While Sandhu is eager to get a gun, he is also fearful of being caught up in new rules that include heavy penalties. “My God, if I’m wrong I could ruin the rest of my firearms,” he said, describing a handful of long guns in his collection.
Queues formed outside gun shops in the province of British Columbia just hours after the Liberal leader’s statement on Monday. Other stores in Canada said their stock ran out within days.
“Sales have been brisk,” said Jen Lavigne, co-owner of That Hunting Store in a strip mall outside Ottawa. “We sold 100 pistols, almost our entire stock, in the last three days, since the prime minister announced the freeze,” she said, showing her nearly empty gun cabinet.
“Panic”
At DoubleTap Sports in Toronto, the scene is similar. Owner Josko Kovic said the government announcement “created panic and people are now rushing to buy guns.” “Almost all the stores are sold out, including mine,” he said.
According to government estimates, there are more than a million guns in Canada, a country with a population of 38 million people. Some 2,500 stores sell pistols throughout the territory.
Currently, a person must have a restricted firearms license in order to purchase a firearm. Most also require special permission to transport them from one place to another, and they must be in secure cases. Shooting ranges are the only places where you can legally shoot.
The new regulations, announced after mass shootings that killed 21 people at an elementary school in Texas and 10 at a supermarket in New York state, would ban the purchase, sale, transfer and importation of firearms.
They are expected to go into effect in the fall, along with border measures against gun smuggling from the United States.
“We are limiting the number of firearms in this country,” Trudeau said Monday, alluding to the “unacceptable level of gun violence in (the) communities.”
“Vicious circle”
Nearly two-thirds of gun crimes in Canadian cities over the past decade involved firearms, according to government data.
At That Hunting Store, a man who bought a new pistol for competition, who identified himself as David, lamented the new restrictions, in addition to already cumbersome rules that delay purchases.
“It’s ridiculous,” he said. “It takes two months to get a license with all the background checks.”
Gun store owners interviewed by AFP unanimously denounced the freeze, which still needs to be approved by parliament.
“This measure will only hurt legal gun owners,” Lavigne said, adding, “It will not reduce crime because the bad guys don’t follow the rules.”
Darryl Tomlinson, owner of Canadian Gun Guys in Winnipeg, said he is concerned about the future of his store and shooting range.
“This arms measure will cut off livelihoods and divide communities,” he said. “It’s a Catch-22 (a vicious cycle). We’re busy right now, but I’m afraid we’re going to be out of business in the fall,” Tomlinson said of this week’s gun sales boom.