The federal Liberal government has announced new firearms measures which it says will combat crime and increase public safety. Ottawa says gun violence has had devastating effects on communities across the country, and on too many Canadians who have lost loved ones. The government says that Statistics Canada numbers show firearms were used in over 40 per cent of homicides in Canada in 2019.
Last May, the Government of Canada banned over 1,500 models and variants of assault-style firearms and some of their components.
Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, has announced the introduction of new legislation to amend the Criminal Code and the Firearms Act which he says will respect law-abiding gun owners.
The legislation includes the ban on assault-style firearms, funding to provinces and territories to combat gun and gang violence, and investments in border security to tackle firearms smuggling.
For details on more specifics in the legislation, see this story at cjwwradio.com.
Through the proposed legislation and other measures, the government would:
• Combat intimate partner and gender-based violence, and self-harm involving firearms by creating “red flag” and “yellow flag” laws. These laws would allow people, such as concerned friends or relatives, to apply to the courts for the immediate removal of an individual’s firearms, or to ask a Chief Firearms Officer to suspend and review an individual’s licence to own firearms.
• Fight gun smuggling and trafficking by increasing criminal penalties, and by enhancing the capacity of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canada Border Services Agency to combat the illegal importation of firearms.
• Help create safer communities by supporting municipalities that ban handguns through by-laws restricting storage and transportation in their jurisdictions. Individuals who violate these municipal by-laws would be subject to federal penalties, including licence revocation and criminal sanctions.
• Give young people the opportunities and resources they need to avoid criminal behaviour by providing funding to municipalities and Indigenous communities to support youth programs.
• Protect Canadians from gun violence by creating new offences for altering the cartridge magazine component of a firearm and depicting violence in firearms advertising, introducing tighter restrictions on imports of ammunition, and ensuring the prohibition of imports, exports, sales, and transfers of all replica firearms.
• Complete the prohibition of assault-style firearms to ensure these weapons cannot be legally used, transported, sold, transferred, or bequeathed by individuals in Canada. We also intend to move forward with a buyback program in the coming months to support the safe removal of these firearms from our communities.
Quick Facts:
• In order to improve the firearms classification framework, the Minister of Justice will conduct a review of firearms classification. The Minister will also look into modernizing language in the regulation and the Criminal Code with respect to prohibited weapons, devices, and ammunition to close gaps in the law.
• There were over 99,000 victims of intimate partner violence in Canada in 2018, and firearms were present in over 500 of these incidents. Women accounted for almost eight in 10 victims of all intimate partner violence incidents, and they were even more likely to be the victim in incidents where a firearm was present.
• In the Fall Economic Statement 2020, the government committed to support municipalities, community-led initiatives, and Indigenous communities by providing $250 million in dedicated funding over five years to support anti-gang programs for young people. It will complement previous investments, including funding announced in November 2017 to support provincial and territorial initiatives and combat firearms smuggling and trafficking.
• In June 2019, new legislation on firearms received Royal Assent, and many measures will come into force soon. The 2019 legislation includes practical, targeted, and measured steps to keep Canadians safe, including:
o Helping ensure people with a history of violence are not granted a licence to own firearms through expanded background checks that consider the applicant’s lifetime history, not just the preceding five years.
o Helping keep firearms out of the wrong hands by requiring sellers to verify the validity of a firearms licence before selling a non-restricted firearm.
o Helping police trace guns used in crimes by requiring businesses to keep point-of-sale records for non-restricted firearms.
o Requiring authorization to transport restricted and prohibited firearms to locations other than the range (e.g. gunsmith, gun show, etc.) through strengthened transportation requirements.
o Safeguarding the impartial classification of firearms by putting the responsibility in the hands of technical experts, who make these determinations based on the Criminal Code.
• A Criminal Code amnesty is in place until April 30, 2022, to protect lawful owners from criminal liability and to enable them to comply with the law. Under the amnesty, the newly prohibited firearms can only be transferred or transported within Canada for specific purposes.
