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

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

The new laws, which resurrects some measures that had been shelved last 12 months amid a national election, comes just a week after a gunman killed 19 youngsters and two academics in their classroom in Uvalde, Texas.

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

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"We want only look south of the border to know that if we don't take action firmly and rapidly it will get worse and worse and gets more difficult to counter," he mentioned.

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

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

Canada has stronger gun legislation than the US however whereas its gun homicide charge is lower than one-fifth the U.S. charge it's increased than that of different rich international locations and has been rising. In 2020 it was five occasions Australia's charge.

The speed in each of 2020 and 2017 was the country's highest since no less than 1997, in line with Statistics Canada.

Canada banned the sale and use of some 1,500 models of assault weapons, just like the AR-15 rifle, two years in the past in the wake of a mass shooting in Portapique, Nova Scotia - a transfer some firearms house owners say they are contesting in courtroom. Talking alongside Trudeau, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino confirmed the "imminent launch of the preliminary part" 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 might cross with the help of the left-leaning New Democratic Party.

The planned legislation would prevent anybody subject to a protection order or who has engaged in home violence or stalking from acquiring or holding a firearms license.

It will also require long-gun magazines to be permanently altered to allow them to never hold greater than five rounds and can ban the sale and switch of large-capacity magazines.

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

"Because they look the identical as real firearms, police must deal with them as if they are real. This has led to tragic penalties," Justice Minister David Lametti instructed reporters.

Tom Stamatakis, president of the Canadian Police Affiliation, welcomed a number of the moves, such as the "crimson flag" provisions in the case of home violence, and mentioned he would like extra info on enforcement and resources for measures such because the handgun freeze.

He utterly supported a crackdown on faux weapons, which he said had been a "big challenge."

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

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

He said authorities were not using the instruments they already needed to tackle gun violence, akin to calling people listed as references on gun license purposes.

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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 Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Trust Rules.