NEW GUN CONTROL IN WORKS
Ottawa vows to introduce legislation before the end of the year
The federal government says it will introduce new gun control legislation before the end of the year as it works to fulfil a suite of promises made on the campaign trail more than two years ago.
Despite promising more than two years ago to make it harder for “criminals to get, and use, handguns and assault weapons,” the Liberal Party has been slow to enact its promised reforms.
This spring the Saskatoon StarPhoenix learned that the government had deferred the introduction of a controversial firearm marking scheme by 18 months despite promising to introduce the long-delayed rules “immediately.”
It is not yet clear what the new legislation will contain, but Scott Bardsley, a spokesman for Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, said in an email that it will be “consistent with the measures laid out in our election platform.”
“The government believes in effective firearms measures that prioritize public safety while ensuring fair treatment for lawabiding firearms owners … To be clear, we have said all along that we will not recreate a federal long-gun registry, and we won’t.”
The government said in its 2015 platform that changes made by former prime minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government have “steadily weakened our gun laws in ways that make Canadians more vulnerable and communities more dangerous.”
Since taking power, the Liberals have changed rules regarding decisions about weapon classification and overhauled the Canadian Firearms Advisory committee to include “a broad range of interests because decisions about firearms affect all Canadians.”
The government has not, however, fulfilled most of the gun control promises in its platform.
Those include enhanced background checks for anyone seeking to buy a handgun or a restricted firearm — a classification that includes not just pistols and revolvers, but some semi-automatic rifles — and requiring vendors to keep inventory and sales records.
In May, the Liberal government quietly deferred plans to introduce the firearms marking regulations, which would require every new gun made or imported into the country be engraved with the year and either “Canada” or “CA.”
The marking rules have been delayed eight times by four successive governments.
Gun advocates have said the rules will substantially increase the price of every gun in the country, including air guns and paintball markers. Goodale said this spring that the decade-old rules need “substantial re-writing.”