Hearings are ongoing in Parliament over another gun grab, but first, some backstory:
Bill C-21 was reintroduced in November 2021. To a large extent, it was a rehash of its predecessor (also called Bill C-21), which died when the 2021 Federal election was called.
The new iteration of Bill C-21 would still create red-flag and yellow-flag laws, among other restrictions. It would go further, and ban transfers and sales of handguns outright.
Apparently, the Federal Government didn’t want to wait for Bill C-21 to pass, or take the chance it wouldn’t, so handgun transfers were banned by regulatory change back in October 2022. This was O.I.C. 2022-1144.
Keep in mind, this wasn’t the first gun grab in recent history. O.I.C. 2020-0298 banned over 1,500 models of firearms on May 1, 2020. That was done without any debate, nor regard to logic or consistency as to which types would qualify. It’s currently being challenged in Federal Court.
But this Bill didn’t go far enough. In late 2022, amendments to Bill C-21 were added on, without any real debate as they were done at the conclusion of Parliament’s hearings. From the Manitoba Lodges & Outfitters Association:
Amendment G-4 would change physical requirements of non-prohibited guns so that many more would qualify, including:
- Projectiles (bullets) discharged with 10,000 Joules of energy or more
- Bores with a diameter of 20 mm or greater
- Rifles/shotguns capable of accepting magazines greater than 5 bullets, regardless of what the firearms were actually designed for
Amendment G-46 would have converted many more specific models of rifles and shotguns into “prohibited weapons”, meaning that they could never be sold or transferred again.
This didn’t sit well with the public. Both the wide range of models, and underhanded nature of doing this last minute seemed to circumvent the legislative process.
The amendments were dropped — at least for the time being — but the story doesn’t end there.
A group of 7 members of that Committee requested wanted to rehear witnesses over the G-4 amendments. The Committee sat on December 13, 2022.
Now we get to the current state of affairs.
Hearings continued in February and March of 2023. If the Government had wanted these changes, then they should have been debated in the Fall of 2022.
As of the time of writing this, no decision has been made about the fate of the G-4 and G-46 amendments.
Even if the amendments were to be reinstated, there is no guarantee that Bill C-21 would pass Third Reading in the House of Commons. This is especially true given recent election speculation. Beyond that, no one knows for sure what would happen in the Senate.
To restate the obvious: none of this does anything to prevent gun crime, which politicians constantly rail against. It just makes it harder for people to legally own firearms, and maybe disarmament is the goal.
(1) https://www.parl.ca/legisinfo/en/bill/44-1/c-21
(2) https://canucklaw.ca/bill-c-21-reintroduced-legislation-to-whittle-away-gun-rights/
(3) https://orders-in-council.canada.ca/index.php?lang=en
(4) https://orders-in-council.canada.ca/attachment.php?attach=42706&lang=en
(5) https://orders-in-council.canada.ca/attachment.php?attach=39208&lang=en
(6) https://www.ourcommons.ca/Committees/en/SECU/StudyActivity?studyActivityId=11814165
(7) https://mloa.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/G-46-e.pdf
(8) https://mloa.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/20221122-C-21-Amendment-G4.pdf
(9) https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/44-1/SECU/meeting-54/notice
(10) https://www.ourcommons.ca/Committees/en/SECU/StudyActivity?studyActivityId=11988263
(11) https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/44-1/SECU/meeting-54/evidence
(12) https://www.ourcommons.ca/Committees/en/SECU/StudyActivity?studyActivityId=12045393