OTTAWA-
Federal regulations aimed at limiting the number of handguns in Canada went into effect on Friday, amid fears that gun control advocates could weaken the effect by changing accompanying legislation.
In May, the Liberals announced a plan to put in place a freeze on the import, purchase, sale or transfer of handguns to help stem gun violence .
At the time, the government tabled regulatory amendments in both the House of Commons and the Senate.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino held a press conference Friday in the Vancouver area to announce that the regulations had come into effect.
A temporary ban on the importation of handguns into Canada that began August 19 remains in place.
“We froze the handgun market in this country,” Trudeau said Friday. “This is one of the strongest actions we have taken against gun violence in a generation.”
Trudeau and Mendicino were flanked by Eileen Mohan, whose son Christopher was shot and killed in 2007. She praised the government for bringing in the handgun freeze.
“Today the Liberal government has chosen life over death,” Mohan said.
Accompanying legislative measures that would strengthen the freeze still need to be approved by Parliament.
The legislation would allow snipers to continue buying handguns – an exemption some want to expand to include a wider range of recreational shooters.
The government says the exemption applies to around 8,000 athletes, a number that could rise significantly if expanded.
Wes Winkel, president of the Canadian Sporting Arms and Ammunition Association, told the House of Commons Public Safety Committee this week that other competitive shooters should be exempt from the proposed legislation.
He suggested that this should include participants in international competitions organized by the Single Action Shooting Society, the International Practical Shooting Confederation and the International Defensive Pistol Association.
Gun control group PolySeSouvient said in a written brief to the committee that the exemption should be limited to current athletes who compete, train or train in an Olympic or Paralympic discipline involving handguns in order to avoid “a future scenario that would make freezing new handguns meaningless.”
Asked about possible new exemptions, Trudeau said he would “surprise me” if the Bloc Québécois and NDP members of the Commons committee decided to water down the provisions of the bill.
Justice Minister David Lametti, speaking in Montreal on Friday, criticized any effort to ease the handgun freeze.
“It is disturbing and even shocking to see an attempt to reduce the scope of this bill and give more space to handguns,” Lametti said in French, adding that the goal is to reduce “the number handguns on our streets”.
Conservative public safety critic Raquel Dancho said Friday that the fact that the Liberals’ handgun freeze is taking effect as a parliamentary committee studies the accompanying legislation “shows that they are not serious about consulting experts”.
“We are in the midst of an extensive committee study of their current gun control legislation and we are hearing from experts across the country that there is clearly a division on what the experts think is should be done about firearms.”
Liberals are politicizing the issue and the freeze will not reduce gun violence, she added.
Conservatives believe that the millions the government will spend to advance its gun control agenda would be better spent strengthening border security to prevent illegal gun smuggling and provide more resources to the police, Dancho said.
Trudeau said the government is strengthening borders and giving law enforcement tools and resources to stop gun smuggling.
The federal gun bill would also increase the maximum penalties for smuggling and trafficking firearms from 10 to 14 years, and allow for the automatic revocation of firearms licenses for those who commit domestic violence. or engaging in criminal harassment, such as stalking.
Two years ago, the government announced a ban on more than 1,500 models and variants of what it considers assault-type firearms such as the AR-15. The Liberals are planning a mandatory buy-back program to provide compensation to affected owners and businesses.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on October 21, 2022.
— With files by Lee Berthiaume and Stephanie Taylor