The Canadian government has unveiled how much it's proposing to pay for banned firearms under a mandatory buyback program part of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s pledge to toughen gun laws amid a rash of recent mass shootings in the U.S., including Buffalo. However, the proposed new law has already drawn criticism from legal gun owners who say it doesn’t target the real problem.
The compensation amounts vary from just over $1,300 for AR platform firearms, to more than $6,000 for the SG-550 of 551 carbine.
Ottawa will also consult with firearms owners, businesses and the gun industry on the proposed compensation. The consultations will end on Aug. 28.
It was only two months ago that Trudeau outlined some of his proposed new gun control bill that included a national handgun freeze.
“What this means is that it will no longer be possible to buy, sell, transfer or import handguns anywhere in Canada,” Trudeau announced.
It’s a pledge that Trudeau made after the last election to tackle gun violence in Canada. He said the proposed legislation includes some of the strongest measures in Canadian history to keep guns out of communities.
“We’re also fighting gun smuggling and trafficking by increasing maximum criminal penalties and providing more tools for law enforcement to investigate firearm crimes,” he said. “We need less gun violence. We cannot let the guns debate become so polarized that nothing gets done.”
When the handgun freeze was announced, sporting goods and gun shops were swamped with customers who wanted to buy handguns legally.
“It’s a whole industry that we’re afraid is going to go away,” said Kevin McCurrie, who runs a shop in Campbell River, British Columbia. “And it’s sad because I think the gun laws in Canada were pretty good. And we see this as an attack on legal gun owners.”
And gun owners like Ron Fortin, who is retired, say the proposed law misses the point entirely because it doesn’t address the real issues.
“Still not doing anything about gun violence,” Fortin said. “Absolutely nothing. “
Police in Toronto say last year 86% of all crime handguns in the city were smuggled in from the U.S., leading to a more than 20% increase in shootings that resulted in bodily harm. Canadian authorities are still grappling to control the high number of illegal weapons that are coming from the U.S.
But the public safety minister Marco Mendocino insists the legislation does not target legal gun owners, and will address issues such as guns flowing across the border.
“It targets handgun violence, it targets organized crime. We’re raising maximum sentences against illegal smugglers. We’re giving police new wiretap powers to interdict and to stop gun crime from occurring in the first place. And we’re investing more resources for [Canada Border Services Agency] and [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] so they’ve got the technology,” Mendocino said. “And you combine that with the cooperation that we have with the United States by reinvigorating the cross border crime forum, we’re going to be tackling incoming illegal firearms at the border.”
And Mendocino said the recent mandatory buyback offer applies to more than 1,500 models of assault style weapons that were banned more than two years ago.
