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

OTTAWA, Could 30 (Reuters) - Canada's government introduced legislation Monday to implement a "national freeze" on the sale and purchase of handguns as a part of a gun management bundle that will additionally limit magazine capacities and ban some toys that appear to be guns.

The brand new legislation, which resurrects some measures that were shelved final 12 months amid a nationwide election, comes only a week after a gunman killed 19 youngsters and two academics of their classroom in Uvalde, Texas.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters the brand new measures have been wanted as gun violence was rising.

Register

"We want solely look south of the border to know that if we do not take motion firmly and rapidly it gets worse and worse and gets harder to counter," he said.

The handgun freeze would include exceptions, including for elite sport shooters, Olympic athletes and security guards. Canadians who already own handguns would be allowed to maintain them.

Authorities don't anticipate a run on handguns in anticipation of the freeze, in part because they're so heavily regulated already, an official stated in a briefing.

Canada has stronger gun laws than the US but while its gun murder price is lower than one-fifth the U.S. fee it is higher than that of different rich international locations and has been rising. In 2020 it was five times Australia's rate.

The speed in every of 2020 and 2017 was the nation's highest since at the very least 1997, in keeping with Statistics Canada.

Canada banned the sale and use of some 1,500 fashions of assault weapons, just like the AR-15 rifle, two years ago in the wake of a mass taking pictures in Portapique, Nova Scotia - a move some firearms homeowners say they are contesting in courtroom. Talking alongside Trudeau, Public Security Minister Marco Mendicino confirmed the "imminent launch of the preliminary part" of a program to purchase again and compensate owners of such weapons.

Whereas the Liberals have a minority of seats in Parliament, the laws may go with the support of the left-leaning New Democratic Get together.

The deliberate legislation would stop anybody subject to a protection order or who has engaged in domestic violence or stalking from obtaining or maintaining a firearms license.

It is going to additionally require long-gun magazines to be permanently altered so they can by no means maintain more than 5 rounds and can ban the sale and transfer of large-capacity magazines.

The new laws would also ban some toys that appear to be real guns, akin to airsoft rifles. Last week Toronto police shot and killed a person carrying a pellet gun. read extra

"As a result of they give the impression of being the same as real firearms, police have to deal with them as if they're real. This has led to tragic penalties," Justice Minister David Lametti informed reporters.

Tom Stamatakis, president of the Canadian Police Association, welcomed a few of the strikes, such because the "pink flag" provisions within the case of home violence, and stated he would really like more data on enforcement and sources for measures such because the handgun freeze.

He utterly supported a crackdown on faux guns, which he mentioned were a "huge challenge."

"You cannot distinguish between what's a reproduction firearm and what's a real firearm, particularly when these incidences involving duplicate firearms happen usually in very dynamic, rapidly evolving circumstances."

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

He said authorities were not using the instruments they already needed to deal with gun violence, akin to calling folks listed as references on gun license applications.

Register

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

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Ideas.