Liberal Gun Control Bill to Become Law After Passing Senate

Senate Passes Liberal Gun Control Bill, Making It Law

December 14, 2023 TruthUSA

The Senate has voted 60–24 to pass Bill C-21, a piece of legislation that cements handgun restrictions into place, increases penalties on firearms traffickers, and implements new “red flag” provisions.

Bill C-21 aims to create an evergreen definition to ban firearms that discharge centre-fire ammunition in a semi-automatic manner, and which are designed to hold a magazine of six or more cartridges, which it refers to as “assault-style” firearms. The definition would only apply to firearms manufactured after the bill comes into force, and not impact current owners of these firearm types.

Bill C-21 also aims to implement red flag provisions, allowing for applications to be made in provincial courts to prevent someone from possessing firearms and other weapons, “if the person believes on reasonable grounds that it is not desirable in the interests of the safety of the person against whom the order is sought.” Additionally, the legislation increases the maximum penalties for gun smuggling and trafficking from 10 years to 14 years in prison.

The legislation also enshrines into law the current freeze on the transfer of handguns, which was put into place back in August 2022.

The Liberal government was forced to back down from a previous version of the bill in February that would have added hundreds of extra firearm types—many of which are used for hunting—to the prohibited list. The amendment to Bill C-21 would have banned any rifle or shotgun that could potentially accept a magazine with more than five rounds, guns that could generate more than 10,000 joules of energy or had muzzles wider than 20 millimetres, and semi-automatic firearms without detachable magazines that do not meet the definition of “assault-style firearms.”

Conservative and NDP MPs united in opposition to the bill, and the Assembly of First Nations passed a resolution condemning the legislation for potentially infringing on First Nations and treaty rights to hunt and harvest. Cabinet then introduced a new version of the bill that instead sought to create a firearms committee to decide which weapons should be banned.

Tracey Wilson, vice-president of Public Relations at the Canadian Coalition for Firearms Rights, said the Liberal government had failed to put forth legislation focusing on gang violence and illegal gun smuggling over the Canada–U.S. border, and instead enacted more gun control on the “very people not committing” gun violence.

Ms. Wilson warned that the red flag laws in Bill C-21 would put the onus on victims to go to court instead of “allowing law enforcement to do their job,” and that Canada’s sports shooting sector would be harmed despite its “long, storied history of marksmanship and Olympic excellence on the world stage.”

Police officers would be made to attend the homes of legal handgun owners’ homes upon their death, and forcibly confiscate their property from their grieving widows and children, without compensation.

“Canadian lawmakers had an opportunity to here to enact legislation that would focus on the root causes of violence, mitigate gang crime and disrupt the flow of illegal guns across the border. They opted for more division instead. We look forward to a new government,” she added.

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.

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