Mr. Speaker, on April 27, I put a question to the Minister of Justice asking him what action he would take to ban handguns as a result of a meeting he had earlier that week with a group which made that proposal to him. The group in question consisted of representatives from Concordia University, the Canadian Safety Council, the Canadian Bar Association, the Ottawa chief of police and others.
In answer to my question the minister said that the government is committed toward more effective gun control, but he was not able to give me much detail at that time in his answer. As a result I am putting the question once again today.
Since that time several important things have happened. We have had two drive-by shootings in this area recently, one by a group of minors who were able to obtain weapons, guns and ammunition illegally and without much difficulty.
The second happening was a very important resolution passed by the Liberal convention here in Ottawa just a few weeks ago. In that resolution which was passed by an overwhelming majority of the convention delegates, among other things they asked that the private possession and ownership of handguns be severely restricted.
As many have pointed out and as I have pointed out in this House before, handguns are not used for hunting. They have no legitimate purpose with private individuals and therefore should be banned or at least severely restricted. They are now restricted weapons but they are still available too loosely and much can be done to tighten that up.
Among the other subclauses of that resolution is one which would ban the sale and ownership of ammunition to those under 18 years of age. The sale of such ammunition would only be made to adults if they were in possession of the appropriate documentation.
For years I have been proposing that no one should be permitted to buy ammunition unless they present the firearms acquisition certificate. In this way all those who want to use and/or own weapons would have to get a firearms acquisition certificate because in order to shoot the gun and to be effective in one's shooting of the gun, one needs both the gun and the ammunition.
If we can put more obstacles in the way of those who want to use weapons in a criminal way or illegally, the better off we are and the better chance we have of reducing crime with guns. To oblige people to have a firearms acquisition certificate or other appropriate documentation, as the resolution points out, the better chance we have of preventing incidents such as happened in Ottawa and other incidents across the country where people have committed crimes with guns.
I repeat over and over again that there is considerable evidence from Canada and around the world that where guns are less available and where ammunition is less available there are fewer crimes with guns. That is an absolute fact that has been shown over and over again.
Once again I want to thank the Minister of Justice for his answer to me and also the response of the Prime Minister following the convention. If the parliamentary secretary could give us more details with respect to this important matter, we would appreciate it very much.