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

OTTAWA, Might 30 (Reuters) - Canada's government introduced legislation Monday to implement a "national freeze" on the sale and purchase of handguns as part of a gun control package deal that will additionally limit journal capacities and ban some toys that appear to be guns.

The new legislation, which resurrects some measures that were shelved last yr amid a national election, comes just a week after a gunman killed 19 kids and two academics in their classroom in Uvalde, Texas.

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

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

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

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

Canada has stronger gun laws than the US but while its gun homicide rate is less than one-fifth the U.S. rate it is higher than that of other wealthy nations and has been rising. In 2020 it was 5 instances Australia's charge.

The speed in each of 2020 and 2017 was the nation's highest since not less than 1997, in response 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 in the past within the wake of a mass taking pictures in Portapique, Nova Scotia - a move some firearms house owners say they're contesting in court. Talking alongside Trudeau, Public Security Minister Marco Mendicino confirmed the "imminent launch of the initial phase" of a program to buy again and compensate house owners of such weapons.

While the Liberals have a minority of seats in Parliament, the legislation may cross with the help of the left-leaning New Democratic Social gathering.

The deliberate laws would forestall anybody topic to a protection order or who has engaged in domestic violence or stalking from acquiring or holding a firearms license.

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

The new laws would additionally ban some toys that look like real weapons, corresponding to airsoft rifles. Last week Toronto police shot and killed a man carrying a pellet gun. learn extra

"As a result of they appear the same as real firearms, police need to treat them as if they are actual. This has led to tragic consequences," Justice Minister David Lametti informed reporters.

Tom Stamatakis, president of the Canadian Police Association, welcomed a few of the moves, such because the "purple flag" provisions within the case of home violence, and stated he would love more data on enforcement and assets for measures such because the handgun freeze.

He fully supported a crackdown on fake guns, which he mentioned were a "big challenge."

"You cannot distinguish between what's a reproduction firearm and what's a real firearm, significantly when these incidences involving reproduction firearms happen usually in very dynamic, quickly evolving circumstances."

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

He said authorities weren't using the instruments they already needed to sort out gun violence, corresponding to calling people listed as references on gun license functions.

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

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