Key takeaways:
- Liberals promised to work with regions and territories that wanted to restrict handguns outright.
- The Liberal government introduced new legislation on control earlier today.
New steps to deny handguns are anticipated to be a central part of federal legislation tabled this afternoon, the Liberal government’s latest — and a probably most aggressive — suite of proposed actions to control access to firearms in Canada.
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino will introduce the bill after the daily query period before joining Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and supportive voices, including several city mayors, from across the nation for a news conference at Ottawa’s Chateau Laurier hotel.
The legislation will restore some federal criteria that did not pass before last year’s general election and flesh out new recommendations made during the next campaign.
They have a compulsory buyback of guns the government thinks assault-style guns, a crackdown on high-capacity firearm magazines, and efforts to fight gun smuggling.
The Liberals also vowed to work with regions and territories that want to prohibit handguns outright.
Read more: Dry spring forcing some Alberta cattle herders to evaluate their herds
Though a national ban is not expected in the bill, the government could take measures in that direction by phasing out handgun ownership with a cap on the number of firearm licenses, restricting the importation and manufacture of new handguns, or enacting stricter storage controls.
Prominent gun-control advocacy group PolySeSouvient has blamed the government’s policy of leaving a handgun prohibition up to particular areas, saying it would make Canada an inadequate patchwork of rules.
Trudeau supported the approach last week, noting “a range of opinions and views across the nation.”
Talking about the Robb Elementary School shooting that killed 19 kids and two adults in Uvalde, Texas, Trudeau said Canadians are “extremely united” in wanting to decrease gun violence at home.
“That unity is what we’ll move on with as we take new measures in the coming weeks on gun custody,” Trudeau said at a news conference in Saskatchewan last Tuesday.
Source – cbc.ca
