Tough Gun Control Law Near Passage In Canada

In a major political triumph for Prime Minister Jean Chretien, the House of Commons in Ottawa Tuesday night approved a package of federal firearms regulations that will make Canada’s gun control laws among the toughest in the world.

The bill, which is almost certain to win passage in the upper house of Parliament and become law before the end of the year, requires all owners of firearms to register their weapons with the federal government or face prison sentences. Although hailed by supporters as a blow against violent crime, the law will have its greatest effect on owners of sporting weapons: rifles and shotguns. Handguns are already strictly regulated in Canada.

The bill, which passed by a vote of 192 to 63, also bans possession of semiautomatic firearms deemed “unreasonable” for sporting purposes, a category that includes most assault weapons - that is, firearms modeled after military weapons, with large-capacity ammunition clips.

Canadians owning rifles and shotguns will be required not only to register the weapons but to obtain a special federal license for them. Similar in style to a driver’s license, the new permit will carry a photo of the gun owner as well as date of birth and physical characteristics.

The document must be renewed every five years. Failure to properly register a firearm will be a criminal violation and offenders may be sentenced to five years in prison.

“Mandatory, universal registration of all firearms is nothing less than a matter of common sense,” Justice Minister Allan Rock told Parliament in an impassioned address shortly before the vote.

Possession of handguns in Canada is already confined mainly to bona fide collectors or target shooters who belong to policeapproved shooting ranges. But the new law imposes even stricter regulations on the possession of handguns - requiring, for instance, that the weapons cannot be moved to a new address without a special carrying permit issued by federal police.

Gun groups in the United States have vowed to retaliate against the new legislation by urging their members not to take hunting and fishing trips to Canada.

In pushing hard for tougher restrictions on possession of firearms, Rock played upon the anxiety among Canadians that their society is becoming increasingly violent.

The gun bill was also rather cynically portrayed as Canada’s only hope of escaping a wave of “American-style” violence.

Anti-American rhetoric pervaded the government campaign, with Rock declaring at one point: “There is no other country in the world that, like Canada, shares a 5,000-kilometer border with a culture awash in guns. A culture that saturates us with their entertainment, that tries to seduce us with their values, and that puts us next to 200 million-plus handguns and rifles.”