TheGunBlog.ca — The Canadian government will present new gun laws to increase paperwork and restrictions for lawful gun owners in the “near future” this year, beyond today’s statement about funding related to firearms and gang violence, the Ministry of Public Safety said.
The Liberal Party, which controls parliament, said in its 2015 election platform that it would require more checks when buying or selling guns, more procedures and paperwork to take firearms to a shooting range or gunsmith, more list-keeping by gun stores, and new markings on imported guns.
“Work on a legislative package is underway and coming in the near future,” Scott Bardsley, a spokesman for the office of the minister, Ralph Goodale, said today by telephone. “We’ve said all along that we are committed to pursuing effective firearms measures that prioritize public safety while ensuring fair treatment for law-abiding gun-owners.”
Bardsley declined to comment on the specific timing, or whether the government would announce the new policies around the anniversary of the deadliest shooting in recent Canadian history, the Ecole Polytechnique massacre of Dec. 6, 1989.
Goodale was in Surrey, a suburb of Vancouver, today to announce a funding package related to gangs, as well as a Criminal Guns and Gangs Summit next March.
“As part of its commitment to make it harder for criminals to get and use handguns and assault weapons and to reduce gun and gang violence, the Government of Canada is announcing up to $327.6 million over five years, and $100 million annually thereafter, in new funding to help support a variety of initiatives to reduce gun crime and criminal gang activities,” Goodale said today in a press release.
The plan is in line with what the Liberals said in their election platform.
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