Should Canada’s regulations be stricter? – Poll

The Liberal Government has finalized long-promised firearms regulations that ensure someone buying a gun actually has a valid license and require vendors to keep sales and inventory records.

The measures announced Wednesday by Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino represent the latest steps toward fully implementing Bill C-71, which received royal assent in 2019.

At the time, the government said it would require sellers to verify the validity of a firearms license before selling a non-restricted firearm, such as a basic rifle or shotgun.

However, proposed regulations published last year included no obligations on the part of a seller to check with the federal firearms registrar to see if a prospective gun buyer had a valid license — an omission that sparked criticism from gun-control advocates.

The final regulations made public Wednesday close that loophole.

Effective May 18, individuals and businesses transferring or selling a non-restricted firearm will need to confirm the recipient’s identity and check the validity of their firearms license with the registrar beforehand, providing the recipient’s license number and any other information requested.

In addition, shops must now keep records of inventory and sales related to non-restricted firearms.

The Conservatives swiftly accused the Liberals of reviving the national long-gun registry created by the Liberals in the 1990s and abolished by Stephen Harper’s Tory government.

“Justin Trudeau said he would never enact a long-gun registry and today he is breaking that promise to Canadians by passing off the responsibility to maintain a registry to retailers who sell firearms to lawful and properly licensed Canadians,” the Conservatives said in a statement .

The government said there were key differences between the new system and the old gun registry.

The sales records will be kept by businesses, not the firearms registrar. In addition, police will need reasonable grounds, and often a court-approved warrant, to gain access to these business records, the government said.

A similar requirement for vendor record-keeping was in place between 1979 and 2005.

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