Proposed changes to Bill C-21 were attacked by Liberal MP Paul Chiang after it passed second reading — prompting complaints from opposition MPs who accused the government of sneaking in changes that would expand the scope of prohibited weapons to include shotguns . The amendment adds long guns to the prohibited list in four different ways. First, it has a clause that would effectively ban any rifle or shotgun that could potentially accept a magazine with more than five rounds, regardless of whether or not it has such a magazine. Critics say it includes many rifles designed for hunters, not soldiers. The list also names weapons that violate two rules nominally intended to ban high-powered military weapons, such as .50 caliber sniper rifles and mortars. One rule bans long guns that can produce more than 10,000 joules of energy, and the other bans guns with muzzles longer than 20 millimeters. Critics say those rules would ban everything from vintage buses to the Nine O’clock Gun in Vancouver’s Stanley Park. Finally, the amendment nominally bans a large number of semi-automatic firearms that do not have detachable magazines and do not meet the definition of an “assault-type weapon” or violate the other two rules, but which the government wants to ban anyway. They include a number of long guns in widespread use by Canadian hunters. CBC News asked to speak with Paul Chiang about the edits, but was told he was traveling and unavailable. Public Security Minister Marco Mendicino insisted hunters are not being targeted. “We have a plan to end gun violence once and for all,” Medicino told the House of Commons on Friday. “We are not going to target those weapons that are conventionally used for hunting.” Here’s what we know and don’t know about the changes.
Will ‘Plinkster’ be banned?
This is not entirely clear. “The Mossberg 702 .22 Plinkster long rifle. Will this hunting and shooting rifle be banned as a result of the C-21 legislation?” Conservative MP Bob Zimmer asked the caucus. “No,” replied Murray Smith, a technical specialist with the government’s Canadian Firearms Program. “The Model 702 Plinkster is a conventional 22 gauge hunting rifle. It is not affected by what is on the C-21.” But in fact, the Plinkster (“plinking” refers to shooting cans) is one of hundreds of common hunting rifles and shotguns listed separately for prohibition in the amendments. The exchange captured some of the confusion caused by the amendment. But the amendment itself is clear: if passed and passed into law, the .22 Plinkster would become a prohibited firearm.
What do the opposition parties have to say?
Conservative MP Rachel Dancho called it “an attack on hunters”. “The arbitrary criteria the Liberal government has sneaked into its legislation at the eleventh hour without democratic debate does not make these firearms any less of a hunting tool,” he said. While the Conservatives have long opposed some liberal gun control measures, this time the NDP balked as well. “The amendment came out of nowhere,” said NDP MP Charlie Angus, whose riding covers a vast swath of northern Ontario that includes many remote First Nations. “That was a gun bill. All of a sudden we saw this other legislation that worries a lot of people who are legal gun owners. I think they went overboard.” Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price posted a photo on Instagram of himself with a semi-automatic shotgun and a message that read, in part, “I am not a criminal or a menace to society.” (Carey Price/Instagram) And then Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price weighed on the subject, the leader of the Quebois bloc, Yves-François Blanchet he lamented on Twitter that the bill had convinced Price “and so many others that the object or effect of gun control is to impair hunting.” The National Police Federation (NPF) described Bill C-21 as a whole as a missed opportunity to reduce gun crime. “Bill C-21 does not address criminal activity, the illegal proliferation of firearms, gang crime, illegal border crossing or the criminal use of firearms,” he said in written submission to the Parliament. And on the ban on legally owned firearms, “the NPF will warn that it diverts critically important staff, resources and funding away from addressing the more immediate and growing threat of criminal use of illegal firearms.”
What do advocacy groups think?
Heidi Rathjen of the pro-gun group PolySeSouvient told CBC Radio’s The House that she agrees with the bill and the amendments, but said they are “very technically complex” and “difficult to explain.” “But in terms of communication, I think the Liberals could have done a much better job.” LISTEN | Gun control advocate discusses proposed changes to gun laws: CBC News: The House11:01 Confusion and controversy over new gun laws The House speaks to gun control advocate Heidi Rathjen, co-founder of the gun control group PolySeSouvient, about whether the controversy over a proposed amendment to the government’s gun laws could jeopardize her three-decade effort to ban rifles. Rathjen defended the rule banning rifles that produce more than 10,000 joules. “We’re talking about .50 caliber military weapons that can pierce military equipment and structures,” he said. But the rule would also ban some very expensive elephant and buffalo rifles that are more likely to grace collectors’ display cases than to be used for hunting. “A lot of these old firearms date back to before 1900,” says Tony Bernardo of the Canadian Shooting Sports Association. “Some of these guns are worth half a million dollars or more. Many of them are single-shot or double-barreled and the finest examples of the engraver’s art.” WATCHES | Head of hunting association on new changes to firearms bill:
Gun control laws tend towards ‘fancy’ bans, hunters association director says
Matt DeMille, director of policy and programs for the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters, said the new federal measures go beyond their “stated intent” to reduce gun violence. Bernardo says crime won’t be reduced by using taxpayer money to buy and destroy these expensive heirlooms, though he’s quick to add that there’s no mention of compensation in Bill C-21. The bill has also been challenged by historical and reenactment groups, who say the antique cannons and their cannons do not pose a threat to public safety. “Many of our veterans actively participate in period uniforms as reenactors to demonstrate the function of artillery in official salutes, demonstrations, reenactments and the like,” the Royal Canadian Artillery Association wrote to the committee studying C-21, saying the bill. they will make their activities a crime. WATCHES | The government is trying to expand the list of restricted firearms:
Ottawa is moving to expand the list of prohibited weapons
A new government proposal would make more firearms illegal in Canada, adding many shotguns and semi-automatic rifles to the banned list.
A list of additional weapons to be banned
Perhaps the most controversial part of the amendment is that it proposes to ban hundreds of guns that don’t fit the government’s new definition of “assault-style weapons.” One such is the Benelli shotgun with automatic loading, which does not have a detachable magazine and has never been used by any military. Self-loading shotguns are heavily used in such traditional hunts as Cree goose hunting in James Bay, and Newfoundland turr hunting. They are sometimes preferred by female hunters and those with a smaller frame because they have softer recoil than other shotguns, Mendicino said. Another is the SKS semi-automatic rifle, which Rathjen says wasn’t in the original “assault weapon ban” in 2020 because “if a weapon wasn’t of a modern design, it was exempt.” Designed in 1945, the SKS lacks features common to modern military rifles such as the AR-15. But the government has now decided it wants it banned. WATCHES | Call to ban the SKS gun:
Calls for Soviet-era rifle used in Canadian shooting to be added to federal gun ban
Supporters are calling for the SKS — a Soviet-era semi-automatic rifle used in the 2022 Innisfil, Ont., killings — to be added to the 2019 B.C. and in the 2018 Frederiction mass shooting – the Ottawa military. style assault weapons ban. There is a long tradition of Canadian hunters using what were once military rifles to hunt. The .303 Lee-Enfield, used in both the First and Second World Wars, was once the standard Canadian hunting rifle and remains common, particularly in the North. And today, says Bernardo, SKS is “ubiquitous.” “There are, according to our best estimates, something over half a million SKS rifles in circulation in Canada,” he told CBC News. Because SKS are currently classified as non-restricted (and therefore unregistered) firearms, the government does not know who owns them. Consequently, he has no way of informing them individually that they will be breaking a law that carries prison sentences of up to 10 years. Bernardo says SKS is particularly common among indigenous people and foragers in remote areas who may only realize they’ve broken the new laws when they’re caught. “The implications of this are absolutely enormous and, frankly, completely unjustified.”
