A new law will prevent Saskatchewan municipalities from banning handgun and other firearms if the federal government gives them that power.
“This prevents a number of things. It prevents a patchwork across the province so that we don’t have different rules in different municipalities," said Scott Moe at a press conference June 16.
"It does take us another step towards ensuring that we are not only protecting the rights of law-abiding firearms owners here in the province, but we are doing right by the Saskatchewan people."
The federal government has banned certain firearms and has recently indicated plans to pass legislation intended to delegate to municipalities the ability to ban handguns or other firearms.
Moe said the ban is extremely concerning, adding to the reasoning for moving forward with the bill amendment.
“Not only the introduction of this ban, [but] the fact that they have not consulted with provinces, and certainly haven’t consulted on expansion of the firearms that are being added to the ban,” he said.
Moe went on to saw that law-abiding firearms people are not the issue.
“The issue is combating illegal gun crime in this nation, wherever you are,” Moe said.
“Approaching and banning legal firearm owners is not the answer to the problem.”
According to a press released sent out by the province, the law amended on June 16 was The Miscellaneous Municipal Statutes Amendment Act, 2019, which was originally introduced in the fall of 2019. Other changes to the law include clarifying municipal responsibilities when posting public notices.
“We have chosen to represent the law-abiding firearm owners here in the province since they did not have representation in the federal government,” Moe said.
“It would be very wise of the federal government to shift their focus towards where the actual challenge is opposed to the people that are and have been following the laws for many years and decades now."
