After two years of relative inaction on its gun-control promises, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale has said the Liberal government should have a suite of legislation making good on the pledges by year’s end.
The long list of Liberal promises on gun safety, made in the lead up to the last federal election, were many and revolved around “making it harder for criminals to get, and use, handguns and assault weapons.”
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They included bolstering background checks on buyers’ sides and record-keeping on the sellers’; cracking down on transporting restricted arms and giving more say to law enforcement when it comes to weapons restrictions; giving the provinces funding to help local law officials get guns off the streets and rejigging the Canadian Firearms Advisory Committee.
(Scroll down for a full list of the promises kept and promises left.)
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The vast majority of the Liberals’ list hasn’t seen the light of day in the more than two years since they won their majority government in October 2015.
But in the wake of this week’s massacre in Las Vegas, Canada’s public safety minister was facing questions on the government’s gun-control agenda and said implementation of the suite of promises is on its way.
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“I would expect to have a legislative package consistent with the commitments that we made during the election campaign with respect to firearms before the House of Commons before the end of the year,” Goodale said while speaking to reporters Tuesday afternoon.
“It’s a process that is ongoing and we have taken some important steps.”
Kept promises:
- Rejig membership of the Canadian Firearms Advisory Committee.
- Repeal the previous government’s legislation that gave politicians the final word on weapons restrictions, rather than police.
Lingering and broken promises:
- Immediately implement regulations for marking imported guns.
- Roll back a law the previous government enacted allowing people to transport restricted and prohibited weapons without a permit.
- Bolster background checks on people looking to buy handguns or other restricted firearms.
- Require anyone buying a handgun to show their licence, and require the seller to confirm the validity of that licence.
- Ensure sellers keep records of their inventory and sales in order to help police investigating firearm trafficking or other gun-related crimes.
- Provide $100 million to provinces every year to help get illegal guns off streets.
- Invest in tools to help border guards to intercept illegal guns from the U.S. entering Canada.
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