Juno News - July 24, 2018


True North's Andrew Lawton on Canadian Gun Laws

Topics
mental health and gun licensing
Hosted by
Andrew Lutton
Mentioned
Faisal Hussain Hussein
True North's Andrew Lawton with Barbara Kay 07⧸24⧸2018 LIVE with Candice Malcolm： Danforth shooting investigation

Episode Stats


Length

4 minutes

Words per minute

191.64

Word count

828

Sentence count

41


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In the wake of the Danforth shooting, many are asking the question: How does someone with mental health issues get access to a gun? In this episode, we discuss the process of getting a firearms license, and how the process is designed to identify and filter out people who should not have access to guns.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.420 After the tragic Danforth Ave shooting in Toronto this week, the man identified by the SIU as being the shooter, Faisal Hussain, was revealed by his family in a statement to have had mental health issues for his entire life.
00:00:14.340 How does someone with mental health issues get access to a handgun?
00:00:18.240 That's the logical question and it's one that people are asking all over the country.
00:00:22.220 To understand this, we need to know how you actually get a firearm in any case.
00:00:26.500 It starts with something called a PAL or an RPAL, a Possession and Acquisition License, or for some firearms, including all handguns, a Restricted Possession and Acquisition License.
00:00:37.120 To get one of these licenses, which lasts five years, you have to go through a few steps along the way.
00:00:42.500 One of them is a safety course, the Canadian Firearm Safety Course.
00:00:46.220 It gives you all the information you need about safe handling, what the rules and regulations are, how to transport them,
00:00:51.940 and you have to do this under the tutelage of a Certified Firearm Safety Instructor.
00:00:57.460 After that, you can actually apply.
00:01:00.000 When you apply, there are a number of questions that you're asked about where you work, about your work history,
00:01:05.460 whether you've ever lost a job, whether you've been through a divorce or a bad breakup,
00:01:10.100 and there is also a question about whether you have had, in the last five years, any mental health issues whatsoever,
00:01:16.720 diagnosed or undiagnosed.
00:01:18.280 It also asks about whether you've been under the care or counsel of any mental health providers or mental health practitioners,
00:01:24.680 whether you've ever threatened your life or attempted your life,
00:01:27.400 whether you've ever threatened harm or injury to someone else.
00:01:29.980 These are questions that are meant to weed out the more violent or potentially dangerous,
00:01:35.500 potentially violent people in the country with mental illness who are seeking access to firearms.
00:01:41.540 It is a yes or no question, but it's not just your word for it.
00:01:44.780 The government is actually looking at a number of factors.
00:01:46.920 They're interviewing family. They're interviewing romantic partners.
00:01:49.900 They can even interview employers.
00:01:51.500 They can do all of these things, and if anyone along the way says,
00:01:54.320 you know what, I don't think that person should have access to guns, and that's one of the questions.
00:01:59.180 Is there any reason in your mind this person shouldn't have access to guns?
00:02:03.160 Police are supposed to then pull that person aside and say,
00:02:07.080 look, we can't give you your firearms license.
00:02:09.060 That's the way the system's supposed to work.
00:02:11.280 But what if you check yes on the box about mental health issues?
00:02:14.500 Does that mean that you are pulled out of the running for a gun?
00:02:17.400 Not exactly.
00:02:18.620 And it's important that people understand that there is a wide range of mental health issues.
00:02:23.500 There are minor anxiety and depressions, and there are very serious psychoses.
00:02:28.000 There are things that will cause someone no harm or risk to themselves at all,
00:02:32.520 and there are others that could have someone conceivably on a murderous rampage.
00:02:36.160 If you disclose in your application, the police, understandably, the CFO, want a bit more information.
00:02:43.600 I did.
00:02:44.400 I was a suicide survivor.
00:02:45.800 I've written about it extensively.
00:02:47.520 And when I actually applied for my firearms license,
00:02:49.720 it was less than five years after the suicide attempt in question.
00:02:54.180 So what did they need?
00:02:55.140 They wanted to talk to my family to make sure that I was safe in their view.
00:02:58.920 They wanted to also get a letter from a health care practitioner in the mental health field
00:03:03.660 saying, you know what, Andrew is in a different place in his life now than he was before.
00:03:07.920 The CFO themselves called me up and asked about all of these different things that had happened,
00:03:14.060 and they made a case-by-case determination that I was not going to be a risk,
00:03:18.120 and I've had firearms ever since.
00:03:19.740 That process is supposed to filter out anyone who shouldn't have a firearm
00:03:24.920 or anyone who would be a danger, and it is a very hands-on, case-by-case process.
00:03:30.080 We don't know whether the handgun used by Hussein was acquired legally or illegally.
00:03:35.820 We don't know if he had a license or not.
00:03:38.020 But these are the questions that people are asking for answers to
00:03:40.860 about how one actually gets a gun in the country in the first place,
00:03:45.000 and whether it's even possible for someone with a mental health issue.
00:03:48.500 The short answer is it is, but it's not easy.
00:03:51.380 And the system is meant to distinguish between those with serious mental health issues
00:03:55.840 and those with mental health issues that won't actually cause a risk.
00:04:00.100 And this distinction is important for us to have a sensible approach to firearms.
00:04:03.820 It's also important for us to have a sensible approach to mental health issues.
00:04:08.120 For the True North Initiative, I'm Andrew Lutton.
00:04:10.260 For the True North Initiative, I'm Andrew Lutton.