On May 30, the Justin Trudeau-led government announced a new round of gun control, including an impending ban on handgun transfers and imports. The reaction in the days since has been mixed, with approval from gun control advocates—and a significant amount of disapproval from law enforcement and other experts, including scepticism from even the anti-firearm lobby.
This is nothing new. In 2021, when the Trudeau government introduced the original C-21 and C-22 bills, reaction from those in-the-know was negative. It's the same time this time around:
So far, Canadian police have not rushed to support the new bill openly; just the opposite. In perhaps the most high-profile rebuttal of the "handgun freeze," the Canadian Association of Police Chiefs have issued a statement asking for meaningful response to actual criminals, not law-abiding gun owners:
The CACP supports a national, versus municipal patchwork approach to managing the issue of handguns in Canada. We believe that a handgun freeze is one method of reducing access to these types of firearms, while allowing existing law-abiding handgun owners to practice their sport. However, we continue to maintain that restricting lawful handgun ownership will not meaningfully
address the real issue: illegal handguns obtained from the United States that have led to the disturbing current trend in gun violence that is largely related to gangs, street gangs, and more sophisticated organized crime groups."
See Calibre's more in-depth write-up on the Association's response here. Remember that this statement echoes earlier, similar statements from the Association; as far back as 2020, the Association was panning the Liberals' Order in Council gun bans of that May, saying the new rules diverted resources away from actual crime fighting.
Even in the province of Quebec, which has recently seen a high-profile guns-and-gangs crackdown, some police aren't keen on the new rules. A Radio-Canada article discussing reactions to the bill got this response from Montreal-area law enforcement (translated from French to English):
" ... several police sources have deplored the repressive aspect towards gun owners subject to the law.
'Home thefts of firearms represent a very small percentage of organized crime's weapons supply. The times we have seized a weapon registered in Canada, in a shooting linked to street gangs, can be counted on the fingers of one hand,' entrusted a sergeant-detective to the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal under the guise of anonymity.
The article also quotes André Gélinas, a former detective sergeant "who trained police officers in shooting and the use of force," as saying the new rules won't solve the problem of illegal handgun usage in Montreal:
"Banning and removing registered handguns from their owners does not solve anything. It is a dogmatic idea on the part of pressure groups. It's not the legal guns that are the problem, it's the dirty guns that are acquired illegally. And I see that the bill does nothing to address this issue. It's window dressing."
It's not just the police who see problems with the Liberals' latest gun control measures; community workers have the same scepticism, even if they like the idea of gun control. That same Radio-Canada article also quotes a community worker in Montreal, who points out the at-risk youth his organization deals with aren't law-abiding RPAL holders:
"The young people we do business with don't have gun licenses," Pierson Vaval told Radio-Canada. "If they have the money and the contacts, they will simply get what they want in the street."
Those comments are echoed by Louis March, of the anti-firearm Zero Gun Violence organisation. He's obviously a fan of increased gun control, but in an interview with CityNews, March says the updated C-21 would have no impact on the illegal firearms crime in his community, since law-abiding gun owners aren't the people doing the shootings: "Those shootings are illegal guns, smuggled across the border."
Further south in Ontario, right on the US/Canada border, the CBC also got skepticism from Lisa Valente, who leads the Windsorites Against Violent Crimes Everywhere organisation. She told the CBC that no matter what the law says, criminals will get their hands on illegal firearms, and that there's a "youth problem," not a gun problem.
While municipal, provincial and federal leaders have basically split along ideological lines in their support or detraction of the handgun freeze, it's worth noting that even many of the politicos who support the bill are saying it doesn't solve the problem of illegal firearms. Alistair MacGregor of the federal NDP told the Toronto Star that "We can’t get all of our hopes just on one piece of legislation." Among other factors, MacGregor noted that smuggling results in firearms crime. John Tory, mayor of Toronto, said much the same thing. In that same article, he voiced his approval of C-21, but told the Star "it must be accompanied by tougher border measures, tougher penalties and investments in antiviolence programs." Perhaps someone should tell him about the Liberals' current plan to actually reduce penalties for firearms offences?
As you'd expect, Dr. Teri Bryant, Alberta's newly-installed Chief Firearms Officer, panned Bill C-21, telling reporters at a news conference the bill is "a large amount of highly symbolic signalling – virtue signalling – and very thin on the things that are actually going to have an impact.”
Like politicians, the media is basically dividing itself along the usual left/right divide in its condemnation or applause for the bill. Of all the articles written about C-21, perhaps Matt Gurney's piece at The Line substack perhaps has the most frank treatment of the whole affair, where Gurney asks: If handguns are bad enough that they can't be bought or sold, then why are they allowed to be owned at all? And if that's not the case, and ownership is allowable, then why can't regulated transfers be allowed? In effect, Gurney calls this a cynically drawn-out Liberal wedge politics tool.
Liberal leaders told the Toronto Star they didn't expect increased handgun sales before Bill C-21 becomes law, since "it takes three to six months to get a handgun licence." Maybe there won't be an increase in newly-licensed handgun owners, but there's certainly an increase in handgun sales.
Incredibly, immediately afterwards a massive sales boom in the days leading up to the so-called Gun Transfer Registry, firearms retailers are seeing a second buying spree. Canadian RPAL holders are purchasing handguns before the rules put an end to it, and that means some retailers are so busy that they've had to close their storefronts, so they can process orders. Guess the Liberals were wrong on that one, then.
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