Parliamentary Committee Notes: Firearms and Gun Violence

Commitments:

• C-71 regulations for firearms license verification and business record-keeping
• Introduce “Red flag” laws
• Requiring the permanent alteration of long-gun magazines so that they can never hold more than five rounds (large capacity magazines)
• Ban on the sale of magazines holding more than the legal number of bullets
• Buyback Program
• Financial support to PTs for handgun ban

Overarching message on progress and priorities

• During the past year the Government of Canada has delivered major accomplishments on its commitments to fight gun violence.
• These include:
  • completing the implementation of Bill C-71 requiring businesses to validate individuals’ firearms licences and keep records for each firearm sold in Canada;
  • passing former Bill C-21, which created new "red flag" laws, creating an important new tool to address risks associated with firearms in situations where there is a risk of self-harm or harm to others, including perpetrators of intimate partner and gender-based violence;
  • creating offences related to the alteration of cartridge magazines so they can never hold more than the legal number of rounds and breaking ground on the firearms compensation program.
• More work remains to be done and I look forward to working with colleagues in Parliament to help keep Canadians safe from gun violence in all its facets.

C-71 regulations for firearms license verification and business record-keeping

• On May 18, 2022, licence verification and business record-keeping requirements for non-restricted firearms came into force. These changes were part of the former Bill C-71.
• Individuals and businesses are required to verify that the buyer's firearms licence is valid before transferring a firearm.
• This prevents stolen or fake firearms licences from being used to buy firearms, helps ensure firearms do not end up in the wrong hands, assists police in tracing guns used in crime, and are part of the broader strategy to keep communities safe.
• Firearms businesses are required to retain sales and inventory records related to non-restricted firearms for a minimum of 20 years.
• These records will be held by businesses – not government – and can only be accessed by police with a judicial authorization (a warrant).

Introduce “Red Flag” laws

• Bill C-21 has delivered on the commitment to work with the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada to introduce “Red Flag” laws.
• The “red flag” law allows anyone to apply to a court for a temporary order (up to 30 days) to remove firearms from an individual who they believe may pose a danger to themselves or others.
• To create an understanding of the new “red flag” provisions, the Government committed to launching an awareness initiative. Work is underway to do so.
• The goal is to ensure there is broad awareness, with a particular focus on vulnerable and marginalized groups, including women, Indigenous peoples and other racialized communities, and people with mental health issues to ensure these tools are accessible to all—particularly those who may need it the most.

Large Capacity Magazines  

• Large capacity magazines - those that can hold more than their legal limits of cartridges - pose a threat to public safety by allowing sustained rapid fire and reloading capabilities.  
• Our Government recognizes the danger of large capacity magazines that have been used with assault-style firearms in mass shootings in Nova Scotia, Québec City, Moncton and Montréal.
• Former Bill C-21 added a new offence in the Criminal Code for the act of altering a cartridge magazine so that it exceeds the lawful capacity.
• We have also committed to require the permanent alteration of large capacity magazines so that they can never hold more than five rounds, and to prohibit the sale and transfer of magazines capable of holding more than the legal number of bullets.
• Work is ongoing to chart a course to improve the regulations on large capacity magazines. The Government will consult Canadians and stakeholders before any regulation are made. More information will be made public in due course.

Firearms Buyback Program

• The Government of Canada is committed to removing assault-style firearms from Canadian communities and reducing firearms violence in this country.
• This is consistent with the Mass Casualty Report, which recommends that the federal government rapidly reduce the number of prohibited semi-automatic firearms in circulation in Canada.
• The Firearms Compensation (or Buyback) Program is extremely complex and includes the collection, transportation, and destruction of highly regulated physical assets located across Canada.
• The design of the Firearms Compensation (or Buyback) Program has progressed significantly. This includes developing a web portal and case management system, which will provide a user-friendly interface for owners to participate in the Program.
• Public Safety continues to engage key stakeholders including all levels of government, Indigenous communities, the private sector, as well as impacted firearm owners.
• The Firearms Compensation Program will be convenient and safe, but also cost-effective. The Program’s implementation is expected to launch with businesses in 2024, followed by a national launch for individual firearm owners.

If Pressed – Alberta and Saskatchewan firearms legislation

• The implications of the Alberta and Saskatchewan firearms legislations are being assessed while Public Safety continues to pursue discussions with the Chief Firearms Officers of both provinces.

Financial support to Provinces and Territories for handgun ban

• The former Bill C-21 codified the “freeze” on handguns – restrictions on the transfer and importation of handguns by individuals – in order to limit the growth of domestic handgun ownership.
• As the proposed restrictions are national in scope, financial support to provinces and territories was not provided for the “freeze”.
• The Government has, however, directed significant funding to Provinces and Territories to support efforts to reduce gun violence. This includes $250 million through the Building Safer Communities Fund announced in March 2022, and a further $390 million announced in May 2023 for provinces to help fight gun crime and invest in anti-gang programs. This builds on earlier investments through the Initiative to Take Action Against Gun and Gang Violence, with approximately $214 million over five years to help provinces and territories to combat the issue of gun and gang violence.
• The former Bill C-21 did not change the classification of handguns. Current owners may continue to use their handguns.

Background

“Red Flag” Laws

The “red flag” laws provide additional tools to remove firearms in dangerous situations. Emergency prohibition orders now allow anyone to apply to the courts if a firearms owner poses a risk to themselves or others regarding their continued possession of a firearm. If granted, a judge can impose an order to remove firearms from the individual who may pose a danger to themselves or others. If a third party is at risk of providing firearms to such an individual, an emergency limitations on access order can also be applied for by anyone to prevent that access. Both orders have a maximum length of 30 days, but a secondary hearing could be held for a longer-term order. Prior to Bill C-21, applications of this nature were only available to peace officers, firearms officers, and Chief Firearms Officers.

While previous versions of the bill raised privacy concerns from victims and related advocacy groups, Bill C-21 allows for the protection of the applicant’s identity in a number of ways:

• All applications are made ex parte (without the respondent);
• The judge may hold hearings in camera (closed to the public and media);
• An application can be made to redact information that could identify the applicant from court documents for any period deemed necessary to protect them or anyone known to them; and
• An application can be made to seal the records of the proceedings for up to 30 days (or greater if a hearing for a longer-term order hearing is set).

In support of these measures, the Government is developing an initiative to help raise awareness and provide tools to Canadians, including victims and organizations that support them, on how to use the new “red flag” provisions and protections. The initiative is based on $5M in funding to help mobilize knowledge of the new laws to support vulnerable and marginalized groups, and will be designed to help make the “red flag” law accessible to all.

Large Capacity Magazines

Large capacity magazines, also known as oversized or high-capacity magazines, refer to magazines that exceed the legal limits. Under the Regulations Prescribing Certain Firearms and Other Weapons, Components and Parts of Weapons, Accessories, Cartridge Magazines, Ammunition and Projectiles as Prohibited or Restricted (the Regulations), any cartridge magazine that exceeds the legal limit is a prohibited device. The legal limit is five cartridges for most magazines designed for semi-automatic centre-fire long guns (i.e., rifles and shotguns) and 10 cartridges for most handgun magazines. These limits do not apply to magazines designed for semi-automatic rim-fire long guns, other long guns that are not semi-automatics and certain historic and antique firearms.

Magazine capacity is limited by law because large capacity magazines pose a public safety risk as they enable certain firearms to have sustained fire with less frequent and rapid reloading, thus increasing the perpetrator’s killing and injury capacity. The risk was assessed to more likely exist in conjunction with semiautomatic firearms, and no other action types (i.e., bolt, lever and other manual actions). Mass shootings that have occurred in Canada demonstrate that individuals armed with semi-automatic rifles and large capacity magazines cause many casualties and injuries in a matter of minutes.

Large capacity magazines that have been altered or re-manufactured to not be capable of exceeding the legal limits can be legally possessed in and imported into Canada. The Regulations include a non-comprehensive list of methods, depending on the construction material of the magazine, to alter or re-manufacture large capacity magazines to render them legal in Canada. These methods include: indenting its casing by forging, casting, swaging or impressing; inserting/attaching a plug, sleeve, rod, pin, or flange to the inner surface of its casing by welding, brazing or other similar methods; or applying permanent adhesives (i.e., cement, epoxy or other glue). However, some of these methods (e.g., inserting/attaching a pin) may no longer permanently prevent these magazines from exceeding the legal limit.

The Minister of Public Safety’s 2021 mandate letter includes two commitments with regard to magazines: (1) requiring the permanent alteration of long-gun magazines so that that they can never hold more than five rounds; and (2) banning the sale or transfer of magazines capable of holding more than the legal number of bullets.

Prior to recent amendments in Bill C-21, An Act to amend certain Acts and to make certain consequential amendments (firearms), it was already a criminal offence for individuals to possess, traffic, or import large capacity magazines. However, it was not a criminal offence for individuals to alter or modify a large capacity magazine to exceed the legal limit (i.e., removing methods of permanent alteration such as a pin or rivet).

Bill C-21 added a new offence in the Criminal Code for the act of altering a cartridge magazine to exceed its legal limit. Other new offences created by Bill C-21 that apply to large capacity magazines, include the possession or distribution of blueprints and other computer data pertaining to firearms or prohibited devices for the purpose of private manufacturing (such as 3D printing) or trafficking of large capacity magazines.

Date modified:

2024-08-07