City urging Ottawa to ban handguns, assault weapons

The party in power at Montreal’s city council wants to put pressure on the federal government to ban handguns and assault weapons.

“These are weapons that are principally designed to kill people, and we don’t believe that any law-abiding citizen really needs to own such a weapon,” said Alex Norris, a city councillor and chair of Montreal’s public security commission.

The city council will debate on Monday whether to pass a declaration urging Ottawa to outlaw certain types of guns and expand the criteria used in background checks.

The timing is intentional: their vote will come the day before the federal cabinet is set to begin a three-day-retreat in Nanaimo, B.C. Cabinet members will probably discuss gun control legislation there, a federal official said.

Bill C-71 — firearms legislation currently before Parliament — does not include a ban on assault weapons or handguns, the Montreal declaration points out.

“They are not addressing the question of whether or not these guns should be legal,” said Heidi Rathjen of PolySeSouvient, referring to the federal bill.

Her group brings together people and family members who survived the 1989 massacre of 14 women at École Polytechnique de Montréal. PolySeSouvient was happy to hear about Montreal’s declaration, Rathjen said.

The declaration could help focus the debate on the “fundamental question of whether or not ordinary citizens should be allowed to own assault weapons privately, for recreational purposes,” Rathjen said.

When firearms were used, 60 per cent of violent crimes committed in 2016 involved handguns, according to Statistics Canada.

If it passes, Montreal’s declaration will be “in solidarity” with a recently-adopted Toronto City Council motion that also called for a ban on certain guns, Norris said.

People looking to buy guns should also be subject to a wider set of screening criteria, Norris said. That could include banning the sale of firearms to people who are under restraining orders, he said.

“Far too often, people who are obviously unstable — have suicidal or violent tendencies — have still been able to obtain firearms legally,” Norris said.

When asked how his administration would respond to people who use these guns recreationally, Norris said: “Public safety trumps everything else.”

The official opposition in city hall hadn’t yet seen the declaration, but supported the measure in principle, Lionel Perez said.

One owner of a Montreal firearms store said a ban on handguns and assault weapons would have a “major impact” on his business. Rudy Vendittelli, the owner of Dante Sports in Little Italy, called expanded background checks “fantastic,” but said a ban would penalize the wrong people.

“Law-abiding people are penalized for doing nothing wrong,” said Vendittelli. His customers use handguns for competition and sport, he said.

Because Projet Montréal holds a majority of seats in city council, the declaration is expected to pass Monday.