WHEREAS Municipality of East Ferris is home to many proud hunters and law-abiding gun owner who have hunted and owned guns in East Ferris for many generations;
AND WHEREAS keeping our communities safe is a primary responsibility of government, including that of Municipality of East Ferris;
AND WHEREAS every Canadian and citizen of East Ferris should be able to live without the fear of violence;
AND WHEREAS the Government of Canada is seeking measures to reduce illegal gun smuggling, trading, gang and crime gun use and gun violence;
AND WHEREAS Municipality of East Ferris supports the objectives of Bill C-21 but is concerned the provision that would allow municipalities to create handgun bylaws would place challenging conditions on federal firearms licenses relating to handgun use, storage, or transportation within municipalities that have passed such bylaws;
AND WHEREAS if one municipality enacts a ban and not a neighbouring municipality, this will create a patchwork of by-laws;
AND WHEREAS a municipal ban would be difficult to enforce and easy to get around;
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Municipality of East Ferris encourage the government to seek other measures to address the stated objectives that do not include providing municipalities with new powers that they have neither requested, nor have the resources to impose and enforce;
AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this resolution be forwarded to MP Nipissing-Timiskaming Anthony Rota, Prime Minister of Canada the Honourable Justin Trudeau, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness of Canada the Honourable Bill Blair and Leader of the Official Opposition the Honourable Erin O’Toole.