Chronology of Gun Control Measures
Date : 16 December 2021
Classification : Unclassified
Branch/Agency : SPC
Proposed Response:
- Our government has taken significant action in recent years to reduce gun violence and we will do more.
- In Budget 2018, we invested of $327.6M over five years, and $100M ongoing, to establish the Initiative to Take Action Against Gun and Gang Violence. Further investments in 2019 increased funding for this initiative to $358.8M.
- On March 20, 2018, we introduced Bill C-71, An Act to amend certain Acts and Regulations in relation to firearms. The Bill received Royal Assent on June 21, 2019.
- 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.
- On May 1, 2020, our Government banned over 1,500 models of assault-style firearms, as well as certain components. The Regulations also prohibited any firearm that exceeds new maximum thresholds for muzzle energy and bore diameter. They also prescribed the upper receivers of M16, AR-10, AR-15 and M4 pattern firearms to be prohibited devices.
- Our Government put in place an Amnesty Order to protect owners of assault-style rifles from criminal liability and to provide them with time to come into compliance with the law.
- In the 2020 Fall Economic Statement, we committed $250M over five years, starting in 2021–22, for community-led initiatives in municipalities and Indigenous communities to support anti-gang programming and prevention programs for youth-at-risk.
- On February 16, 2021, the Government of Canada introduced
Bill C-21, which proposed amendments to the Criminal Code and the Firearms Act, including measures to combat intimate partner and gender-based violence and self-harm involving firearms, to fight gun smuggling and trafficking, and to support municipal handgun restrictions, among others. Our Government is committed to re-introducing legislation. - In Budget 2021, the Government announced an investment of $312M over five years, starting in 2021–22, and $41.4M ongoing, including for the RCMP and CBSA to fight gun smuggling and trafficking.
- On July 19, 2021, the Government launched a national firearms campaign to raise awareness on our actions to combat gun violence.
- Further in Summer 2021, we brought into force expanded background checks for licence applications and renewals and finalized consultation with Canadians on draft regulations on licence verification and business record keeping.
- Our Government will continue to act to combat gun violence, tackle smuggling and trafficking and strengthen our gun control framework.
- I welcome the committee’s recommendations on how we can collectively address the significant harm guns have in our communities.
Background:
Government Measures to Combat Gang Violence
In the 2020 Fall Economic Statement the government committed to providing dedicated funding of $250 million over five years, beginning next fiscal year to municipalities and Indigenous communities to support prevention and intervention programs to reduce gun and gang violence.
The new funding builds on the Government’s earlier investments, in 2018, of $327.6 million over five years, and $100 million ongoing, to establish the Initiative to Take Action Against Gun and Gang Violence. The majority of resources, approximately $214 million over 5 years is allocated to provinces and territories (PTs) to combat the issue of gun and gang violence in communities across Canada, under the Gun and Gang Violence Action Fund (GGVAF).These resources complement existing efforts under the National Crime Prevention Strategy through the Youth Gang Prevention Fund, which received additional $8 million over four years beginning 2019. It is a horizontal initiative led by Public Safety Canada (PS) with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and the RCMP.
Government Measures to Strengthen Gun Control
Former Bill C-21, An Act to amend certain Acts and to make certain consequential amendments (firearms), proposed amendments to address gun smuggling and trafficking, among others increasing maximum penalties for gun trafficking, smuggling and related offences from 10 to 14 years imprisonment and increasing information sharing between RCMP and Canadian law enforcement agencies for the purpose of investigating or prosecuting firearms trafficking offences. Bill C-21 died on the Order Paper with the dissolution of Parliament. New legislation is required to meet platform commitments.
An Act to amend certain Acts and Regulations in relation to firearms (former Bill C-71) received Royal Assent on June 21, 2019. Two elements were brought into force via an Order in Council on July 7, 2021: 1) expanded background checks to determine eligibility for firearms licences from the previous five years to the entirety of a person’s life, as well as enhanced screening to consider harassment, restraining orders, and a history of violence; and 2) re-instatement of the requirement for a separate Authorization to Transport when transporting restricted and prohibited firearms to any place except to an approved shooting range or to bring the firearm home after purchase. Two additional measures – licence verification and business record keeping - were pre-published in Part I of the Canada Gazette for public comment on June 26, 2021. The regulations are currently before Parliament for its review, and are anticipated to come into force in 2022.
Government Measures to Combat Smuggling and Trafficking
The Initiative to Take Action against Gun and Gang Violence (ITAAGGV) provides $125.0M to the RCMP and CBSA to enhance firearms investigations and strengthen controls at the border to prevent illegal firearms from entering the country. This investment enhances the RCMP’s regional firearms intelligence presence and creates a dedicated analytical capacity to develop actionable intelligence reports for law enforcement at the local, regional and provincial/territorial level. For CBSA, this funding provides them with greater operational capacity to screen passengers and examine commercial shipments, thereby protecting Canadians by preventing firearms and inadmissible people from coming into the country illegally. It also supports CBSA investments in an all-weather detector dog training facility, additional detector dog teams at key highway crossings, expansion of x-ray technology at postal centers and air cargo facilities, and key training in the detection of concealed goods in vehicles crossing our borders.
Building on these investments, in Budget 2021 an investment of $312M over five years was announced, starting in 2021–22, and $41.4M per year ongoing for PS, CBSA, and the RCMP to implement a suite of measures to help protect Canadians from gun violence and to fight gun smuggling and trafficking. This funding includes investments to increase RCMP capacity to trace crime guns and detect straw purchasing and enhance CBSA intelligence and investigative capacity at the border.
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