OTTAWA, ON (August 14, 2023): On November 22, 2021, the federal government presented Bill C-21, aiming to entrench in law aspects of the 2020 Order in Council, banning “assault-style firearms,” codifying the regulatory freeze on the purchase, transfer, and inheritance of handguns, and further complicating Canada’s “red flag” laws.
In this new paper, Aiming off target: gun policy in Canada, Noah Schwartz and Tim Thurley examine the state of Canada’s current gun policies and offer recommendations for improvement. In essence, current policies will have little effect on violent crime but they will have significant adverse impacts on hundreds of thousands of law-abiding Canadian gun owners, including members of Indigenous communities, and the businesses and networks supporting them.
“These policies distract from meaningful, evidence-based efforts to reduce crime and violence,” write Schwartz and Thurley.
The authors reveal how unlikely it is that Bill C-21 will meaningfully disrupt the supply of guns to criminals and gang members. The status-quo in Canada, where access to firearms has been strictly controlled for decades through a licensing system, means it is highly unlikely that proposed prohibitions would have a meaningful impact.
Meanwhile, broad language defining “red flag” laws, combined with the complete lack of any discretion or appeal mechanisms, means that individuals are likely to lose their licenses regardless of whether or not they present a public safety risk. The authors note that the new measures will only serve to further erode public trust in government amongst gun owners who interpret this new law as a politically motivated attack on their way of life.
As an alternative, and to bring Canadian gun policy more in line with public safety research and away from political concerns, the paper proposes that government:
- Remove the freeze on legal handgun transfers, sales, and inheritances,
- Repeal the costly and ineffective ban of “assault-style firearms”, as well as the planned expansion of the ban to include other firearms,
- Review the existing firearms classification system which is confusing, overly bureaucratic, and too easily politicized,
- Direct energy towards smuggled guns, law enforcement, and root causes.
To learn more, read the full paper here:
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Noah S. Schwartz is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of the Fraser Valley. Tim Thurley is a firearm policy specialist who obtained his Master of Science from Leiden University.
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Skander Belouizdad
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skander.belouizdad@macdonaldlaurier.ca
