Justin Trudeau

New legislation to further strengthen gun control in Canada.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Bill C-21 on Monday, with some of the strongest measures in over 40 years.

This includes new rules on handguns, “We are introducing legislation to implement a national freeze on handgun ownership. What this means, is it will no longer be possible to buy, sell, transfer or import handguns anywhere in Canada,” Trudeau said.

“Some 55,000 new handguns have been registered on average every year over the last decade and nearly 75 per cent increase over that period. We are putting an end to that trend. We are not waiting for this bill to pass to take action. Today, the table changes to regulations under the Firearms Act to bring these handgun prohibitions into force as soon as possible,” Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino added.

The Minister of Public Safety has already tabled regulatory amendments in both the House of Commons and the Senate. These regulations will help stop the growth of personally owned handguns in Canada and are expected to come into force in Fall 2022.

Other measures include:

• Taking away the firearms licenses of those involved in acts of domestic violence or criminal harassment, such as stalking.
• Fighting gun smuggling and trafficking by increasing criminal penalties, providing more tools for law enforcement to investigate firearms crimes, and strengthening border security measures.
• Addressing intimate partner violence, gender-based violence, and self-harm involving firearms by creating a new “red flag” law that would enable courts to require that individuals considered a danger to themselves or others surrender their firearms to law enforcement, while protecting the safety of the individual applying to the red flag process, including by protecting their identity. In addition, the government will invest $6.6 million to help raise awareness of the new law and provide supports to vulnerable and marginalized groups to navigate the provisions.

In addition to this new legislation, the Government of Canada will 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 under the Criminal Code.

“We recognize that the vast majority of gun owners use them safely and in accordance with the law. But other than using firearms for sport shooting, and hunting, there is no reason anyone in Canada should need guns in their everyday lives. And Canadians certainly don’t need assault-style weapons that were designed to kill the largest number of people in the shortest amount of time,” Trudeau stated.

“Canadians are united in wanting more done to keep communities safe, and prevent suicides and gender-based violence. And that’s exactly why we’re here today. Because the consequences are real. Today, we’re joined by families and friends who are victims of gun violence, including the mass shootings at Polytechnic and at the Quebec City mosque. Losing a child to gun violence, or a brother or a sister or a spouse or a parent or a friend, this should never happen,” the Prime Minister added.

In 2020, the Prime Minister announced the ban of over 1,500 models and variants of assault-style firearms. A buyback program will be introduced to offer fair compensation to affected owners and businesses.

Mendicino says the government made a commitment to Canadians to tackle gun violence, “The legislation we introduced today is part of our comprehensive strategy to promote safe and responsible gun laws, invest in law enforcement to stop organized crime and illegal gun smuggling at the border, and to invest in communities to address root causes and prevent gun crime from occurring in the first place. This legislation will help to reduce gun violence and keep Canadians safe.”