> Will Bill C-21 help reduce Canada’s gun-related crimes?

Matthew Fraser
Opinions Editor

 

|: may come as a surprise to some to find out that Canada has had and maintained extensive and strict gun laws for nearly a century. It may be even more
surprising to hear that assault rifles have been illegal in Canada since 1976 (assault rifles must have fully automatic capabilities by definition). Then why did
PM Trudeau ban them last year? Well, he did not; using a clever twist of words he banned “assault style weapons,” a term which has no legal definition in
Canada. But, in addition to his ban on those firearms, PM Trudeau has recently revealed that through Bill C-21 he will be working to allow municipalities to

ban handguns.

A GUN’S HISTORY
For many firearms owners this is a worst-case scenario as they suddenly may
be made into criminals in the very city they live in simply for going through
the legal process to purchase a handgun. One provision in the bill allows
firearms to be seized—without warrant or prior notice to the defendants—
based off testimonies given by any person who wishes to have guns removed
from another individual for any reason. As lan Runkle, an Alberta-based
firearms lawyer explains, this effectively permits swatting. Yet Trudeau has
stated that he does not want to punish law-abiding citizens and instead wants
to target illegal guns and gang violence. But is this method
going to achieve that?
The first thing to understand when
considering the efficacy of this bill is how
handguns are regulated in this country.
Since 1934, all handguns in Canada
have been subject to a mandatory
registry, and because of this
a gun can have its complete
history traced. From
where it was imported,
manufactured, first legally
sold, resold, all the way
to the current owner—
this is all tracked. In
our modern system, all
handguns are registered
through its owners
restricted firearms license
(RPAL) and monitored by
the RCMP. By default, the
RCMP knows exactly who
owns which handguns, how
many of them they own, and
where they reside. In turn, this
means that when the municipal
handgun bans are handed out, the
RCMP will be able to hand local police
an exact list of which licensees have pistols
and where they live.

DOES THE BILL SOLVE THE PROBLEM?
So how will this help us address illegal gun ownership? The answer:
it won't.

The RCMP is unable to track illegal guns simply because they are all
unregistered. So, they can’t (as much as we wish they could) force illegal gun
owners to give up their guns. However, they can certainly come knocking
on the doors of law-abiding citizens while demanding they leave the area or
relinquish their property.

Why can’t they simply sell their guns? Simply put, the only people gun
owners could sell their firearms to are other restricted firearms licensees. If

One provision in the bill allows firearms to
be seized—without warrant or prior notice to
the defendants—based off testimonies given by
any person who wishes to have guns removed
from another individual for any reason.

 

you currently have an RPAL you likely already own a handgun,
therefore, are likely worried that you will have to sell
your handguns as well. If you have an RPAL and
no guns, you won’t be buying any now either.
Because any municipality can choose to
ban handguns, it effectively makes it
impractical to buy the firearms that will
soon be offered. Add the fact that
everyone will soon be flooding the
market with these firearms; it will
be nearly impossible for all the
guns to be purchased by the few
people in places without bans.
What about that gun buyback
program, can’t they turn them in?
Unfortunately, that program only
covers prohibited firearms. Since
a municipal ban does not change
the status of a firearm, even if the
police were to take it, the original
owner would go uncompensated as
the gun is not technically prohibited.
If the federal government were to
include a buy back program for these
firearms, the cost of the current buyback
program (likely underestimated already)
would double.
Despite the federal government and its
representatives claiming for years that the amount
of guns being recovered with Canadian origins have
increased, they have failed to provide the facts and information
that they base this assumption on. In fact, a Globe and Mail article from
2019 details the run around, obfuscations, demands for money, and
other hurdles they faced when they asked all levels and multiple police
departments for this information. It just so happens to be that the federal
government does not require police to ascertain the origins of crime
firearms, and since lab technicians are quite expensive, they just don’t do
it. Even when they have information about the origins of a firearm, the
information is not aggregated into a database and instead exists with the
firearm in connection to its original case. So, even if half the guns obtained by

Illustration by Athena Little