Gun Control

A federal judge has once more found the state’s ban on carrying a gun in church, even by those with permits, violates New Yorkers’ rights.

Judge John Sinatra of the Western District of New York, a Trump appointee, again found the state’s ban unconstitutional on Thursday. The judge sided with the pastor of a church in his challenge against the state’s Concealed Carry Improvement Act (CCIA) in Spencer v. Nigrelli. He ruled the ban violated worshipers’ gun rights and infringed on the free exercise of their religious beliefs.

Twenty-eight percent of Canadian firearm owners hunt for food, while another 39 percent target shoot as a hobby, according to research by the federal Public Safety department that paints a picture of typical gun owners in the country.

Half of gun owners own just one firearm, and 44 percent said they have owned their firearms for more than five years. Eight percent of firearm owners have owned their guns for less than a year. The majority have purchased their firearms legitimately from official retailers.

In Dale Clark’s estimation, the money brought into New Brunswick by non-resident hunters — Americans or others — has never been fully appreciated.

“It is a multi-million dollar industry in the province that is not being recognized by our government, federal or provincial,” said Clark, president of the New Brunswick Professional Outfitters and Guides Association.

“We have been put on — I don’t know how you say [it] — the backburner.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently conceded that it is up to society to figure out how to define an assault weapon, saying that, “There are people who will have, right now, guns that are on the line, that are probably more powerful or more convenient than you’d really need for hunting … as a society, we have to figure out where that line is going to be.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says that while the federal government is not trying to go after the right to hunt through contentious gun control legislation, the Liberals “are going at some of the guns used to do it.”

Trudeau said that this is because some of these firearms “are too dangerous in other contexts.”

This fall, work in Parliament on the government’s Bill C-21—initially focused on ‘red flag’ laws and restricting legal access to handguns—became the centre of controversy after the Liberals put forward an amendment that would enshrine in law a definition for “assault-style” weapons.

“In other words, there’s almost a zero percent chance that any illegal weapons entering the country via rail will ever be found,”

Canada’s public safety department says it does not know how many guns are smuggled into the country.

In a federal briefing note obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter, the Department of Public Safety said the scope of gunrunning in Canada is “unknown.”

“Cross-border smuggling of firearms poses a threat to the safety and security of Canada,” said the note, titled “Efforts To Address Firearms Smuggling And Trafficking.”

A Hamilton jury has found Peter Khill not guilty of second-degree murder but guilty of manslaughter after shooting and killing Jon Styres in 2016.

After roughly 13 hours of deliberations, the 12-person jury reached the verdict on Friday afternoon.

At 5:06 p.m., Khill learned his fate.

For years, we were told that it was wrong to prohibit the CDC from doing research on guns and gun violence. I argued that nothing prohibited them from doing such research, the laws in place just prevented them from anti-gun advocacy and that it was on them to decide unbiased research equated to advocacy.

The Alberta government is taking over prosecutions of federal firearm charges, and may even decide not to take offenders to court, in its fight over Ottawa’s proposed amendments to Bill C-21.

The federal legislation has been criticized for impacting guns used by hunters.

Alberta Justice Minister Tyler Shandro announced Thursday that the province’s Crown prosecution service would assume responsibility for prosecutions as of Jan. 1. He said federal lawyers currently handle those cases.

OTTAWA—Nineteen thousand.

That’s how many makes and models of guns the Liberals insisted Wednesday will still be available for hunters and sports shooters to buy and use as the government presses ahead with efforts to enshrine a massive ban on firearms.

Rural Economic Development Minister Gudie Hutchings offered the number as the Liberals tried to reframe the debate around controversial amendments to Bill C-21, sending a posse of parliamentarians before a microphone outside the House of Commons chamber to try and clarify their proposals, and show a bit of contrition.

Canada’s maximum federal penalty for gun trafficking, which is a 10-year prison sentence, has never been imposed despite the Liberal government proposing it be increased to 14 years, according to an Inquiry of Ministry recently tabled in the House of Commons.

The inquiry showed that 390 individuals had been convicted on charges relating to firearms trafficking over the past eight years, but that none had received the maximum 10-year sentence, reports Blacklock’s Reporter.

OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says his government is trying to find the dividing line between guns suitable for hunting and ones that have no place in society because they pose significant dangers in the wrong hands.

Trudeau said in an interview with The Canadian Press that while the effort is sparking disagreement, it’s up to society to figure out “where that line is going to be.”

The criminals will decide what guns they want, Trudeau would have the rest of us made defenseless.