Canada’s Associate Shadow Minister for Public Safety says the new gun laws brought in by the Liberals last Friday are a step backwards for legal gun owners in the country.
Speaking on the NL Morning News, Glen Motz says the rules to ban about 1,500 models of what the government considers “military style assault weapons” will do nothing to prevent another mass shooting like what happened in Nova Scotia last month.
“You know, we want to work together to fill the gaps [in current rules] that need to be filled,” he said. “Those are the things that Canadians expect to happen.”
The government says the guns it hopes to ban were designed for the battlefield, and not hunting or sport shooting, but Motz says notes that many of the guns on the list of banned weapons were already prohibited in Canada.
“Many of [the other guns on the list] are regular hunting rifles, many of them are non-restricted firearms right now,” Motz added.
“Those in the hunting and sport shooting communities felt in Bill C-71 that it didn’t really impact them that significantly, but now, this will change them and the firearms that they use for their sport and for hunting significantly.”
Instead of targeting legal gun owners, Motz says the government needs to ensure that people who should never own a gun aren’t able to get one.
“We need to increase access to mental health and addictions treatment,” he noted. “We need to stop the smuggling of firearms. We need to have support for police anti-gang and gun units, and prevention programs to keep our youth from getting involved in these activities, you know, holding offenders to account.”
Meanwhile, some gun-control advocates and the Trudeau government expect to see a coming overhaul of the way guns are classified in Canada as key to cementing the recent federal move to ban assault-style rifles.
Heidi Rathjen of the group PolySeSouvient says a permanent ban requires comprehensive legislative reform of the classification system spelled out in the Criminal Code. Otherwise, a gun manufacturer could simply design a new rifle that circumvents the regulations, or a future government could repeal the rules with the stroke of a pen.
Canada’s Public Safety Minister Bill Blair says legislation to ensure federal intentions can’t be easily overridden is expected soon.
– With files from The Canadian Press
