Long-delayed rules to help gun tracing not needed ‘at this time’: minister

Canada’s public safety minister says the government is delaying long-promised regulations for marking firearms another two years because it’s focused on the impending national launch of the federal gun buyback program.

The marking rules, which had been set to come into force on Monday, sought to require domestic manufacturers to label all new firearms with a serial number and country identifier to help law enforcement with tracing weapons used in crime.

The government said in a notice last month that the rules — first proposed over 20 years ago — will now come into effect in December 2027, which will allow “additional preparatory time” for manufacturers “to take steps to comply with the regime when it comes into force.”

That was the same justification given when the rules were delayed by two years in a 2023 government notice.

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Asked by reporters Wednesday in Ottawa to explain the latest two-year delay, Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree said that “at this time, we didn’t feel (it was) appropriate to bring that forward.”

“The key thing is to launch the (gun buyback) compensation program, and that is our primary and singular focus, and we look forward to its launch in the coming weeks,” he said.

The minister said a pilot program in Cape Breton this fall for the federal buyback program targeting approximately 2,500 outlawed firearm models has been completed and showed “the system works.”

He did not say how many firearms were purchased under the program, saying the government will be reporting the results “in the near future.”

2:11 Liberals to begin gun buyback pilot program in Cape Breton, N.S.

Anandasangaree said the government is working through implementing firearms regulations contained in legislation passed in 2023, “and there’s a number of regulations that will be coming forth very shortly.”

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However, the law makes no mention of the marking rules or efforts to improve firearms tracing.

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The government notice announcing the delay says that “firearms marking is necessary to strengthen Canada’s tracing capabilities.”

“Along with record-keeping, markings increase law enforcement’s ability to identify how a recovered firearm made its way to the illicit market,” the notice says. “Without sufficient information on the origin of firearms, reducing firearms smuggling and diversion to the illicit market remains challenging.”

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The marking rules were initially proposed in 2024 to comply with United Nations treaties that sought to counter international gun smuggling, of which Canada is a signatory. Canada also adopted a separate, non-binding international commitment by UN states in 2005 to improve tracing of small arms and light weapons.

The government notice acknowledges that repeated deferrals of the marking rules — more than 10 times since they were first set to take effect in 2006 — “carry certain reputational risks from an international perspective.”

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The rules, once in force, would require Canadian manufacturers to label every new firearm with a serial number, the name of the manufacturer and a “Canada” or “CA” marker. Firearms imported into Canada would require the country marker and the last two digits of the year of import added to the body.

“Currently, there is no legal requirement to mark firearms manufactured in or imported into Canada,” the government notice says.

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“However, as an industry best practice and to comply with international requirements, most manufacturers imprint a serial number, make, model, manufacturer and country of manufacture. In Canada, import markings are rarely applied.”

3:37 How more gun tracing can help Canada clamp down on cross-border trafficking

The Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights has protested the marking rules over the potential cost to manufacturers and the fact that serial numbers are already imprinted.

The government said the latest deferral “will result in some minor costs” to the RCMP and Public Safety Canada to inform the gun industry and law enforcement of the new enforcement date.

Ottawa earmarked $15 million over five years, beginning in 2021-22, and $3.3 million ongoing, to increase the RCMP’s ability to trace firearms and identify movement patterns, as well as support development of a new national tracing database.

The RCMP’s latest firearms report from 2024 shows the number of firearms traced by its national tracing centre rose from just over 2,100 in 2020 to more than 7,000 last year — more than half of which were identified as “crime guns.”

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