Article content

By Gary Mauser and Vincent Harinam

The Toronto and Fredericton shootings all but guarantee that gun control will become a key political issue in next year’s federal election. With their momentum interrupted by their indecisiveness on the Trans Mountain pipeline, the Liberal party sees gun control as a possible “wedge” issue.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or The Liberals are playing dishonest games with stats to crack down on legal gun owners Back to video

Officially known as An Act to Amend Certain Acts and Regulations in Relation to Firearms, Bill C-71 assumes that constricting the lawful sale and use of firearms will reduce criminal violence.

The draft legislation proposes new provisions that augment existing measures. These include: extending background checks to cover a buyer’s life history (instead of just the past five years), reinstating the requirement for request permits to transport restricted firearms to gun shops or gun shows, and unleashing the RCMP to restrict or prohibit firearms. Firearm vendors must also retain sales information for 20 years, a move decried by some as a “backdoor gun registry.”

Photo by Mark Blinch/The Canadian Press

According to Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, Bill C-71 is a response to substantial increases in gun violence since 2013. It is legislation driven and justified by the empirical evidence. Or so it would seem.