Liberals new gun law will make sellers record buyers
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/03/2018 (2200 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
OTTAWA — The Liberals unveiled their firearms bill Tuesday, insisting that tightened rules around who can own a gun won’t become a “back-door registry” as the Conservatives warn.
Bill C-71 would require gun retailers to keep records of firearms inventory and sales for at least 20 years, which police could search with the permission of a court.
The legislation would expand the scope of background checks on those who want to acquire a gun. Instead of just the five years immediately preceding a licence application, personal history questions would cover a person’s entire lifetime.
It’s the first major reform of gun laws since six years ago, when the Harper government took the polarizing move of shelving the long-gun registry. That debate had Manitoba MPs at centre stage
Bill C-71, tabled Monday, would roll back some automatic authorizations to transport restricted and prohibited firearms, such as handguns and assault weapons. Under the legislation, owners would need a permit to transport such guns, except when taking them to a shooting range or home from a store.
The Liberals claimed their bill would make gun ownership less politicized, by once again allowing the RCMP experts to classify firearms without a green light from the governing party.
It also requires valid licences be presented when a firearm is transferred between two people. “What’s the point of having a license if no one ever checks it out?” Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale pondered.
“It is, in no way, a registry,” he said. “It’s simply verification that the individual who’s selling has the legal authority to sell, and the individual who’s buying has the legal authority to buy.”
But Portage-Lisgar MP Candice Bergen feared the opposite, and said legally compelling storeowners to keep information might end up having that data inappropriately accessed, though the Liberals stressed authorities would need a court order to obtain it.
“This government can’t be trusted when it comes to firearms legislation; they normally don’t look at law-abiding gun-owners as people who should particularly be protected,” said Bergen, the party’s Manitoba lieutenant. “Overall we are concerned with what they’ve brought forward.”
Bergen did express support for some parts of Bill C-71, like confirming licences and verifying criminal histories beyond five years. “The majority of firearms owners have no problem with having thorough background checks,” she said, adding that such rules are generally stricter than in the United States.
The Tories said they were waiting for an evening departmental briefing to gather more information; typically, the government offers these earlier in the day.
Bergen lamented the lack of measures aimed at targeting urban gun crime, as well as rural crime rates. Goodale said those issues will be dealt with in lockstep with the provinces, as will other issues like a possible ban on combat imagery in gun ads.
In 2016, Winnipeg had the second highest per-capita rate of violent crimes involving firearms, at a rate double the national average but lower than Regina.
Though national crime rates have steadily declined overall, violent crime is particular rising dramatically. The number of firearm-related homicides increased fivefold from 2015 to 2016 across Canada.
On Monday, Manitoba Sen. Marilou McPhedran hosted a coalition of feminist groups for a press conference on Parliament Hill. They asked the Liberals to highlight the role of firearms in violence against women.
The groups decried the claim of a back-door registry, saying Canada forced stores to collect detailed data until the late ’70s, while existing rules still exist in the U.S.
“Youth in rural communities, and in the west, are more at risk of being killed with firearms because of the problem of suicides than any kid in downtown Toronto. There’s a real misunderstanding and misperception of what the problems are,” said Wendy Cukier, head of the Coalition for Gun Control.
Though each party said it hoped to have a sober debate over the bill, gun ownership has persistently divided voters.
Bergen forged a large part of her political career through a failed attempt at dissolving the registry in 2010. The Tories sent Bergen (then named Candice Hoeppner) to multiple ridings during the 2011 election to drum up support for the party.
The debate dramatically split the New Democrats between urban and rural ridings, through to when the Tories successfully killed the registry through a 2012 vote.
Northern Manitoba MP Niki Ashton switched from supporting an end to the registry in 2010, to opposing its demise in 2012. The registry was extremely unpopular in her riding according to media reports, with Indigenous communities in particular resenting their hunting rights being subject to a federal registry.
(At the time of the 2012 vote, Ashton said it was unfair that the second bill would have deleted all registry data, as Quebec wanted to implement its own registry and would have to pay millions to gather the same information.)
On Tuesday, Ashton said she needed time to study the bill before weighing in. Her NDP colleague Matt Dubé said he was confident the bill wouldn’t split the New Democrats.
“The responses I hear so far from my colleagues are extremely positive, and we’ll work with anyone who raises concerns.”
But Kildonan-St. Paul MP MaryAnn Mihychuk said her Liberal colleagues anticipate blowback.
“There’s a political spin coming, and we want [the bill] to be meaningful and actually address the issue.”
With files from The Canadian Press
dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca