The brand new measure will permit Ottawa to ban handgun imports with out having to attend for Parliament, which is on a summer time break till September, to cross that laws. It’s anticipated to come back into impact in two weeks, the official mentioned, shortening the window for gun shops to amass merchandise.
Native media have reported that handgun gross sales have skyrocketed since Trudeau’s authorities introduced the freeze, prompting some lawmakers to precise concern a couple of run on handguns from authorized gun house owners trying to top off earlier than the laws handed.
The official spoke on the situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t approved to talk publicly on the matter. Public Security Minister Marco Mendicino and International Minister Mélanie Joly are scheduled to make an announcement “on the federal government’s ongoing efforts to maintain our communities secure from gun violence” at a Catholic college in Etobicoke, Ontario, at 10:30 a.m. Friday.
Gun management enjoys broad help right here. However critics say the concentrate on limiting handgun possession unfairly targets law-abiding house owners whereas doing little to stamp out the basis downside: Weapons smuggled illegally throughout the border.
Toronto’s police chief mentioned in November that roughly 80 p.c of the firearms concerned in gun violence in Canada’s most populous metropolis come from america, which he famous has a major gun tradition, making it a “very troublesome” subject to deal with.
“The largest downside we’ve within the metropolis is the amount of weapons coming throughout border,” Chief James Ramer mentioned.
The federal government laws, often called C-21, additionally consists of “crimson flag” legal guidelines that may permit judges to briefly take away firearms from individuals deemed to be a hazard to themselves or others, the elimination of gun licenses from individuals who have dedicated home violence and stiffer penalties for gun smuggling and trafficking.
Canada imported greater than $28.2 million in revolvers and pistols in 2021, in accordance with authorities knowledge, with two-thirds of that quantity coming from america. Whole imports had been up 7.7 p.c from the earlier yr, however down from a latest peak of $34.7 million in 2018.
Mass shootings are comparatively uncommon right here in comparison with in america, however the fee of firearm-related homicides has elevated since 2013, in accordance with knowledge from Statistics Canada.
The federal government statistics company reported that greater than 60 p.c of gun-related violent crime in city facilities in 2020 concerned handguns. Nevertheless it additionally mentioned there have been “many gaps” and limitations within the knowledge, together with on the “supply of firearms utilized in crime” and “whether or not a gun utilized in crime was stolen, illegally bought or smuggled into the nation.” No province requires investigators to ship weapons utilized in crimes for tracing.
The Canada Border Companies Company mentioned it seized 1,203 firearms from 2021 to 2022. In Might, a Yorkshire terrier named Pepper thwarted an try to smuggle 11 handguns throughout the border from Michigan to Ontario utilizing a six-rotor drone.
Some 2.2 million people in Canada are licensed firearms owners, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police reported in 2020, and greater than 1.1 million firearms are registered.
Trudeau’s authorities pledged stiffer gun-control measures through the federal election marketing campaign final yr.
In 2020, Trudeau introduced a ban on 1,500 makes and fashions of “military-style assault weapons,” after a gunman posing as a police officer rampaged throughout Nova Scotia over two weekend days, setting constructions ablaze and killing 22 individuals together with a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer in Canada’s deadliest mass capturing.
Final week, the federal government outlined how a lot it’s proposing to compensate gun house owners who flip in these weapons underneath a compulsory buyback program.
Throughout hearings in a public inquiry this yr on the “causes, context and circumstances” of the Nova Scotia assault, proof was introduced on the origin of the shooter’s giant cache of weapons.
Gabriel Wortman, a denturist, didn’t possess a firearms license and obtained his weapons illegally. The fee heard that there have been “two, and probably three,” cases wherein police acquired details about his entry to firearms. Little, if something, was achieved, in accordance with testimony.
A number of of the weapons had been traced and sourced to gun shops in Maine. A pal there informed police that Wortman took a number of of the weapons with out his data or permission, whereas he gave the shooter a Ruger P89 “as an indication of gratitude” for his assist with “tree removals and different odd jobs at his residence.”
An AR-15 got here from a gun store in California, however Wortman first noticed it at a gun present in Maine and one other particular person purchased it for him. Witnesses informed police after the capturing that Wortman would disassemble the firearms and roll them up in his pickup truck’s payload cowl to smuggle them throughout the border.
Wortman was shot to dying by Royal Canadian Mounted Police at a service space in Enfield, Nova Scotia, ending his rampage. Police haven’t charged any of the people who helped him receive the weapons, together with those that may need damaged U.S. legal guidelines.