Earlier this week, the Federal Government announced new firearm legislation to further strengthen gun control in Canada and keep Canadians safe from gun violence.

Bill C-21 includes:

-Implementing a national freeze on handguns to prevent individuals from bringing newly acquired handguns into Canada and from buying, selling, and transferring handguns within the country
-Taking away the firearms licenses of those involved in acts of domestic violence or criminal harassment
-Increasing criminal penalties and providing more tools for law enforcement to investigate firearms crimes, and strengthening border security measures
-Creating a new “red flag” law would enable courts to require that individuals considered a danger to themselves or others surrender their firearms to law enforcement.

Premier Scott Moe isn’t a big fan of the measures.

He says they are nothing more than a virtue signally by the federal government.

“It’s extremely problematic because it absolutely appears to be going after those that own firearms but do so legally and are following all of the rules and regulations that are in place.”

Despite his criticisms, Moe does see some positives for Saskatchewan.

“I would say there is one line in the information that I saw that may have the ability for this government to have a look at,” he said. “That would be if they are serious about increasing the fines and penalties for those that are committing property crime, where they are stealing a weapon or a firearm or those that are using a weapon on a firearm.”

In addition to this new legislation, the Government of Canada will require long-gun magazines to be permanently altered to never hold more than five rounds. It will ban the sale and transfer of large-capacity magazines under the Criminal Code.

The number of registered handguns in Canada increased by 71 per cent between 2010 and 2020, reaching approximately 1.1 million.

Handguns were the most serious weapon present in most firearm-related violent crimes (59 per cent) between 2009 and 2020.