Firearms | Ottawa to ban modifiable chargers

Federal Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc promises to ban high-capacity firearm magazines “that can easily be tampered with with a screwdriver in your basement.” Firearm manufacturers will simply no longer have the right to sell them, and those who own them will have to get rid of them, the minister specifies in an interview with The Press.

“It will become a criminal offense to be in possession, or to sell, or to traffic in a high-capacity charger which can easily be altered or changed,” underlines the minister, in reaction to an investigation by The Press on illegal sales of weapons between individuals.

“We will also apply obligations to weapons manufacturers to ensure that we cannot easily alter a high-capacity magazine. »

As part of an investigation published two weeks ago, we acquired a military-style firearm from a Facebook group (now closed) that sold weapons using coded language, and deactivated it in 8 seconds on mechanism of a high capacity magazine limiting it to five bullets. The modification, which did not require any sophisticated tooling, allowed us to insert 30 rounds into the magazine, for demonstration purposes. We immediately reinstalled a device limiting it to five bullets, and handed over the firearm to the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) for destruction.

This is exactly the same procedure used by Richard Bain to commit his Metropolis attack in September 2012, with a prohibited 30-bullet magazine modified a few minutes before his act.

Under the Criminal Code, it is strictly prohibited for anyone, except law enforcement and the military, to possess a magazine of more than five rounds for a long weapon. The current regulations, however, allow firearm manufacturers to sell magazines initially designed to hold 20 or 30 bullets, provided they limit the capacity to 5 bullets thanks to this controversial rudimentary control mechanism, which is in line in the sights of Ottawa.

No “grandfather” clause

Minister LeBlanc hopes to have Bill C-21 adopted “in the coming weeks,” strengthening gun control, including regulations that will specifically address the “flaws” in high-capacity magazines.

No “grandfather” clause should allow current owners of these chargers to keep them. “It is not our intention to let people be in possession of high-capacity magazines,” indicates Mr. LeBlanc, while specifying that this question will be part of discussions with the police forces.

The bill aims more broadly to ban military-style weapons that are not used for hunting. “When we go moose hunting, we are not going to wage war on moose,” illustrates the minister.

“What we want is to ensure that there is no loophole” allowing gun owners and the industry to “do indirectly what they cannot do directly” .

“I’m not intimidated by the industry”

The new regulations are likely to face strong resistance from some gun owners and gun manufacturers. A very large number of military-style weapons imported from the United States are delivered straight away with modified 30-round magazines, which have become standard for certain platforms such as the AR-15.

“I am not intimidated by the American firearms industry,” says the minister. We do not have the same American Constitution that gives the right to bear arms. If you’re a big international company selling weapons, I don’t think following a country’s criminal law is an option,” he says.

Minister LeBlanc also promises more resources to the police forces to enforce the regulations. Our investigation revealed that barely 6,000 sales of unrestricted firearms between individuals in Quebec have been subject to a mandatory verification of the validity of the Possession and Acquisition Permit by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police since 2022, while the number of transactions is between 25,000 and 35,000 per year. “With the adoption of Bill C-21, we will add additional resources to apply the measures more effectively, with partners such as the Sûreté du Québec and municipal police forces,” announced Mr. LeBlanc.