Canada introduces law to freeze handgun sales, ban look-alike toys

OTTAWA, May 30 (Reuters) - Canada's authorities launched legislation Monday to implement a "nationwide freeze" on the sale and buy of handguns as a part of a gun control package deal that might additionally limit journal capacities and ban some toys that look like weapons.

The brand new laws, which resurrects some measures that had been shelved final yr amid a nationwide election, comes just a week after a gunman killed 19 youngsters and two academics of their classroom in Uvalde, Texas.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau advised reporters the new measures were wanted as gun violence was growing.

Register

"We need solely look south of the border to know that if we do not take action firmly and quickly it will get worse and worse and gets harder to counter," he mentioned.

The handgun freeze would include exceptions, together with for elite sport shooters, Olympic athletes and security guards. Canadians who already personal handguns would be allowed to keep them.

Authorities do not anticipate a run on handguns in anticipation of the freeze, partially as a result of they're so heavily regulated already, an official stated in a briefing.

Canada has stronger gun laws than the US but while its gun homicide charge is less than one-fifth the U.S. charge it is larger than that of different wealthy nations and has been rising. In 2020 it was 5 instances Australia's price.

The rate in every of 2020 and 2017 was the nation's highest since at least 1997, in response to Statistics Canada.

Canada banned the sale and use of some 1,500 models of assault weapons, like the AR-15 rifle, two years in the past in the wake of a mass shooting in Portapique, Nova Scotia - a transfer some firearms owners say they are contesting in court docket. Talking alongside Trudeau, Public Security Minister Marco Mendicino confirmed the "imminent launch of the preliminary section" of a program to buy back and compensate homeowners of such weapons.

While the Liberals have a minority of seats in Parliament, the laws might go with the assist of the left-leaning New Democratic Party.

The deliberate legislation would prevent anyone subject to a protection order or who has engaged in domestic violence or stalking from acquiring or conserving a firearms license.

It would additionally require long-gun magazines to be permanently altered to allow them to never maintain more than 5 rounds and can ban the sale and switch of large-capacity magazines.

The brand new laws would additionally ban some toys that seem like actual weapons, akin to airsoft rifles. Final week Toronto police shot and killed a man carrying a pellet gun. learn extra

"Because they appear the identical as real firearms, police need to deal with them as if they are actual. This has led to tragic consequences," Justice Minister David Lametti instructed reporters.

Tom Stamatakis, president of the Canadian Police Association, welcomed a few of the strikes, such as the "purple flag" provisions within the case of domestic violence, and said he would love more information on enforcement and resources for measures such because the handgun freeze.

He utterly supported a crackdown on fake weapons, which he mentioned had been a "massive problem."

"You can not distinguish between what's a reproduction firearm and what's an actual firearm, particularly when these incidences involving reproduction firearms occur often in very dynamic, quickly evolving circumstances."

Rod Giltaca, the top of the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights, said the handgun freeze was "absurd."

He stated authorities weren't utilizing the instruments they already had to sort out gun violence, corresponding to calling folks listed as references on gun license applications.

Register

Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa and Anna Mehler Paperny in Toronto, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien and Richard Pullin

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Belief Ideas.