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

OTTAWA, Might 30 (Reuters) - Canada's government launched legislation Monday to implement a "national freeze" on the sale and buy of handguns as part of a gun management bundle that might also limit magazine capacities and ban some toys that appear to be weapons.

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

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

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"We'd like solely look south of the border to know that if we do not take action firmly and rapidly it will get worse and worse and will get more difficult to counter," he said.

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

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

Canada has stronger gun legislation than the US but while its gun homicide charge is lower than one-fifth the U.S. charge it is greater than that of other wealthy countries and has been rising. In 2020 it was five times Australia's rate.

The rate in every of 2020 and 2017 was the nation's highest since not less than 1997, in response to Statistics Canada.

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

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

The deliberate legislation would prevent anybody topic to a safety order or who has engaged in domestic violence or stalking from acquiring or holding a firearms license.

It is going to additionally require long-gun magazines to be completely altered to allow them to by no means hold greater than five rounds and will ban the sale and transfer of large-capacity magazines.

The brand new legal guidelines would also ban some toys that seem like real guns, such as airsoft rifles. Final week Toronto police shot and killed a person carrying a pellet gun. read more

"As a result of they look the same as real firearms, police must deal with them as if they are real. This has led to tragic consequences," Justice Minister David Lametti told reporters.

Tom Stamatakis, president of the Canadian Police Affiliation, welcomed among the strikes, such because the "purple flag" provisions within the case of domestic violence, and said he would really like more information on enforcement and sources for measures such as the handgun freeze.

He utterly supported a crackdown on faux weapons, which he said were a "big challenge."

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

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

He said authorities were not using the instruments they already had to sort out gun violence, such as calling folks listed as references on gun license functions.

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

Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Trust Rules.