Parliamentary Committee Notes: Chronology of the Assault-Style Firearms Ban and Amnesty Order
Date:
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Branch / Agency: CPB
Proposed Response:
- In the November 2015 mandate letter to the then Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, the Government committed to taking action to get handguns and assault weapons out of Canadian communities by strengthening controls on handguns and assault weapons.
- In August 2018, the Minister of Border and Organized Crime was appointed and mandated to support the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness and lead an examination of a full ban on handguns and assault weapons in Canada.
- From October 2018 to February 2019, Public Safety Canada held national public engagement on how to reduce violent crime involving the use of assault-style firearms. A report was made public in April 2019.
- Further, the commitment to ban assault-style firearms was reiterated in both the 2015 and 2019 Speech from the Throne.
- On May 1, 2020, the Governor in Council made Regulations under the Criminal Code to prescribe as prohibited firearms nine families of assault-style firearms and their variants.
- The Regulations also prohibited any firearm exceeding the maximum thresholds for bore diameter (20 mm or greater, other than one designed exclusively for the purpose of neutralizing explosive devices) and muzzle energy (greater than 10,000 joules).
- The Regulations apply to all current and future variants of the principal model, whether they are expressly listed or not.
- At the same time, the Governor in Council established an Amnesty Order to protect owners who were in legal possession of a newly-prohibited firearm or prohibited device at the time the Regulations came into force from criminal liability for unlawful possession and to provide such owners time to come into compliance with the law through deactivation, destruction or other disposal.
- The Regulations and Amnesty Order came into force via two separate Orders in Council that were published on May 1, 2020 on Canada Gazette, Part II.
- In March 2022, the Governor General amended the Amnesty Order to address the issues identified after the May 1, 2020 ban and also extended the amnesty period for an additional 18 months, to October 30, 2023, to allow affected owners further time to come into compliance with the law.
If pressed on criteria or classification of assault-style firearms
- The criteria used to select the firearms for the ban were those that had semi-automatic action with sustained rapid-fire capability (tactical/military design with large magazine capacity), were of modern design, and were present in large volumes in the Canadian market.
- Parliament has delegated the authority to the Governor-in-Council to prohibit firearms under the Criminal Code. This approach gives the Governor-in-Council the flexibility to include firearms that it believes are not reasonable for hunting and sporting purposes in Canada.
Background:
Canada has experienced nine high-profile mass shootings in urban and rural areas which have captured public attention, including l’École Polytechnique in Montreal in 1989, Dawson College in Montreal in 2006, Moncton in 2014, the Quebec City mosque in 2017, and Nova Scotia in 2020. Assault-style firearms were used by the perpetrators in these mass shootings.
Engagement on a ban on handguns and assault-style firearms
Since 2015, the Minister of Public Safety has been tasked with working with the Minister of Justice to strengthen gun controls on assault-style firearms.
In 2018-19, the Minister of Border Security and Organized Crime Reduction supported this work and was mandated to lead an examination of a full ban on handguns and assault-style weapons in Canada, while not impeding the lawful use of firearms by Canadians.
Between October 2018 and February 2019, Public Safety Canada held extensive consultations to help inform policy, regulations and legislation on the Government of Canada’s commitment to reduce violent crime involving firearms, including assault-style firearms. The engagement process included a series of eight in-person roundtables held across Canada, an online questionnaire, which received nearly 135,000 responses, a written submission process, and bilateral meetings with a range of stakeholders. An engagement summary report, Reducing Violent Crime: A Dialogue on Handguns and Assault-Style Firearms, was publicly released in April 2019.
Prohibition of Assault-Style Firearms and Amnesty Order
Given the past high-profile shootings, the growing concern for public safety, the increasing public demand for measures to address gun violence and mass shootings and, in particular, the concern resulting from the inherent deadliness of assault-style firearms that were not suitable for civilian use, on May 1, 2020, the Regulations Prescribing Certain Firearms and Other Weapons, Components and Parts of Weapons, Accessories, Cartridge Magazines, Ammunition and Projectiles as Prohibited, Restricted or Non-Restricted were amended to reclassify as prohibited approximately 1,500 models of firearms and their variants. Of those, nine principal models of assault-style firearms were prohibited as they had semi-automatic action with a sustained rapid-fire capability (tactical military design with large magazine capacity), were of modern design, and were present in large volumes in the Canadian market. Also included were two categories of firearms that exceed safe civilian use: firearms with 20 mm bore or greater, or with a muzzle energy of greater than 10,000 Joules. In addition, the upper receivers of M16, AR-10, AR-15 and M4 pattern firearms were prescribed as prohibited devices.
The Government decided that those firearms and components were not reasonable for hunting or sport shooting purposes given the inherent danger that they pose to public safety. The significant risk that those firearms posed to the public’s safety outweighed any justification for their continued use and availability within Canada given that numerous types of firearms remain available for lawful ownership for hunting or sport shooting purposes.
At the same time, the prohibition came into effect, the Governor in Council established an Order Declaring an Amnesty Period (2020) (Amnesty Order) under the Criminal Code to protect affected individuals, who were in legal possession of a newly prohibited firearm or device when the Regulations came into force, from criminal liability for unlawful possession in order to give owners of these firearms time to comply with the law. The amnesty period was set to expire on April 30, 2022. Owners of firearms impacted by the May 1, 2020 prohibition can have their firearms deactivated by an approved business, surrender them to a police officer without compensation (firearms owners should make arrangements with police before surrendering their firearm), legally export them with a valid export permit, and, if a business, return them to the manufacturer. Further, the Government committed to put in place a buyback program that provides fair compensation for affected owners and businesses. Further details on the program will be available in due course.
The Regulations apply to all current and future firearms that meet the May 1, 2020, ban criteria or are variants of one of the nine principal models. Since the May 1, 2020 prohibition, the number of firearms and variants subject to the prohibition has grown to 1,800 firearms.
On March 16, 2022, the Governor in Council amended the Amnesty Order, including extending the amnesty period to October 30, 2023, to address issues raised since the introduction of the original Amnesty Order, and to enable to Government to move forward with new commitments to implement a mandatory buyback program. In addition to extending the amnesty period, the Amnesty Order has been extended to:
- allow firearms to be transported so that they can be repaired and used safely for sustenance hunting or for those exercising a right under section 35 of the Constitution Act 1982;
- provide the Bank of Canada, a Crown entity, with flexibility to use their inventory of firearms that best addresses their security needs;
- protect those who would alternatively store a newly-prohibited firearm, or an owner who transports it for that purpose, from criminal liability;
- protect individuals from criminal prosecution who lawfully purchased, or entered into an agreement to purchase, a formerly restricted firearm up to and including April 30, 2020, and who did not receive a registration certificate by April 30, 2020 as required by the Amnesty Order; and,
- protect businesses that take possession of the prohibited firearms in order to deactivate them on behalf of an owner.
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