Feds seem open to extending gun licences

As debate over stricter gun control ratchets up in the U.S. in the wake of last week’s mass shooting in Connecticut, there is fear among gun-control advocates in Canada that the Conservative government is moving to further loosen some of this country’s gun rules.

While Prime Minister Harper earlier this month threw cold water on a government committee’s suggestion of reclassifying “prohibited” weapons as “restricted” ones, the government appears to be open to some of the committee’s other recommendations, including extending the life of firearms licences from five years to 10 years or longer.

“We may consider common-sense changes to ensure that law-abiding firearms owners are not treated like criminals,” Julie Carmichael, a spokeswoman for Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, said in an email Monday. She stressed, however, that there will always be licensing requirements.

Wendy Cukier, president of the Coalition for Gun Control, said in an interview that Canada is the only industrialized country outside of the U.S. that has relaxed its gun control laws in recent years.

U.S. President Barack Obama is facing pressure to tighten gun controls following a shooting rampage last Friday at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., that left 27 people dead, including 20 children.

In a vigil for the victims Sunday night, Obama strongly hinted at the need for tighter regulations, saying that “these tragedies must end.”

“What choice do we have?” he said. “Are we really prepared to say that we’re powerless in the face of such carnage, that the politics are too hard?”

Here in Canada, critics say the federal government has moved in the opposite direction with the repeal of the long-gun registry.