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

OTTAWA, Could 30 (Reuters) - Canada's authorities launched laws Monday to implement a "nationwide freeze" on the sale and purchase of handguns as a part of a gun management package that might also restrict magazine capacities and ban some toys that appear like weapons.

The new laws, which resurrects some measures that had been shelved last 12 months amid a nationwide election, comes only a week after a gunman killed 19 kids and two teachers in their classroom in Uvalde, Texas.

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

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"We'd like only look south of the border to know that if we do not take motion firmly and quickly it gets worse and worse and gets more difficult 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 don't expect a run on handguns in anticipation of the freeze, partially because they are so closely regulated already, an official stated in a briefing.

Canada has stronger gun legislation than the United States however while its gun murder price is less than one-fifth the U.S. charge it's greater than that of other wealthy nations and has been rising. In 2020 it was 5 instances Australia's charge.

The rate in every of 2020 and 2017 was the country's highest since no less than 1997, in response to Statistics Canada.

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

Whereas the Liberals have a minority of seats in Parliament, the legislation may move with the assist of the left-leaning New Democratic Occasion.

The planned legislation would stop anyone topic to a protection order or who has engaged in home violence or stalking from obtaining or holding a firearms license.

It will also require long-gun magazines to be permanently altered to allow them to by no means maintain greater than five rounds and will ban the sale and transfer of large-capacity magazines.

The brand new legal guidelines would additionally ban some toys that appear to be real guns, equivalent to airsoft rifles. Last week Toronto police shot and killed a person carrying a pellet gun. read more

"Because they appear the same as real firearms, police have to deal with them as if they're real. This has led to tragic consequences," Justice Minister David Lametti instructed reporters.

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

He completely supported a crackdown on pretend weapons, which he said have been a "huge challenge."

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

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

He stated authorities were not utilizing the instruments they already had to sort out gun violence, reminiscent of calling folks listed as references on gun license applications.

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

Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Trust Ideas.