'This one has missed the mark': National handgun freeze met with skepticism

The president of a gun club in southwestern Ontario is worried about what the new firearm-control legislation put forward Monday by the federal government will do to its membership.

Part of the legislation includes a national freeze on buying, selling and importing handguns.

“Strengthening our laws to protect citizens is always a positive,” said Jon Seaton with the Rondeau Gun and Rod Club. “But I believe that this one has missed the mark.”

Seaton is concerned that the new legislation will target legal and responsible gun owners who adhere to firearm rules and regulations.

“The laws need to be enforced,” he said. “The punishments need to be handed out. People need to be held accountable for their actions.”

“Legal firearms owners are legal for a reason because they've done the checks. They've done the course, they passed the screening from the RCMP and provincial police and they store their firearms properly and they take them to approved locations.”

Seaton said his Blenheim-based club has over 350 members who are required to pass several safety courses and tests before attaining a licence to purchase a gun that can only be fired at a designated range.

Seaton adds, “In my opinion, it's a system that works.”

Others opposed to the legislation like Igor Dziac say the new regulations are unwarranted and fear-monger.

“I believe in licensing. I believe in background checks. It creates a culture of responsibility in Canada,“ he said. “Do not punish Canadians.”

Dziak fears Monday’s federal announcement could take away Canadian gun owners’ rights.

“Shooting crimes come from gun smugglers and gangs. Yes, I like the fact that our borders are being strengthened to stop smugglers. These guns are coming from across the border, send those people to prison,” he said.

Government officials say the handgun freeze is intended to make communities safer by reducing the number of guns in the country.

On Tuesday, Windsor-Tecumseh M.P. Irek Kusmierczyk touted the proposed regulations outside an east-end bowling alley where a shooting that injured five people in April took place.

“Our government tabled what is the most significant piece of legislation really in our generation in terms of gun control,” he said. “And it's responding to quite simply, Canadians want to seek guns off their streets. Canadians want to seek guns out of their neighbourhoods.”

 

Kusmierczyk said the handgun freeze builds upon previous legislation brought forward two years ago to prohibit assault-style rifles in Canada.

“In the U.S. you're hearing tragedy after tragedy. Whether it's in Texas, whether it's in Buffalo, whether it's Sandy Hook, you're seeing in large cities, whether it's Detroit in Chicago, the increase in gun crime, and you're seeing a government in the U.S. that is paralyzed, they're not moving, they're gridlocked. They're not taking any action on gun crime,” he said.

“We're taking a different approach. We're taking a proactive, aggressive approach to limit guns, handguns, assault-style rifles that are in our community, and addressing the root causes of gun violence in across Canada.”

Kusmierczyk said the legislation doesn’t target legal gun owners, saying it’s a handgun freeze and not an outright ban.

“What this does, though, is it reduces guns in Canada,” he explained. “The proliferation of guns in Canada because we know that legal guns are often used in gun crime as well too because those guns are either stolen those guns somehow end up in the hands of criminals as well. So reducing the total amount of guns in this country is a strong step forward in reducing gun violence in Canada.

Last week, Statistics Canada released a report indicating Windsor was among other major Canadian cities with the highest proportion of violent crime where a firearm was present in 2020.

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2022001/article/00009/tbl/tbl04-eng.htm

Acting Windsor Police Chief Jason Bellaire tells CTV News more needs to be done.

“Reducing the overall volume or inventory of firearms is probably going to have a corresponding impact,” Bellaire said.

“A reduction of firearm violence in the long run, what I think needs to be done is more root cause action. What is causing the firearm violence? Because our statistics show us that the majority of these firearms are sourced out of the United States or other countries or on some occasions they’re stolen firearms or unlawfully sold firearms in Canada.”

Bellaire said a new collaboration to tackle gun violence is expected to take effect later this year.

“Recently we engaged in a partnership provincially with anti-gun and gang violence initiative that is going to be rolling out towards the end of summer that will be participating in that on a provincial level,” he said.

“Which is important, because one thing that we should note that in and a lot of our statistics on shootings that happened in the area where there is a victim, it is not uncommon for us to have people from the Greater Toronto Area, either as the suspect or the victim and they are down in Windsor and participate in this activity.”

Kusmierczyk said the government is acting “forcefully” before gun violence in Canada gets out of hand and said there’s always more to be done.

“This legislation is also going to be increasing the penalties for people who smuggle or traffic in guns from 10 years to 14 years,” he said. “But really, this is an all government approach. We have to look at this in multipronged, it's a complex issue. So yes, we're going to be freezing handguns. Yes, we've banned assault style rifles. Yes, we're putting $250 million into getting at the root causes of why young people join gangs and gang violence.”

“At the same time, we also committed $300 million to improving border security and border security measures as well to giving CBSA agents the power that they need to prohibit or prevent folks from entering if they don't have permits and licenses and then being able to remove those people.”