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

OTTAWA, Might 30 (Reuters) - Canada's authorities launched legislation Monday to implement a "national freeze" on the sale and purchase of handguns as a part of a gun control package that will additionally limit journal capacities and ban some toys that appear like weapons.

The new laws, which resurrects some measures that had been shelved final yr amid a nationwide election, comes only a week after a gunman killed 19 children and two academics of their classroom in Uvalde, Texas.

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

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

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

Authorities don't count on a run on handguns in anticipation of the freeze, in part as a result of they're so heavily regulated already, an official mentioned in a briefing.

Canada has stronger gun legislation than the USA but whereas its gun murder rate is less than one-fifth the U.S. rate it is increased than that of different rich nations and has been rising. In 2020 it was five instances Australia's fee.

The rate in each of 2020 and 2017 was the country's highest since at least 1997, based on 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're contesting in court docket. Speaking alongside Trudeau, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino confirmed the "imminent launch of the preliminary section" of a program to buy back and compensate homeowners of such weapons.

Whereas the Liberals have a minority of seats in Parliament, the laws could cross with the assist of the left-leaning New Democratic Party.

The deliberate laws would forestall anyone subject to a protection order or who has engaged in domestic violence or stalking from acquiring or retaining a firearms license.

It's going to additionally 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 new legal guidelines would also ban some toys that appear like actual guns, such as airsoft rifles. Last week Toronto police shot and killed a person carrying a pellet gun. read more

"As a result of they look the identical as actual firearms, police have to deal with 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 Affiliation, welcomed some of the moves, such because the "purple flag" provisions within the case of home violence, and said he would really like more information on enforcement and resources for measures such because the handgun freeze.

He utterly supported a crackdown on fake guns, which he said were a "huge problem."

"You can not distinguish between what's a reproduction firearm and what's a real firearm, particularly when these incidences involving reproduction firearms occur typically in very dynamic, rapidly evolving circumstances."

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

He stated authorities weren't using the tools they already had to deal with gun violence, reminiscent of 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, Enhancing by Rosalba O'Brien and Richard Pullin

Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Trust Rules.