The Liberal government’s new gun bill will ban “replica” firearms if they look like any gun regulated by Canada’s firearms regime.
According to a document published by the government, the new legislation Bill C-21 will “Update the criminal code to ensure that any device, including an unregulated airgun that looks exactly like a conventional regulated firearm (i.e., shoots over 500 feet per second), is prohibited for the purposes of import, export, sale and transfer.”
The government says owners of existing devices fitting the description will be able to keep them, but will not be allowed to sell or transfer them to anyone else.
“No further ‘replica’ firearms could be imported into, or sold/transferred in Canada,” the document says.
Bill C-21’s text defines a replica firearm as “any device that is designed or intended to exactly resemble, or to resemble with near precision, a firearm that is designed or adapted to discharge a shot, bullet or other projectile…and that itself is not a firearm,” with an exception for replicas of antique firearms.
At a Tuesday morning press conference, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau revealed the next phase of the Liberal plan to implement sweeping gun control measures. The plan includes a buy back program for the 1,500 “assault-style weapons” already banned by the government last year.
The new legislation also hopes to give municipalities the power to ban the possession of handguns within their boundaries.
“Let’s not forget what this is about. Saving lives. We’re not targeting law-abiding citizens who own guns,” claimed Trudeau during a press conference on Tuesday.
Soon after the Liberals prohibited 1,500 firearm models through an order-in-council last year, thousands of law-abiding gun owners marched on Ottawa in protest.
