OTTAWA—A skittish federal Liberal government has unveiled a series of tougher gun control measures to fulfill election promises to crack down on gun violence while insisting it isn’t bringing back the politically explosive long-gun registry.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, now leading the governing party that once brought in the bloated, now-defunct federal firearms registry, stressed three times the bill doesn’t reinstate the long gun registry, but simply brings in “common sense gun laws that do a better job of background checks to keep people safe.”

His public safety minister hammered the same message four times, and the Liberal party distributed a political explainer, soliciting email addresses of those who support “common sense gun control.”

Nevertheless, critics like the National Firearms Association, which claims to represent more than 70,000 gun owners, warned the bill amounts to a new attempt to put government controls on gun owners, creating a back-door registry that would allow authorities “to confiscate their firearms.” It vows to mount a political campaign against the measures, targetting some 15-20 ridings it says can be influenced by the votes of gun-owners.

The Conservative Official Opposition had little to say immediately about the measures, but House leader Candice Bergen warned the Liberals “cannot be trusted” because they treat “law-abiding firearms owners as criminals. Conservatives will adamantly oppose any attempt by the Liberals to create a new long-gun registry.”

However supporters of tougher gun control like the Coalition for Gun Con welcomed the measures, saying the package puts Canada back on par with the U.S. which it said has had tighter record-keeping laws on gun sales than Canada since the Conservative government of Stephen Harper killed the long gun registry.

The coalition — which includes survivors of the 1989 Polytechnique massacre, the YWCA, the National Association for Women and the Law and the Victim Justice Network — hailed the bill’s restoration of a requirement for gun store owners to keep “ledgers” documenting sales, records that may be accessed by police with a judicial warrant. It also welcomed requirements on individual gun sellers to verify licence-holders. But coalition co-founder Wendy Cukier said gaps remain, particularly when it comes to the wide discretion authorities have to assess a gun licence applicant’s mental health and history of violence and still issue a licence despite red flags.

Bill C71, tabled Tuesday by Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, would require deeper lifetime background checks (beyond the five-year checks currently required) of would-be gun owners but doesn’t set out new bars to gun ownership; gives the RCMP final say (not cabinet) on firearms classifcations; restores old rules requiring commercial gun vendors to track sales; creates a new legal obligation on all individual sellers of guns to verify with the Canadian Firearms Program that a would-be buyer holds a valid licence; and would put tougher restrictions on how restricted firearms may be transported. It also re-classifies two groups of firearms — the Swiss Arms rifle and Czech-made CZ858 rifle — as prohibited, reversing a Harper government decision to downgrade them as restricted weapons. Current owners of those guns would be “grandfathered” — meaning they have three years to acquire the necessary licence to possess the weapons, but would not be permitted to use them on shooting ranges.

NFA President Sheldon Clare warned the latter move creates a public safety risk, as owners of the soon-to-be prohibited firearms will “seek value for them on the black market. This stuff is just going to go underground.”

The new bill does nothing to meet the Liberals’ promise to “immediately” bring into force regulations requiring guns manufactured or imported to Canada to be engraved with a Canada mark, to enable tracing of firearms in the illegal gun trade and to meet obligations under an international convention. Gun advocates have long opposed the measure as a costly one that would be passed on to consumers.

Goodale admitted Tuesday the government will likely not fulfil that promise before the next campaign, despite vowing last year to act before December 2018, calling the timeframe “almost prohibitive.”

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