TORONTO — Canada on Monday added new gun-handle legislation that, if handed, would implement a "countrywide freeze" on purchasing, importing, transferring and promoting handguns, conveniently capping the variety of such weapons already within the nation.
The invoice, which officers here cast as "the most tremendous motion on gun violence in a technology," additionally includes "red flag" legal guidelines that would permit judges to quickly eradicate firearms from individuals deemed to be a danger to themselves or others and stiffer penalties for gun smuggling and trafficking.
"We recognize that the large majority of gun house owners during this nation are dependable and comply with all essential laws," top Minister Justin Trudeau advised journalists in Ottawa. "we're, youngsters, facing a level of gun violence in our communities it is unacceptable."
The proposed law got here after mass shootings in Texas and across the U.S.-Canada border in Buffalo in contemporary weeks have revived an extended-simmering debate in the united states about no matter if Congress could act to curb gun violence.
"lamentably, the truth is in our country [gun violence] is getting worse and has been getting worse over the last years," Trudeau pointed out. "We want most effective seem to be south of the border to understand that if we don't take motion, firmly and hastily, it receives worse and worse and greater tricky to counter."
Many provisions of the proposed legislations were featured in a gun-manage invoice that become brought last yr but that didn't circulate earlier than a federal election was known as in August. Gun-control advocates criticized its buyback software for banned weapons, which become voluntary. The Liberals pledged stricter gun-handle measures if reelected.
Such measures have fun with vast public guide here, above all in urban centers. The Liberal party usually employs guns as a wedge difficulty right through federal election campaigns, portray their Conservative counterparts as supportive of easing gun-control measures to gain an edge.
Gun-control advocates have long called for a country wide ban on handguns. however some provincial and municipal officers have adverse one.
The "freeze" anticipated via the proposed law isn't a ban as a result of americans who already own them may continue to own and use them. but they could handiest switch them to corporations, and chief firearms officers would be barred from approving the transfer of handguns to people.
The invoice is likely to flow with the support of the brand new Democratic birthday party. The Conservatives on Monday criticized Liberal gun-handle efforts, charging that they unfairly target legislations-abiding gun homeowners and fail to safely stamp out the smuggling of unlawful weapons throughout borders.
"nowadays's announcement fails to center of attention on the root reason for gun violence in our cities: unlawful weapons smuggled into Canada by crook gangs," Raquel Dancho, the Conservative public safety critic, pointed out in a tweet. "The PM has had 7 years to fix this critical subject yet he continues to chase headlines and bury his head in the sand."
The measures unveiled Monday come after the executive banned 1,500 makes and models of "military-vogue assault weapons" in 2020, after a gunman posing as a police officer charged across rural Nova Scotia, killing 22 people, including a Royal Canadian mounted Police officer, in the nation's deadliest mass capturing.
The executive said Monday that it plans to introduce a mandatory buyback software that might present compensation to house owners of the banned firearms. particulars on the application are expected this summer season, and the government hopes to begin buying back the weapons, together with AR-15s, the type used in the faculty assault in Texas, via the end of the 12 months.
"It's going to be challenging," referred to Marco Mendicino, Canada's public defense minister. "however we're going to get it done."
Some measures introduced Monday would not require parliamentary approval, however a transformation to rules.
whereas mass shootings are enormously rare here compared to the USA, the expense of firearm-linked homicides has increased when you consider that 2013, according to data from facts Canada. It said that the percent of homicides involving a firearm jumped from 26 % in 2013 to 37 % in 2020.
practically 60 p.c of firearm-linked violent crimes contain handguns, based on the national information agency. however noted that there are "many gaps" within the facts, together with on the "supply of firearms utilized in crime" and "no matter if a gun utilized in a criminal offense became stolen, illegally purchased or smuggled into the nation."
all over hearings in a public inquiry this 12 months on the "explanations, context and cases" of the mass shooting in Nova Scotia, facts was presented on the provenance of the huge cache of weapons that the attacker, Gabriel Wortman, had available all over the hours-long assault.
Wortman, a denturist, did not possess a firearms license and received his weapons illegally. The commission heard that there have been "two, and probably three," situations when police bought counsel about his entry to firearms. Little, if anything, changed into done, in response to testimony.
a few of the weapons had been traced and sourced to gun stores in local Maine. a friend there instructed police that Wortman took one or extra of the weapons devoid of his expertise or permission, whereas he gave the shooter a Ruger P89 "as a sign of gratitude" for his aid with "tree removals and different peculiar jobs at his residence."
An AR-15 got here from a gun store in California, but Wortman first saw it at a gun demonstrate in Maine and a person else purchased it for him. Witnesses told the RCMP after the capturing that Wortman would disassemble the firearms and roll them up in his truck's tonneau cover to smuggle them across the border.
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