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

OTTAWA, May 30 (Reuters) - Canada's authorities introduced laws Monday to implement a "national freeze" on the sale and buy of handguns as part of a gun management bundle that may additionally limit magazine capacities and ban some toys that appear like weapons.

The brand new laws, which resurrects some measures that have been shelved last year amid a national election, comes only a week after a gunman killed 19 children and two lecturers in their classroom in Uvalde, Texas.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau informed reporters the brand new measures were needed as gun violence was growing.

Register

"We'd like only look south of the border to know that if we don't take action firmly and quickly it gets worse and worse and will get harder to counter," he stated.

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

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

Canada has stronger gun laws than the United States but while its gun murder rate is less than one-fifth the U.S. rate it's increased than that of different wealthy nations and has been rising. In 2020 it was 5 occasions Australia's price.

The speed in each of 2020 and 2017 was the nation's highest since at the very least 1997, according to Statistics Canada.

Canada banned the sale and use of some 1,500 models of assault weapons, like the AR-15 rifle, two years ago within the wake of a mass shooting in Portapique, Nova Scotia - a move some firearms owners say they're contesting in courtroom. Talking alongside Trudeau, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino confirmed the "imminent launch of the preliminary part" of a program to purchase back and compensate owners of such weapons.

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

The deliberate laws would prevent anybody subject to a safety order or who has engaged in home violence or stalking from acquiring or retaining a firearms license.

It will also require long-gun magazines to be permanently altered to allow them to by no means hold greater than 5 rounds and will ban the sale and switch of large-capacity magazines.

The new laws would additionally ban some toys that look like actual guns, resembling airsoft rifles. Final week Toronto police shot and killed a man carrying a pellet gun. learn extra

"As a result of they give the impression of being the same as real firearms, police need to treat them as if they are real. This has led to tragic penalties," Justice Minister David Lametti told reporters.

Tom Stamatakis, president of the Canadian Police Association, welcomed a number of the moves, such because the "crimson flag" provisions in the case of home violence, and stated he would really like more data on enforcement and resources for measures such as the handgun freeze.

He utterly supported a crackdown on pretend guns, which he stated were a "big challenge."

"You cannot distinguish between what's a reproduction firearm and what's a real firearm, particularly when these incidences involving replica firearms occur often in very dynamic, shortly evolving circumstances."

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

He stated authorities weren't utilizing the instruments they already had to deal with gun violence, similar to calling folks listed as references on gun license applications.

Register

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 Principles.