The Senate voted in favor of gun control legislation

Canada continues to crack down on the possession and trafficking of firearms.

The Canadian Senate voted overwhelmingly — 60 to 24 — to approve Bill C-21, marking a tightening of gun control.

The bill proposes to freeze the sale of firearms, increase penalties for trafficking and control the proliferation of homemade weapons.

What the Senate vote means

For a bill to become law, a majority of the Senate must vote in favor of it, and then it must go through the stage of being agreed to by the Crown.

The C-21 is likely to receive royal approval, which means new gun control measures will soon become an integral part of Canadian law.

Pros and cons

The bill was first introduced back in May 2022, but has since been withdrawn for revisions multiple times.

Specifically, the bill specifies the regulation of assault-type firearms, but the interpretation of this concept changed during consideration. The original version of C-21 envisioned a ban on any rifle or shotgun that could have a magazine for more than five rounds (regardless of whether the original design called for such a magazine). And this was to be regulated at the level of the Criminal Code, not bylaws. However, this clarification was resisted by gun lobbying groups — at least because some types of rifles common among hunters were covered by this clarification. As a result, this clarification was not included in the final version of C-21.

Opposing the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights is the advocacy organization PolySeSouvient. Its members include survivors of the 1989 mass shooting at the Polytechnic University of Montreal, and the group has consistently advocated for a strict ban on guns in Canada.

The authorities balance the interests of both groups, eventually passing a compromise version of the bill. In recent years, however, Canada's gun laws have slowly but surely strengthened. This has been fueled by infrequent but high-profile cases of fatal shootings, such as the recurring murders in Winnipeg or the story of the Edmonton juvenile shooter.