Five things to know about Canada’s gun control legislation

The mass shooting that left 21 dead at a Texas elementary school last week shook America and reverberated across the globe, with condolences pouring in from world leaders.

And although it remains unclear whether the U.S. Congress will pass new gun reforms, Canada’s government on Monday introduced legislation that includes a variety of stricter gun control provisions.

The proposal from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s administration includes a national freeze on the sale of handguns and an expansive red flag law, part of a package that it says would amount to the toughest restrictions the nation has placed on guns in 40 years.

Here’s a closer look at the gun control legislation introduced yesterday.

National freeze on the sale and transfer of handguns

The bill would impose a national freeze on both the sale and transfer of handguns across the country by the fall if it becomes law. It includes an exception for relevant businesses as well as individuals with a handgun license who have proved they need it for protection or for their profession.

Canada says handguns were responsible for 59 percent of firearm-related crimes from 2009 to 2020, according to a news release from Trudeau’s administration. And the number of handguns in Canada rose 71 percent between 2010 and 2020, reaching approximately 1.1 million.

The bill would also ban the sale of large capacity magazines and modify long-gun magazines so they can only hold five rounds, making it a criminal offense to alter magazines above the legal limit.

“We’ve thought about this long and hard,” Trudeau said at a Monday news conference. “This is not an easy thing to do, but we all agree this is the responsible thing to do.”

Expands red flag laws and increases penalties for gun violence

Other measures in the proposal would expand red flag laws, increase penalties for perpetrators of gun violence and bolster law enforcement capabilities.

The proposed red flag measure would strip firearm licenses if a court deems an individual a danger to themselves or others — similar to laws in about 19 states across the U.S.

A chief firearms officer would also be able to suspend a person’s license if they have a reasonable suspicion the person could be a threat.

The red flag law would also apply to those accused of domestic violence or criminal harassment, such as stalking.

Trudeau’s administration says victims of domestic violence are five times more likely to die by gun violence, while 600 intimate partner violence incidents in 2018 involved firearms.

Additionally, the legislation raises the criminal punishment for firearm violations, bumping the maximum sentence from 10 to 14 years for indictable weapons offenses.

Marco Mendicino, the minister of public safety, said at the Monday news conference this was a “complex problem” but one they were “taking head on.”

“These efforts mark the most significant efforts at gun reform in a generation,” Mendicino said. “We must fight the violence that is caused by inaction, indifference and inequity. We owe it to … everyone who has been impacted by gun violence.”

Buyback program for assault-style firearms

In 2020, a gunman went on a shooting spree in the province of Nova Scotia, killing 23 people and injuring three others before he was shot by police. The incident prompted Canada to ban more than 1,500 models of assault-style firearms.

On Monday, Mendicino announced the “imminent launch” of a mandatory buyback program to compensate individuals who still own assault rifles. He also said another 300 assault-style rifles have been added to the list.

Canada last year also increased its background check laws to cover the lifetime of an applicant rather than just the five years before the application process.

Opposition from Conservative Canadian lawmakers

Several Conservative members of the Canadian Parliament have already spoken out against the legislation.

Raquel Dancho, who represents Kildonan-St. Paul in the Canadian Parliament, said the legislation “fails to focus on the root cause of gun violence in our cities: illegal guns smuggled into Canada by criminal gangs.”

“The PM has had 7 years to fix this serious issue yet he continues to chase headlines and bury his head in the sand,” she wrote on Twitter.

Comes after years of rising gun violence in Canada

Canada has struggled with rising gun violence. While all violent offenses have stayed relatively flat, firearm-related violence spiked in 2015 and has slowly climbed since.

In 2013, firearms accounted for 26 percent of all homicides, according to a government report. In 2020, firearms accounted for 37 percent of all homicides.

More than 8,300 criminal incidents involved guns in 2020, and there were about 743 total homicides in Canada that year.

Most provinces have experienced a rise in gun violence, but British Columbia and Ontario have seen a particularly significant increase.