OTTAWA — Aman Sandhu checked store after store for a
handgun in Canada’s
British Columbia, hoping to make a purchase before a freeze
on sales takes effect, but struggled to find one in stock.
اضافة اعلان
“I’m concerned
that if I don’t buy one now, I may never have the choice again,” Sandhu, a
member of the Dawson Creek Sportsman’s Club, told AFP.
Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau’s proposed freeze on pistol sales — which he announced in the
wake of a series of high-profile mass shootings in the United States — has
pushed some Canadians to rush out to gun stores while they still can.
While Sandhu is
keen to buy a pistol, he is also wary of becoming mired in new rules that
include hefty penalties for even minor lapses. “Jeez, if I slip up, I could
screw up the rest of my firearms ownership,” he said, describing a handful of
long guns in his collection.
Several gun
stores in British Columbia province saw lines out the door within hours of the
liberal leader’s declaration on Monday. Other shops across
Canada said they
sold out within days.
“Sales have been
brisk,” said Jen Lavigne, co-owner of That Hunting Store in a strip mall on the
outskirts of the capital
Ottawa, nestled between a barbershop, a Chinese buffet
restaurant, and a conservative lawmaker’s constituency office. “We sold 100
handguns, or almost our entire stock, in the last three days, since the prime
minister announced the freeze,” she said, showing off her nearly empty handgun
cabinet.
The new
regulations, unveiled after mass shootings killed 21 people at an elementary
school in
Texas and 10 at a supermarket in New York state, would prohibit the
purchase, sale, transfer, and importation of handguns. They are expected to
come into force in the fall, along with a border crackdown on weapons smuggling
from the United States.
“We are capping
the number of handguns in this country,” Trudeau said Monday, citing “a level
of gun violence in our communities that is unacceptable.”
Almost
two-thirds of gun crimes in Canadian cities over the past decade involved
handguns, according to government data.
At That Hunting Store, a man picking up a new handgun for competition, who identified himself
as David, lamented the new restrictions on top of already cumbersome rules that
drag out purchases. “It’s ridiculous,” he said. “It takes two months just to
get a license with all the background checks.”
Gun shop owners
interviewed by AFP unanimously decried the freeze, which must still be passed
by parliament. Lavigne said, “It’s not going to reduce any of the crime because
the bad guys don’t follow the rules.”
Darryl
Tomlinson, owner of Canadian Gun Guys in Winnipeg, said he worries for the
future of his store and shooting range, as well as the social network of
members. “This handgun measure is going to take away livelihoods and break up
communities,” he said.
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