Federal minister urges parliament to go handgun freeze

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Canada’s Public Security Minister Marco Mendicino says the federal Conservatives are responsible for legislative delays on handguns which have led to a backlog of firearm registrations.

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In Might, Ottawa launched a invoice that proposes freezing handgun gross sales and transfers, a transfer slammed on the time by Alberta’s chief firearms officer as an “intrusion” into the lives of gun homeowners. It additionally led to a spike in handgun gross sales, and, based on the Alberta authorities, a bottleneck in switch and license purposes that has in ballooning wait instances.

In a July 21 information launch, Alberta Justice Minister Tyler Shandro mentioned the federal authorities had finished Albertans and firearms homeowners “an ideal disservice.”

The provincial ministry mentioned the dramatic enhance in purchases throughout the nation was predictable, however the federal authorities did nothing to make sure the Canadian Firearms Program may deal with a flood of recent purposes despatched to the nationwide processing heart in New Brunswick.

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In a Tuesday interview with Postmedia throughout a visit to Edmonton, Mendicino mentioned the federal authorities anticipated a possible enhance in handgun purchases following the announcement. Nevertheless, he argued that if the Conservative Get together of Canada caucus had been on board to go the invoice and its rules extra shortly, that may have put a cease to new permits and any backlog.

“If we had unanimous consent, and if we had gotten the Conservatives on facet to go simply the rules, we may have mitigated towards among the spike in gross sales, however there was no urge for food. None. And that is unlucky,” he mentioned, urging his fellow MPs to assist the invoice when the Home of Commons returns on Sept. 19.

Federal Conservatives have supported some however not all measures within the invoice, and have proposed the laws be break up. This may permit some measures, like “crimson flag” legal guidelines that give courts or firearm officers the ability to droop or take away a person’s proper to a firearm, together with extra extreme penalties for gun smuggling, to go shortly, whereas different extra contentious parts of the invoice could be debated.

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After a Conservative movement was defeated in June, a joint assertion from Raquel Dancho, Conservative public security critic, and Pierre Paul-Hus, public providers and procurement critic, accused Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals of caring “extra about headlines and demonizing Canada’s sport shooters than preserving our communities protected from gun violence.”

Dancho’s workplace didn’t instantly reply to a request from Postmedia for remark Friday.

The invoice handed second studying earlier than the Home of Commons rose for summer season recess. Mendicino mentioned his high precedence is working to cut back gun violence, and a technique to do this is to go the rules and Invoice C-21 into regulation.

“We owe it to the survivors, we owe it to the victims, to not be shackled by complacency and so we have to hold pushing and we’re going to do this,” he mentioned, including the laws has the broad assist of Canadians.

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“It isn’t a foolproof technique, it is not going to assure that there’ll by no means be one other gun crime dedicated on this nation, however it’s going to assist and that is what regulation enforcement has mentioned, and that is what others have mentioned.”

The province mentioned the looming change in federal laws has meant Alberta’s Chief Firearms Workplace is seeing a 40 per cent enhance in emails inquiring concerning the standing of a firearms license utility or switch request.

Teri Bryant, the chief firearms officer, mentioned in a information launch her workplace is doing all it will possibly to assist work via the inquiries.

“However there’s solely a lot we will do with out the total co-operation and preparedness of our federal counterparts,” she mentioned.

In a tweet Sunday in response to Postmedia’s publication of this story, Shandro reiterated the Alberta authorities’s place on Invoice C-21 and its fallout, falsely claiming that the Liberal authorities has banned authorized handgun possession and asking why the Liberal occasion is not going through extra scrutiny media.

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Mendicino was in Edmonton to debate the overrepresentation of Indigenous individuals within the legal justice system, meet with the REACH Edmonton Council for Safer Communities, go to the Stan Daniels Therapeutic Centre, and take part in mass led by Pope Francis at Commonwealth Stadium.

He famous the federal authorities’s $250-million Constructing Safer Communities Fund, which goals to assist stop gun violence with grants for municipal efforts, will see an accelerated rollout. He additionally promised an upcoming announcement in Edmonton, although didn’t present particulars.

Mendicino mentioned the Liberal authorities respects accountable hunters, gun homeowners and leisure sports activities shooters, but it surely is sensible to place a handgun freeze in place. In accordance with latest numbers from Statistics Canada, handguns have develop into “essentially the most severe weapon current within the majority of firearm-related violent crimes.”

“The established order is not going to work,” Mendicino mentioned.

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