“These are the strongest measures to combat gun violence our country has ever seen,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at a news conference in the capital Ottawa on Tuesday.
The legislation, which will take months to become law, also introduces a voluntary repurchase program for the estimated 150,000 to 200,000 legal assault style weapons in Canada. Owners of the now banned firearms can still choose to keep them, even though they could no longer use them as guns and would be subject to strict licensing and storage laws.
Mayors seek solution to deteriorating gun violence
Trudeau acknowledged that there would be political consequences on both sides of the arms control debate. The mayors of Canada’s two largest cities, Toronto and Montreal, have called for a national arms embargo as gun violence worsens in those cities.
In a statement obtained by CNN, Toronto Mayor John Tory said city staff were reviewing the new set of proposed laws and that the city welcomed the federal government’s efforts to curb gun violence. But Tory also reiterated his city’s support for a national gun ban.
“The Toronto City Council was clear that it supports a national gun ban. The federal government has said the changes announced today will enable municipalities to ban handguns and include federal fines for those who violate local ordinances. The city is looking forward to details from the Government of Canada on how such a ban would work and what its impact would be on gun violence, ‘Tory said in the statement.
Federal government officials said cities could not act alone and that provincial governments, several of which indicated they did not support the ban on small arms, would eventually have jurisdiction.
Law enforcement officials say random gun violence in Canadian cities continues to escalate, and deaths are increasingly linked to gang violence.
A teenage girl was killed in a shooting earlier this month in Montreal, which prompted the mayor to once again call for a national handgun ban.
“Of course there are political elements in this, but the core of the reason we do it, the core of the reason why Canadians want to do it, is to keep our communities safe. In Canada, people can use weapons for hunting and for sport shooting,” “Nowhere in this country is there a need for military-style assault weapons,” Trudeau said.
In his news conference, Trudeau emphasized an important part of the new laws, the “red flag” and “yellow flag”. He said they would help combat intimate partner and gender-based violence by allowing people to apply to the courts to order someone’s firearm be removed or to have their gun license suspended.
Neither side happy
Advocates for gun control have noted that although the proposed legislation is comprehensive, it does not go far enough.
“This is imperfect legislation, but a very Canadian approach to addressing a complex issue,” said Dr. Philip Berger, senior adviser to Canadian doctors protecting guns, said in a statement. He added: “To make further changes necessary, the 80% of Canadians who support arms control need political parties other than the Liberals to act and be accountable.”
If passed, the new law would also ban the modification of the cartridge magazine component of a firearm and ban the depiction of violence in firearms advertisements. There will be stricter restrictions on the importation of ammunition and a ban on the import, export, sale and transfer of all replica firearms.
The Conservative Party of Canada has challenged the proposed legislation, saying it punishes legitimate gun owners and does not pay adequate attention to the issue of guns being smuggled into the United States from Canada.
“I think Mr Trudeau is misleading people when he tries to suggest that buying things from hunters and other law-abiding Canadians will somehow solve the problem of shootings and criminal gang activity in the big cities. It ignores that. the real problem and it is dividing Canadians, ‘Erin O’Toole, leader of the Conservative Party, told a news conference on Tuesday.
In a detailed technical briefing, the government outlined that it would continue to combat arms smuggling and trafficking by tightening its enforcement and increasing fines. The Trudeau government has also said it will contact US President Joe Biden’s government to find new ways to work together on cross-border issues.