The Canadian government is targeting a new set of arms control measures, including a national freeze on the import, purchase and / or sale of pistols.
The announcement came days after a mass shooting in Texas that killed 19 students and two teachers.
But in Kelowna, Dan Shemley of Great North Precision says the legal owners of firearms are not the problem.
“It’s hard enough to see something like this on the news, but I don’t want to experience it. I don’t want to shoot anyone, but we have to deal with the main problems. “In most cases, it’s mental health, people have access to firearms that they don’t need,” Shemley said.
The executive director of the British Columbia Wildlife Federation, Jesse Zeman, said some were taking the political opportunity to compare gun crimes in the United States to the situation in Canada – which is not supported by the data.
“Ninety percent of crimes come from weapons that have been illegally imported into Canada. So, from our point of view, if 90 percent of the crime comes from the south of the border, we need to make sure that these firearms do not end up in Canada, “Zeman said.
“And then we also have to catch people who use illegal firearms, and that’s where the Canadian government has to focus its resources.
Zeman says negative comments from elected officials about the legal holders of firearms misinterpret the vast majority of people who are respectable citizens and who want to see weapons used in the safest way possible.
“I think it’s really important for people who don’t have firearms to understand what the rightful owner of a firearm is going through. This is a multi-month process with a course, tests, inspections, criminal records, reports … It is really important for everyone to know what is happening south of the border is completely unrelated to what is happening on this side of the border, “Zeman said. .
Key elements of the Liberal government’s firearms control statement on Monday:
– National freeze on imports, purchase, sale or otherwise transfer of pistols, with very limited exceptions;
– Automatic revocation of weapons licenses from people who commit domestic violence or criminal harassment, such as persecution;
– Increasing the maximum penalties for smuggling and arms trafficking to 14 years out of 10;
– Allow the disclosure of information to the holders of police weapons licenses, if there are reasonable grounds to believe that the license is used for the purchase of straw and trafficking in firearms;
– A new red flag law that allows courts to require people considered a danger to themselves or others to hand over their firearms to the police, including a measure to protect the safety of candidates through the process – often women at risk from domestic violence – by protecting their identity;
– Requiring cartridges with long pistols to be constantly changed so that they can never contain more than five cartridges, as well as to prohibit the sale and transfer of high-capacity cartridges under the Penal Code;
– Create a crime for a business that promotes or portrays violence against a person in a firearm advertisement.
with files from The Canadian Press
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