Bill C-21: Blair Outlines New Rules for Handgun Safes, Insurance

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TheGunBlog.ca — The Canadian government’s planned new law to further suppress firearm users will invent new rules for the thickness and locks of our handgun safes and let cities and towns require gun insurance, Minister Bill Blair said today.

Highlights

  • You’ll risk jail if you use a handgun safe with an unauthorized metal gauge or locking mechanism.
  • You’ll risk jail unless you obey possible municipal orders aimed at handgunners, for example by the revocation of your firearm Possession and Acquisition Licence (PAL), or unless you move to a municipality that welcomes you.

Details

  • Blair is the minister in charge of cracking down on the millions of Canadians who use guns and ammo safely and responsibly.
  • He was speaking to media by telephone today.
  • The Department of Public Safety, which Blair oversees, didn’t respond immediately to our request for more information on the plans.

Blair Comments on Handgun Safes

The federal legislation is a strong legislation and it will apply in every place in this country.

It includes strict new regulations with respect to the storage of handguns.

For example, they’ll all be required to be stored in a safe or a vault, and we’ll define the adequacy of that safe or a vault by its metal gauge, by its locking mechanism, to make these firearms far more secure and less likely to be stolen. Similarly in gun stores.

Blair Comments on Insurance, Licensing

Some municipalities have said, “But we would like to do more. We would perhaps like to add additional restrictions on where a firearm can be stored, or the conditions of its storage. Maybe to require people to have a municipal permit, or even to have a liability-insurance policy.”

We’ve listened to those mayors, and we’ve listened to those municipalities. And we’ve said, “If you want to do more, we want to find a way to support you in that.”

So we would make it a condition of the federal licence for the firearm that they would also be in compliance with the municipal requirement.

Analysis

  • Unknown: Will our current safes be OK, or will the government threaten us with jail unless we invest in pricey new equipment?
  • Good: We want to keep unused guns in good safes. We don’t want to arm curious kids, drunk uncles, or evil “Bad Guys.”
  • Bad: Canada’s gun-storage laws:
    • criminalize people who did nothing immoral or harmful.
    • criminalize people who store their guns responsibly but out of line with the bad laws. (e.g., frame or receiver is out, even without a trigger, bolt, chamber, barrel or ammo).
    • violate justice by punishing the targets and victims of crime instead of punishing the perpetrators.
  • Better
    • We could improve gun storage through education and training, not criminal legislation and jail.
    • We could stop thieves by training home owners to stop thieves.
    • Punish thieves, not honest people.

Context

  • The new measures flow from Bill C-21, announced last month as the governing Liberal Party’s latest regulatory attacks against licensed firearm users.
  • Bill C-21 will allow municipalities to eliminate handgun owners by criminalizing the possession, storage and transport of pistols and revolvers.
  • Details on the new measures aren’t in the text of the bill.
  • The planned law specifically targets safe and responsible adults who have guns and ammo for protection, plinking, hunting, collecting, competing, etc.

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