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Retailers say they are now burdened with more responsibilities when transferring or selling a non-restricted firearm after new regulations came down this week. 

Under the new regulation that became effective May 18, all transfers between licence holders must be reported to the RCMP registrar of firearms.

“We need to confirm the recipient’s identity, check the validity of their gun licence with the registrar and provide their licence number and other information,” said Kamloops gun retailer Denis Lessard. “We can’t sell the gun until we get a registration number from the registrar. Then we keep the records of what gun you purchased with that registration number for 20 years.”

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The B.C. Wildlife Federation opposes the new rules, according to a recent news release, stating that licenced gun owners are the wrong targets, enforcing the new rules will cost money, and the required data collection is invasive.

“We need to address real public safety issues and that includes adhering to strict penalties for crimes involving guns and stopping the flow of smuggled handguns across our border from the United States,” Federation Executive Director Jesse Zeman said in the release.

“The target of public safety legislation should be criminals, not farmers, hunters, and outdoor enthusiasts.”

A long-gun registry was attempted in the nineties before it was later abolished by the Conservative government.

“A long-gun registry has been tried in the past, it cost taxpayers more than $1 billion and it didn’t work,” said Zeman. “Now, a decade later the federal government is trying it again. It will fail again and cost hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars more in the process.”

The data collected through the registry will allow RCMP to reconstruct a national database of legal firearm owners.  

“This kind of backdoor gun registry is meant to make it look like the federal government is doing something about public safety,” Zeman said. “We are concerned that this approach accomplishes nothing.”

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The regulations have not yet been made public, so it is impossible to ascertain the entire scope of the government’s plans, the Federation said in the release.

The release states most firearm-related crimes in Canada are committed with guns smuggled in from the United States. Very few crimes are committed with firearms obtained from Canadian retailers or stolen from licenced owners.

“Even as it targets law-abiding firearm owners with new requirements and invasive data collection, the federal government is reducing sentences for gun smuggling, armed robbery, drug trafficking, and illegal possession of firearms,” said Zeman.

The new rules are the latest steps toward fully implementing Bill C-71, which received royal assent in 2019.

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Lessard said he sold 65 guns in three days to people who wanted to get ahead of the new rules, and has not sold any since the regulations went into effect. Many licenced gun owners see the new rules as an invasion of privacy.

“Anytime you touch a gun you need a registration number so everything is tracked,” he said. “It is annoying and time consuming, and next year if they want to pull a model they know where everyone is.”

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