The Limitations of Canada’s 2021 Gun Control Ban

“Gun Control Now.” by Lorie Shaull under CC by 2.0.

After the deadliest mass shooting in Canada’s history in 2020, where a heavily armed gunman killed 22 people in rural Nova Scotia, there have been calls from Canadian activists to expand gun control legislation in Canada. Following his party platform during the 2019 election, Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government has introduced gun control measures over the years, including banning the sale of military-style assault weapons in May 2020. 

They have continued to pursue stricter reforms. In February 2021, more extensive gun control legislation was proposed by the Liberal government that would permit cities to ban the possession, storage, and transportation of handguns, among other limits. This policy allows Canadian cities to combat gun crime in a variety of ways. Implementation options range from allowing cities to ban possession of handguns within their borders to requiring guns to be stored in monitored gun facilities, instead of in houses. The legislation would also create a voluntary buyback program, allowing for 150,000-200,000 legally-owned assault-style weapons to be bought by the federal government, similar to New Zealand’s buyback program implemented in 2019. The benefits of such buyback programs create monetary incentives for handgun owners to give up their weapons and reduces the risk of said handguns being sold on the black market. The new legislation creates “red flag” and “yellow flag” provisions, where victims of intimate-partner and gender-based violence can appeal to courts in order to remove the perpetrators’ firearm license.

Given the variety of bylaws, the federal government has stated that with this new legislation, cities can not act alone as Canadian provinces have complete autonomy over the level of gun control law implemented. This creates jurisdiction issues as some provincial governments, including Alberta and Saskatchewan, have indicated that they do not support bans on handguns, and therefore can override municipal bans. As municipalities are under provincial jurisdiction, any gun control reform adopted by cities could be seen as violating provincial and territorial autonomy. The impact that bans have on reducing gun violence is limited regarding who has control in approving the bylaws, a blow to gun control advocates who argue for widespread reforms.

The lack of a federal ban on handguns has made many pessimistic about the extent of the ban. A.J. Somerset, the author of Arms: The Culture and Credo of the Gun, argues that the criminal market will take advantage of the lack of universal rules and smuggle guns in and out of cities. Cities have no borders and therefore cannot keep checks on goods that come in and out of their municipal boundaries. A federal ban, rather than the municipal ban proposed, would allow the Canadian government to check smuggled guns more strictly and on a national level. Municipal borders create unclear boundaries that prevent the ban from being effective, such as increasing smuggling and regional disputes on enforcement and jurisdiction. For example, the Golden Horseshoe region in Southern Ontario has municipal boundaries that border one another and are not clearly separated. This creates an issue for implementation where different municipalities’ restrictions make it harder for residents to understand and comply with the laws that apply to them. Overlapping regulations and differing restrictions may hinder the effectiveness of the legislation itself.

This legislation has also been met with criticism in regards to its effectiveness. The mayors of Montreal and Toronto have advocated for a federal handgun ban to combat rising gun violence in their cities. When asked about the policy, a spokesperson for the Ontario Solicitor General stated that they are pleased to receive the proposed legislation, but would prefer to focus “on action that makes a real impact in reducing illegal gun and gang violence.” Critics claim that there is limited evidence that banning legal firearms would address the issue of gun violence. This claim stems from the issue of smuggling, which ramps up when firearms become illegal to purchase. These critics call on the federal government to tighten border restrictions with the United States, where 80% of illegal guns get smuggled from. In addition, there are no cross-provincial checks on goods and services, allowing a market for guns that are legal in certain municipalities to be bought and transported to municipalities that have handgun bans. The Conservative public safety critic stated that the proposed legislation does not address the major problem that is “the illicit use of illegal guns in crime.” 

Provincial governments are also calling on the federal government to provide alternatives to reducing gun crime, such as looking at the societal issues that lead to gun violence. The impact of outreach programs would allow governments to help solve a problem at its roots as opposed to banning guns, which makes illegal purchases an alternative. 

Many gun control advocates call for a federal ban on handgun ownership and possession, which is a way to prevent gun violence. Justin Trudeau’s recent gun control legislation has been criticized from both sides of the political spectrum, with gun control advocates stating that the proposed legislation does not go far enough in preventing gun violence and gun control critics stating that the ban creates a market for illegal smuggling, and therefore does not prevent gun violence. The Liberal government, while waiting for the handgun legislation to be implemented, has called for increased enforcement and penalties on illegal gun smuggling, including reaching out to US President Joe Biden to cooperate on the issue along the border. Trudeau’s legislation aims to combat legal firearm possession to prevent gun violence, however, the depth of the criticism makes its goal harder to envision. The Liberal government has been called out by both partisan and neutral actors for not implementing a federal ban, which would provide a basis for preventing the gun market from growing, independent from provincial differences. Furthermore, critics call for policies directed towards structural issues, specifically community-based methods. These structural issues are crucial for the implementation of gun-control legislation, in order to counteract smuggling on the black market that could persist with a federal ban. The Liberal government needs to address its growing criticism over gun control for not going far enough in addressing the root of the problem—Canadian societal structural issues that can not be solved with a municipal, or federal, ban alone.