GUN CONTROL IN CANADA

Goals of the Firearms Act: (i) to deter the misuse of firearms (ii) to control access to firearms, (iii) to control specific weapons.

3 major tenets:

License: to possess and to acquire (28 day wait period).

• Extensive criminal background checks (violent crimes only)
• Not under a court prohibition
• Mental illness
• Spouse’s signature to prevent domestic violence (also prior spouses, hotline with thousand of phone calls a year).
• Take Canadian Firearm Safety course
• Pass a test
• All firearms must be stored unloaded and locked.
• Grounds: hunting, target shooting, not for self-protection (50 in all Canada). You must prove your life is in danger and that police can’t protect you.

Registration: certificate for each firearm. Firearm must have a serial number or be identifiable.

Verification: of firearms: prohibited, restricted or more than 10, warrant.

Classes:

• Prohibited: handguns that discharge .25 and .32 caliber ammunition, fuel automatic.
• Restricted: not prohibited handguns, semiautomatic.
• Unrestricted: ordinary rifles and shotguns.

Criminal sanctions:

Mandatory minimum sentences of 4 years for serious offenses committed with a firearm (eg. Murder, manslaughter, robbery, sexual assault with a weapon, kidnapping).

Mandatory 1 year for a stolen firearm.

Criminal sanctions for non compliance with license or registration: (i) false or misleading statements to procure license, (ii) failure to register firearms, (iii) tampering with licenses.

Minors: no licenses, except (i) hunting as a way of life, (ii) target practice, hunting or competition. Only unrestricted firearms. Parent’s signature needed.

Constitutional challenge:

In the case Alberta, the Canadian Supreme Court held that it is a valid exercise of federal government’s criminal law powers.

Statistics:

1200 Canadians killed every year.

815 suicides

150 homicides

45 accidents

1000 injured

Third leading cause of death among young people.

2 million firearms in Canada (some claim even more). 222 million in the US.

1 million handguns in Canada, 76 million in the US.

Murders without handguns in the US: 1.4 times higher than in Canada.

Murders with handguns in the US: 15 times higher than in Canada.

Australian states with gun registration have a lower homicide rate than states without gun registration.