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

OTTAWA, May 30 (Reuters) - Canada's government launched laws Monday to implement a "national freeze" on the sale and buy of handguns as part of a gun management package that would additionally restrict journal capacities and ban some toys that look like guns.

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

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau instructed reporters the new measures had been wanted as gun violence was increasing.

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

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

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

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

The speed in every of 2020 and 2017 was the country's highest since not less than 1997, according to Statistics Canada.

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

While the Liberals have a minority of seats in Parliament, the laws may move with the assist of the left-leaning New Democratic Party.

The deliberate laws would prevent anybody topic to a safety order or who has engaged in home violence or stalking from obtaining or holding a firearms license.

It can also require long-gun magazines to be completely altered to allow them to by no means hold 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 appear to be real weapons, akin to airsoft rifles. Last week Toronto police shot and killed a person carrying a pellet gun. read extra

"Because they look the same as real firearms, police have to treat them as if they're real. This has led to tragic consequences," Justice Minister David Lametti told reporters.

Tom Stamatakis, president of the Canadian Police Association, welcomed a few of the strikes, such as the "pink flag" provisions within the case of domestic violence, and mentioned he would really like extra info on enforcement and assets for measures such because the handgun freeze.

He fully supported a crackdown on faux guns, which he said were a "large problem."

"You can not distinguish between what's a reproduction firearm and what's an actual firearm, notably when these incidences involving reproduction firearms occur usually in very dynamic, shortly evolving circumstances."

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

He said authorities weren't utilizing the tools they already needed to sort out 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

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