Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Minister for Public Safety Marco Mendicino have announced a handgun import and transfer freeze. This comes on the heels of a similar freeze in August that was characterized as a temporary measure until permanent legislation passed Parliament. But the Canadian House of Commons has not yet passed the gun control Bill C-21 and Trudeau and Mendicino apparently believed they could wait no longer.
Trudeau’s Liberal Government has made draconian gun control a top priority since a mass murderer killed 22 people in Nova Scotia in 2020. Trudeau unilaterally banned AR-15s and other so-called “assault weapons” immediately after the incident. Trudeau noted while announcing the new handgun freeze that his government is instituting a “mandatory buy back” of all “assault weapons.” How successful that program will be remains to be seen.
Bill C-21: Comprehensive Gun Control
Bill C-21 was introduced after the murders in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas. When passed, it will ban the sale, transfer, and importation of all handguns for the civilian market, among other measures.
The bill also implements a Red Flag law that allows anyone to file a complaint leading to seizure of anyone else’s firearms, crossbows, or anything else the serving officer perceives as dangerous. Even worse, law enforcement has the option to seize property without a warrant if deemed necessary. All in the name of safety, of course.
As usual, the measures will hit law-abiding gun owners the hardest. Bill C-21 does raise the maximum penalty for “indictable weapons offenses” from 10 years to 14, but criminals are unlikely to care about an additional four years on top of whatever else they might be sentenced for.
Meanwhile, the lawful citizen who inadvertently runs afoul of Trudeau and Mendicino’s increasingly intricate gun control can look forward to an even stiffer sentence. That applies to toys, including Airsoft guns, or replicas that are indistinguishable from real prohibited firearms. Yep, you can go to prison for 14 years for having an inoperable replica of a banned gun.
Olympic-level competition shooters are currently exempt, but there seems to be no provision for future participants to gain the skills to compete at that level. In fact, the Canadian gun control group PolySeSouvient is calling for the exemption to only apply to current competitors to prevent “a future scenario which would render the freeze on new handguns meaningless.” So, no more Canadian Olympic shooters if that happens.
A Preemptive Strike
The August freeze was a response to the understandable rush to buy handguns before Bill C-21 is enacted. Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly controls import and export permits and said she wants to prevent gun stores from restocking their shelves after depleting their stocks. It also, obviously, was meant to stymie more sales before the expected transfer ban.
But apparently, that wasn’t good enough. Mendicino announced the implementation of the handgun policy, effective immediately, while the bill is still before Parliament, saying, “It will be illegal to buy, sell, transfer, or bequeath handguns. This is a significant stride forward towards smart, sensible gun policy to keep our communities safe.”
The freeze’s stated purpose shows it to be an administrative tactic to impose aspects of Bill C-21 before it passes Parliament. It’s similar to an Executive Order or Executive Action in the United States.
The Canadian Coalition for Firearms Rights (CCFR) has cried foul, saying the government promised prior notification before implementing such a scheme. As it happened, gun retailers and gun buyers were not notified and the order took effect on October 21, the day it was announced.
CCFR also says the government expressed support for Provincial restrictions as opposed to a federal ban. Trudeau and Mendicino apparently changed their minds, again, with no notification.
Conservative public safety critic Raquel Dancho said the preemptive freeze, while Parliament is still studying the issue, “shows they’re not serious about consulting experts.” She went on to say that the Liberal Government is politicizing the issue and that the freeze will not reduce gun crime.
Bogus Handgun Facts
Mendicino rhetorically asked “Why are we taking this decision? Because we’ve seen gun crime go up. We’ve seen handgun crime go up.”
Yet, according to data provided by the CCFR, per capita handgun homicides in Canada have remained relatively unchanged for the last 22 years. Firearm homicides have gone up slightly, despite the number of restricted and prohibited firearms doubling to over 1.1 million since 2003.
The data alone are not enough to establish causality, but they do indicate that Canadian gun control has had little or no effect on firearms homicide rates. There is no reason to expect those numbers to change.
Blaming Lawful Gun Owners
Mendicino’s announcement shows that he sees no difference between lawful gun owners and criminals. He noted that Canada has seen “45 to 55 thousand new registrations on average for the last decade, while at the same time seeing handguns overtake and become the number one type of gun used in homicide.”
There’s a lot wrong with that statement. First, handguns have long been the homicide weapon of choice. They haven’t “overtaken” anything. This is well-known and borne out by statistics. Second, he equates that “overtaking” with the rise in lawful handgun registrations over the last ten years.
For the non-Canadians among us, all handguns in the Great White North must be registered with the government. According to CCFR data, 85 percent of crime handguns in the Province of Ontario were not obtained legally and were smuggled into Canada. Ontario has some of the most restrictive handgun laws in the country. Lawful gun owners are clearly not the problem.
Even Mendicino acknowledged in August that most criminals obtain their guns illegally. Yet, he still blames the supposed rise in handgun homicides on increasing registration numbers. It’s quite clear that Mendicino, and his boss, want to eradicate private gun ownership in Canada and are using crime rates to justify it. All outside of Parliament.
Ban Them All
Given Trudeau’s extreme anti-gun stance don’t be surprised if he pushes for a mandatory handgun buyback when this freeze, and C-21, fail to curb crime. I expect he’s already got it planned. While I don’t doubt Trudeau and Mendicino want to reduce crime, I also think they see the opportunity to further disarm Canadians as a bonus.
In announcing the August freeze, Mendicino said that handguns “have one purpose and one purpose only, and that is to kill people.” Never mind their utility for self-defense. There is little doubt that Trudeau, Mendicino, and Joly see no benefit to private gun ownership and will continue their crusade to end it. Remember, Trudeau recently stated that Canadians have no right to firearms ownership.
Implications for Gun Owners
The CCFR notes that Canadians are now one generation away from the end of handgun sports. “IPSC, IDPA, Cowboy Action, many other dynamic shooting genres will die with us. The next generation, nor any new shooters, will ever be able to buy a handgun for sport shooting if this receives royal assent. The only ones with handguns will be the police, and the criminals with their illicitly smuggled guns.” We already mentioned the Olympic-level shooters.
But, once again, Trudeau and his crew are true believers. They care not for such things. One hopes that the Canadian people will not stand for this and that organizations like the CCFR can successfully push back. We will keep you updated.
