Overview of Bill C-42
Bill C-42: Common Sense Firearms Licensing Act
- Announced on July 2014 by Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney
- Introduced in October 2014 to the House of Commons
- Scheduled for debate on October 22, 2014, day of the shootings at Parliament Hill in Ottawa
- On December 3, 2014, Minister Blaney expressed his desire to see ‘the bill referred to a committee for study in the very near future’.
Key elements of concern with the Bill include:
- The addition of an automatic renewal period for licenses
- The merging of the current two types of licenses into one, which would dilute screening requirements for risk factors, such as violence and psychiatric disorders, and weaken ex-spouse notification requirements
- The weakening of the powers of provincial Chief Firearms Officers to restrict licenses, thus removing any scope at the provincial level to adapt regulations to local issues and conditions
- The elimination of restrictions on the transportation of hand guns and other restricted firearms
- The continuing lack of mandatory verification of a buyer’s licence when purchasing a gun, and no requirement for dealers to maintain records of sale
Click here to learn more about the position on the Coalition for gun control on Bill C-42.