The rules surrounding handguns in Canada
Many are smuggled from the U.S., where firearms are easier to acquire
The carnage on Toronto’s Danforth Ave. Sunday night has raised questions about how handguns are regulated in Canada.
Here are the basics:
Are handguns legal in Canada?
Many handguns are classified as “restricted” under the federal Firearms Act, which means legal owners need a licence to possess or obtain one, and to buy ammunition for it. Owners also need registration certificates from the federal government, and special permits from their province’s chief firearms officer to transport their weapons, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
However, some handguns are classified as “prohibited,” which means they can only be possessed if they were legally obtained prior to being placed on the prohibited list (this is known as “grandfathering”). Prohibited handguns include those with barrels shorter than 105 millimetres, and handguns with magazines that hold more than 10 bullets.
There were 839,295 restricted firearms registered to individuals or businesses in Canada in 2016, according to the RCMP. How do you get a licence? You can only get a handgun licence for three reasons: if you are a collector, a target shooter, or need one for your job. Solomon Friedman, a criminal lawyer in Ottawa who has written a book on the Firearms Act, said this third category includes people like trappers, who need a handgun for protection from wildlife. If you want a licence, you have to apply for one of those categories to the provincial firearms officer, who verifies whether it’s true.
Next, applicants need to pass two training courses from government-accredited instructors. These courses deal with the law, ethics and safe use, Friedman said.
Disclosure of mental illness is up to the applicant, but Friedman said it’s possible the vetting process would flag concerns related to mental health if, for example, the applicant had an interaction with police during a mental health episode. If the applicant has a domestic partner, or an ex-partner from whom they’ve recently separated, that person also has to sign off on the application, Friedman said.
If your application is accepted after a cooling period of at least 28 days —“to ensure nobody is trying to obtain a firearm in the heat of passion,” Friedman said — you can get a handgun licence.
What other restrictions are in place? Owners need what’s called an “authorization to transport” their handguns, which are issued by provincial firearms officers. These authorizations specify where people can take their handguns, which are limited to their homes and places like shooting ranges and gunsmiths, Friedman said. In other words, you can’t just carry it around.
What about illegal guns? Scot Wortley, a criminologist at the University of Toronto, describes a black market for firearms not unlike that for drugs or illegal contraband goods.
Demand for these guns is typically based on a desire for protection, or to obtain what is seen in some criminal circles as a necessary tool of the trade, he said.
Where do illegal handguns come from? Many are smuggled across the border from the United States, where they are easier to acquire, Wortley said. He also said there is evidence that handguns in the illegal market have been stolen from licensed owners, while others are legally purchased by so-called “gun scalpers” who obtain licences and then sell them into the black market to people who would not be able to pass the government’s screening process.
About half of all guns used to commit crimes in Toronto were sourced domestically last year, Toronto police said. That’s a stark shift from 2012, when 75 per cent were trafficked from the U.S.
What’s the government doing? The federal government introduced legislation in March to beef up Canada’s gun laws. The bill would extend the RCMP’s background checks beyond the current five years, restore rules that require gun vendors to track sales, and create a legal obligation for those vendors to verify that people buying restricted firearms are licensed.