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

OTTAWA, Might 30 (Reuters) - Canada's authorities launched laws Monday to implement a "national freeze" on the sale and buy of handguns as part of a gun management package that might additionally restrict journal capacities and ban some toys that appear like guns.

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

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau instructed reporters the new measures were wanted as gun violence was rising.

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

The handgun freeze would contain exceptions, together with for elite sport shooters, Olympic athletes and safety guards. Canadians who already own handguns can be allowed to maintain them.

Authorities don't anticipate a run on handguns in anticipation of the freeze, partly because they are so closely regulated already, an official mentioned in a briefing.

Canada has stronger gun laws than the US but while its gun murder rate is lower than one-fifth the U.S. fee it's larger than that of different wealthy international locations and has been rising. In 2020 it was 5 instances Australia's fee.

The rate in each of 2020 and 2017 was the country's highest since a minimum of 1997, according to 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 transfer some firearms homeowners say they're contesting in court docket. Speaking alongside Trudeau, Public Security Minister Marco Mendicino confirmed the "imminent launch of the preliminary phase" of a program to purchase back and compensate homeowners of such weapons.

While the Liberals have a minority of seats in Parliament, the laws may cross with the support of the left-leaning New Democratic Occasion.

The deliberate laws would forestall anyone subject to a protection order or who has engaged in home violence or stalking from obtaining or holding a firearms license.

It's going to additionally require long-gun magazines to be permanently altered to allow them to never maintain greater than five rounds and will ban the sale and switch of large-capacity magazines.

The brand new laws would also ban some toys that seem like actual weapons, such as airsoft rifles. Final week Toronto police shot and killed a person carrying a pellet gun. read extra

"Because they appear the identical as actual firearms, police must deal with them as if they are actual. This has led to tragic penalties," Justice Minister David Lametti told reporters.

Tom Stamatakis, president of the Canadian Police Association, welcomed a number of the strikes, such as the "purple flag" provisions within the case of home violence, and said he would love extra data on enforcement and sources for measures such because the handgun freeze.

He completely supported a crackdown on pretend guns, which he said had been a "huge problem."

"You can't distinguish between what's a duplicate firearm and what's a real firearm, notably when these incidences involving replica firearms happen typically in very dynamic, rapidly evolving circumstances."

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

He mentioned authorities were not using the instruments they already had to deal with gun violence, resembling calling individuals listed as references on gun license applications.

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

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