Prime Minister Justin Trudeau assures that his government is trying to “accelerate the passage” of his bill to impose a national freeze on the purchase, sale, transfer and import of handguns, while the sports shooters flock to specialized shops and shooting clubs to legally obtain these weapons.
“We have put in place regulations so that if the passage of this law takes a long time, the regulations will [être en vigueur] before that,” he said Monday on the sidelines of a conference with Chilean President Gabriel Boric in Ottawa.
These regulatory changes are due to come into effect at the end of September, according to information provided to The Canadian Press by the office of Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino.
While police forces and researchers doubt the effect of Bill C-21, and sport shooters feel unfairly targeted, Mr. Trudeau rather reiterated that it is an “important measure”.
“And we’re going to continue to say that handguns, assault weapons need to be more restricted,” he said. We need to have fewer of them in our communities to be able to keep people safe. »
He also maintained that his government is acting on all fronts to combat armed violence.
His government prides itself on having made investments at the borders that have made it possible to “almost double” the number of seized trafficked weapons.
In an interview with The Canadian Press on Friday, the vice-president of the Canadian Police Association, Yves Francœur, noted that the proportion of legally acquired firearms that are seized is “minimal”, although he described Bill C-21 a “step in the right direction”.
According to Mr. Francœur, who is also president of the Montreal Police Brotherhood, the problem “is illegal weapons […] and not legal weapons”.
With information from Émilie Bergeron.