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

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

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

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau instructed reporters the new measures were wanted as gun violence was rising.

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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 will get more difficult to counter," he stated.

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

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

Canada has stronger gun legislation than the USA but while its gun murder price is less than one-fifth the U.S. rate it is greater than that of different wealthy international locations and has been rising. In 2020 it was five occasions Australia's rate.

The rate in each of 2020 and 2017 was the nation'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 ago in the wake of a mass shooting in Portapique, Nova Scotia - a transfer some firearms owners say they are contesting in courtroom. Talking alongside Trudeau, Public Security Minister Marco Mendicino confirmed the "imminent launch of the preliminary part" of a program to buy back and compensate owners of such weapons.

Whereas the Liberals have a minority of seats in Parliament, the laws could move with the support of the left-leaning New Democratic Occasion.

The planned legislation would stop anybody subject to a safety order or who has engaged in home violence or stalking from obtaining or maintaining a firearms license.

It'll additionally require long-gun magazines to be permanently altered so they can never hold more than five rounds and will ban the sale and transfer of large-capacity magazines.

The brand new laws would additionally ban some toys that appear like real guns, equivalent to airsoft rifles. Last week Toronto police shot and killed a man carrying a pellet gun. read more

"Because they appear the same as real firearms, police must treat them as if they are actual. This has led to tragic consequences," Justice Minister David Lametti told reporters.

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

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

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

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

He mentioned authorities were not utilizing the instruments they already needed to deal with gun violence, corresponding to calling individuals listed as references on gun license applications.

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Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa and Anna Mehler Paperny in Toronto, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien and Richard Pullin

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