freeze have but to be authorised by Parliament.
The laws would permit elite sport shooters to proceed to purchase handguns — an exemption some need expanded to incorporate a wider vary of leisure shooters.
The authorities says the exemption applies to about 8,000 athletes, a quantity that would rise considerably whether it is broadened.
Wes Winkel, president of the Canadian Sporting Arms and Ammunition Association, informed the House of Commons public security committee this week that different competitors shooters needs to be exempted from the proposed legislative provisions.
He advised that ought to embrace individuals in worldwide competitions organized by the Single Action Shooting Society, the International Practical Shooting Confederation and the International Defensive Pistol Association.
Gun-control group PolySeSouvient stated in a written transient to the committee that the exemption needs to be restricted to present athletes that compete, prepare or coach in an Olympic or Paralympic self-discipline involving handguns in order to stop “a future situation which might render the freeze on new handguns meaningless.”
Asked about attainable new exemptions, Trudeau stated it might “shock me” if the Bloc Quebecois and NDP members of the Commons committee would transfer to water down the provisions in the bill.
Justice Minister David Lametti, talking in Montreal on Friday, criticized any effort to ease the handgun freeze.
“It is worrisome and even surprising to see an try of lowering the extent of this bill and giving extra space to handguns,” Lametti stated in French, including the aim is to shrink “the variety of handguns in our streets.”
Conservative public security critic Raquel Dancho stated Friday the very fact the Liberals’ handgun freeze is taking impact whereas a parliamentary committee research the accompanying laws “reveals they don’t seem to be critical about consulting specialists.”
“We are in the midst of an intensive committee examine into their present laws on gun management and we’re listening to from specialists throughout the nation that there’s clearly a division on what specialists imagine needs to be carried out about firearms.”
The Liberals are politicizing the difficulty and the freeze won’t cut back gun violence, she added.
The Conservatives imagine the thousands and thousands the federal government will spend to advance its gun management agenda could be higher used to bolster safety on the border to stop the unlawful smuggling of firearms and supply extra assets to police, Dancho stated.
Trudeau stated the federal government is strengthening the borders and giving legislation enforcement instruments and assets to cease gun smuggling.
The federal firearms bill would additionally enhance most penalties for gun smuggling and trafficking to 14 years from 10, in addition to permit for the automated elimination of gun licences from folks committing home violence or engaged in prison harassment, comparable to stalking.
Two years in the past, the federal government introduced a ban on over 1,500 fashions and variants of what it considers assault-style firearms such because the AR-15. The Liberals plan a compulsory buyback program to supply compensation to affected house owners and companies.
This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed Oct. 21, 2022.
— With information from Lee Berthiaume and Stephanie Taylor