The federal government has come up with a revised plan for its gun ban under Bill C-21, which Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino says will ban certain types of “AR-15 style” firearms after the legislation comes into effect.
The new legislation, if passed, would not ban any currently legal long guns, such as shotguns and rifles. However, the Liberals’ national handgun freeze would remain in place.
“We’ve seen too many deaths as a result of assault-style firearms, AR-15-style firearms,“ stated the minister. “These reforms are about keeping AR-15 assault-style firearms off of our streets, while at the same time respecting gun owners significantly.”
Mendicino said the Liberal government “understands that hunting isn’t just a pastime. It’s a tradition passed down from one generation to the next. I want to be clear that our government is not targeting hunters and law-abiding gun owners.”
Mendicino said he had “remained in very close contact with all of the victims and survivors groups, because I know how important it is and how much encouragement they have given us. And they continue to be an inspiration to push this government to do the types of reforms that we’re doing right now.”
“We will save lives with it,” Mendicino said.
New Definition
Bill Blair, minister of emergency preparedness, was also present at the news conference. He said: “The overwhelming majority of firearm owners in this country are law-abiding, they are responsible, they acquire their firearms legally. They store them securely, they use them responsibly, and they obey all our laws ... And to be very clear, we are not doing anything that’s going to interfere with those lawful activities of hunting and sports shooting in this country.”According to Mendicino, the Liberal government will introduce a new “standard technical definition” that contains “the physical characteristics of an assault-style firearm.” The bill will only apply to firearms designed and brought on the market after Bill C-21 comes into force.
The bill will also only apply to the 2.3 million law-abiding Canadians who legally own a firearm, or who are licensed to possess one by holding a government-issued Possession and Acquisition License (PAL), given that criminals involved in gun crime typically do not possess a PAL. However, Mendicino said the new proposed amendments will not impact “existing firearms” in the hands of legal, licensed gun owners. The handgun freeze will still be in effect.
The minister also brought up the last election, stating Conservatives pledged to get rid of the Liberal ban on “assault-style firearms.”
New Criminal Code Definition
The government said it was following recommendations from the Mass Casualty Commission’s final report. The amendment to Bill C-21, provided during a technical briefing before the press conference, would write a new definition into Canada’s Criminal Code to define a “prohibited firearm” as one that is not a handgun; discharges centrefire ammunition; is semi-automatic; and was originally designed with a detachable magazine with a capacity of six or more cartridges.The amendment would require long gun magazines to be permanently limited to five rounds of ammunition in the cartridge, and ban future sales of magazines holding more than five rounds. It would require a review of the definition in five years.
The new plan places responsibility on manufacturers to classify their firearms before they come on the market. Manufacturers would be required to have a classification for each new gun brought to market under the Firearm Reference Table (FRT).
Mendicino also said the government plans to “crack down on ghost guns,” making it a criminal offence to buy firearms parts, including barrels and slides for handguns, and/or use 3D technology to make a “ghost gun.”
There is a provision stating that Bill C-21 is to be taken as “upholding the Aboriginal and treaty rights of Indigenous peoples.” Mendicino also announced plans to create a Canadian Firearms Advisory Committee, which he suggested would provide “expert, non-partisan advice on how we classify firearms.”
The minister suggested the committee will make recommendations about how to classify guns and include “voices from rural and northern communities, indigenous peoples, industry leaders, law enforcement, and gun control advocates, and more.”
Ban
In May 2020, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau introduced a ban through an Order-in-Council of more than 1,500 types of legally purchased firearms, which included guns already in use for hunting and sports shooting. In October 2022, Trudeau banned the purchase of handguns.In November, during a clause-by-clause review by a House of Commons committee, the federal government proposed surprise, last-minute amendments to Bill C-21, which would have banned semi-automatic firearms, including centrefire rifles and shotguns that can accept a detachable magazine for ammunition, and any gun that could accept more than five cartridges. The ban would have impacted the most commonly owned gun in Canada, the SKS rifle, which is owned by more than 200,000 Canadians and is particularly popular with indigenous communities.
The government withdrew the amendments in February after outcry from legal gun owners, politicians from all parties, aboriginal groups, industry members, and others who said they would prohibit common hunting rifles and shotguns used routinely by hunters and farmers.
