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

OTTAWA, May 30 (Reuters) - Canada's government launched legislation Monday to implement a "nationwide freeze" on the sale and purchase of handguns as a part of a gun management package that would additionally limit magazine capacities and ban some toys that seem like guns.

The new laws, which resurrects some measures that have been shelved last 12 months amid a national election, comes just a week after a gunman killed 19 youngsters and two academics of their classroom in Uvalde, Texas.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau informed reporters the brand new measures had been needed as gun violence was rising.

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"We want only look south of the border to know that if we do not take action firmly and rapidly it will get worse and worse and gets more difficult to counter," he stated.

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

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

Canada has stronger gun legislation than america but while its gun murder charge is lower than one-fifth the U.S. rate it is larger than that of different wealthy nations and has been rising. In 2020 it was five instances Australia's fee.

The speed in each of 2020 and 2017 was the country's highest since no less than 1997, in line with Statistics Canada.

Canada banned the sale and use of some 1,500 models of assault weapons, like the AR-15 rifle, two years in the past in the wake of a mass taking pictures in Portapique, Nova Scotia - a transfer some firearms house owners say they're contesting in court docket. Talking alongside Trudeau, Public Security Minister Marco Mendicino confirmed the "imminent launch of the initial part" of a program to purchase back and compensate owners of such weapons.

Whereas the Liberals have a minority of seats in Parliament, the laws may pass with the assist of the left-leaning New Democratic Celebration.

The deliberate laws would stop anyone subject to a safety order or who has engaged in home violence or stalking from obtaining or retaining a firearms license.

It should 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 legal guidelines would also ban some toys that appear to be real weapons, reminiscent of airsoft rifles. Final week Toronto police shot and killed a person carrying a pellet gun. read extra

"As a result of they appear the same as real firearms, police need to treat them as if they are actual. 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 as the "purple flag" provisions in the case of domestic violence, and mentioned he would really like extra information on enforcement and sources for measures such because the handgun freeze.

He utterly supported a crackdown on pretend weapons, which he said have been a "large problem."

"You can't distinguish between what's a reproduction firearm and what's a real firearm, notably when these incidences involving reproduction firearms happen usually in very dynamic, quickly evolving circumstances."

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

He stated authorities weren't using the instruments they already had to deal with gun violence, akin to calling people listed as references on gun license purposes.

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

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