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

OTTAWA, Might 30 (Reuters) - Canada's authorities introduced laws Monday to implement a "nationwide freeze" on the sale and buy of handguns as part of a gun management bundle that would additionally restrict journal capacities and ban some toys that appear to be guns.

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

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

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"We want solely look south of the border to know that if we do not take action firmly and rapidly it gets worse and worse and gets harder 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 can be allowed to maintain them.

Authorities do not anticipate a run on handguns in anticipation of the freeze, in part as a result of they're so closely regulated already, an official mentioned in a briefing.

Canada has stronger gun laws than the USA however whereas its gun homicide fee is lower than one-fifth the U.S. fee it is greater than that of different wealthy nations and has been rising. In 2020 it was five occasions Australia's price.

The rate in each of 2020 and 2017 was the country's highest since a minimum of 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 shooting in Portapique, Nova Scotia - a move some firearms house owners say they are contesting in courtroom. Talking alongside Trudeau, Public Security Minister Marco Mendicino confirmed the "imminent launch of the initial phase" of a program to purchase again and compensate homeowners of such weapons.

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

The planned laws would forestall anyone subject to a protection order or who has engaged in domestic violence or stalking from obtaining or holding a firearms license.

It's going to also require long-gun magazines to be permanently altered to allow them to by no means maintain greater than 5 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 actual guns, equivalent to airsoft rifles. Final week Toronto police shot and killed a person carrying a pellet gun. read extra

"As a result of they give the impression of being the identical 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 number of the moves, such because the "pink flag" provisions within the case of home violence, and said he would really like more data on enforcement and assets for measures such because the handgun freeze.

He fully supported a crackdown on faux guns, which he stated have been a "massive challenge."

"You cannot distinguish between what's a reproduction firearm and what's an actual firearm, notably 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, mentioned the handgun freeze was "absurd."

He mentioned authorities were not utilizing the instruments they already had to tackle gun violence, equivalent to calling individuals listed as references on gun license functions.

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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 Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Ideas.