There is no Second Amendment in Canada, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau just made that perfectly clear by announcing what The Hill called “sweeping gun reform legislation, including a measure that allows municipalities to ban handguns.”
Down here in the U.S., municipal handgun bans are unconstitutional under the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2008 Heller decision. Canada is not the United States.
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BULLETIN: Conservative icon Rush Limbaugh has passed away following a long battle with lung cancer. The conservative talk radio pioneer was 70.
Last year, during Donald Trump’s final State of the Union address, Limbaugh was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor.
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According to the Global News, Trudeau said Canada’s government is starting a program to “buy back” so-called “assault-style” firearms, but the prime minister is reportedly getting heat from anti-gunners because the project isn’t mandatory. As noted by the Toronto Sun’s Brian Lilley, the fury is exemplified by Suzanne Laplante-Edward, “whose daughter Anne-Marie was killed in the Ecole Polytechnique shooting.” Laplant-Edward calls Trudeau’s announcement “a total betrayal.”
“They lied,” she said. “They lied to us. They lied to Canadians.”
Trudeau’s agenda, known as C-21, may be studied here. It has lots of tenets, including “red flag” and “yellow flag” laws. It will also support “municipalities that restrict storage and transportation of handguns within their boundaries.” Violators could face two years in prison.
There are increased penalties for firearms trafficking.
Two segments might seem nonsensical to U.S. gun owners. Trudeau wants to update the Criminal Code “to ensure that any device, including an unregulated airgun that looks exactly like a conventional regulated firearm (i.e., shoots over 500 feet per second), is prohibited for the purposes of import, export, sale and transfer.”
Additionally, no more “replica” firearms could be imported or sold/transferred anywhere in the country.
Trudeau also wants to create a new crime by prohibiting business advertising “that depicts, counsels or promotes firearms violence against a person.” Violators could be jailed up to two years on a first offense, and up to five years for each subsequent offense.
Toronto columnist Lilley observed, “This bill, ostensibly about dealing with gun crime, focuses mainly on taking guns away from people who have gone through a safety course, an extensive background check, and regular vetting by the RCMP. Dealing with the criminals that are actually shooting up the streets is not the focus of this bill.”
That sounds like a familiar complaint about gun control laws on this side of the border. The similarities continue when Lilley notes, “The best I can tell is that Trudeau is using this bill convince key voting blocs — like suburban mothers fearful of gun crime — that he is doing something. He’s banking on people who don’t know much about guns on either side of the issue not looking deeply into the details.”
