Legislation currently before the House of Commons contains several significant changes to Canada’s highly controversial gun laws.
Bill C-15, an omnibus bill containing far ranging legislation from the Ministry of Justice, has gone through first reading and will require two more readings before it can be proclaimed law. Although the changes do NOT address demands by the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters to scrap the Firearms Act, the 14 main changes to the Firearms Act contained under Bill C-15 do, somewhat, address some of the concerns of the firearms community.
Among changes proposed are:
- removal of the requirement for firearm transfers completed by mail to have the firearm delivered by licenced individual
- changes to facilitate import and export of handguns by competitive shooters coming into Canada
- changes to facilitate the renewal of all licences without full, complete reapplication, i.e.,just confirm the address and update the photo.
- changes to wording in the Firearms Act to allow licences and registration certificates, authorizations to transport or carry to be in either printed or electronic form, potentially removing the requirement to carry both plastic licence card and plastic registration card while in the field.
- allowing licences (POL’s and PAL’s) issued before June 30, 2001 to be arbitrarily extended for an additional 4 years, in order to smooth out the hump of 1.2 million licences coming due for renewal in the fall of 2005.
- extending the terms of business licences from 1 year to 3 years, and 5 years for businesses that only sell ammunition.
- authorizations to transport restricted firearms are currently limited by the Firearms Act to a term of between 1 and 3 years. Proposed amendments will extend these authorizations to a possible term of 5 years.
- the machinery of the non-criminal aspects of firearms ownership, i.e., the licencing and registration of gun owners and their guns will be transferred from the R.C.M.P. to the Canadian Firearms Centre, headed up by the Commissioner of Firearms who will report to the Minister of Justice.
- Allowing owners of restricted firearms and prohibited handguns to change their purpose for possession. (C-68 does not let a handgun owner who has acquired a handgun for “collection” purposes to change their reason for owning that particular handguns and therefore be eligible to obtain an Authorization to Transport that would allow him to transport his firearm to a licenced range to shoot it).
- Adding a muzzle energy standard to the existing muzzle velocity standard used to clarify the threshold for a firearm that must be registered to a licensed owner. This would relate to the exclusion of airguns and pellet guns from the application of the Firearms Act and of Criminal Code possession offences. This maintains the status quo with respect to airguns even if they may be able to use a high velocity pellet. (Airguns that discharge lead pellets at 500 feet/sec can discharge lightweight pellets at more than 500 fps, which by the letter of the law, classifies them as “Firearms” requiring licences, registration, etc.
- Amending provisions dealing with the licensing of firearms business employees. This would mean that an employee of a business that only handles non-restricted firearms would require only a possession and acquisition licence at the non-restricted level. (The current Act requires all employees who handle firearms at any licenced business must have the ability to acquire restricted firearms, even if they business only sells ammo).
- Grandfathering dealer inventories of prohibited handguns (short barrelled, or .25.or .32 cal) so those businesses can dispose of them by selling them to individuals who are grandfathered to possess such handguns and licensed to acquire them. There are about 24,000 of these short barreled or .25.or 32. Cal handguns currently in dealer inventories.
- Changing the grandfathering date for prohibited handguns to December 1, 1998 (from February 14, 1995) so that correctly licensed individuals who lawfully acquired a handgun while it was still restricted (between February 14, 1995 and December 1, 1998) can keep it. (Transfers of guns that are designated as prohibited handguns to people who didn’t already own one were allowed between Feb