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

OTTAWA, Could 30 (Reuters) - Canada's government introduced legislation Monday to implement a "nationwide freeze" on the sale and buy of handguns as a part of a gun control package deal that may also limit magazine capacities and ban some toys that look like guns.

The new legislation, which resurrects some measures that have been shelved last year amid a nationwide election, comes just a week after a gunman killed 19 youngsters and two lecturers of their classroom in Uvalde, Texas.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau informed reporters the new measures have been needed as gun violence was increasing.

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"We need solely look south of the border to know that if we do not take motion firmly and rapidly it gets worse and worse and gets more difficult to counter," he said.

The handgun freeze would contain exceptions, including 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, partially as a result of they're so closely regulated already, an official stated in a briefing.

Canada has stronger gun legislation than america but while its gun murder rate is less than one-fifth the U.S. fee it's increased than that of other rich countries 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 at the least 1997, in line with Statistics Canada.

Canada banned the sale and use of some 1,500 fashions of assault weapons, like the AR-15 rifle, two years in the past in the wake of a mass taking pictures in Portapique, Nova Scotia - a move some firearms homeowners say they are contesting in courtroom. Speaking alongside Trudeau, Public Security Minister Marco Mendicino confirmed the "imminent launch of the preliminary part" of a program to buy again and compensate homeowners of such weapons.

Whereas the Liberals have a minority of seats in Parliament, the laws might go with the support of the left-leaning New Democratic Get together.

The planned laws would prevent anyone subject to a protection order or who has engaged in domestic violence or stalking from obtaining or preserving 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 switch of large-capacity magazines.

The new legal guidelines would also ban some toys that appear to be real guns, akin to airsoft rifles. Last week Toronto police shot and killed a person carrying a pellet gun. read more

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

Tom Stamatakis, president of the Canadian Police Association, welcomed a number of the moves, such as the "pink flag" provisions within the case of domestic violence, and mentioned he would like more data on enforcement and sources for measures such as the handgun freeze.

He fully supported a crackdown on pretend guns, which he stated were a "huge problem."

"You cannot distinguish between what's a replica firearm and what's an actual firearm, particularly when these incidences involving reproduction firearms happen typically in very dynamic, rapidly evolving circumstances."

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

He said authorities weren't using the tools they already had to sort out gun violence, akin to calling folks 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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