With the Saskatchewan Firearms Act (SFA) passing into law, the province is offering more support for citizens and law enforcement. 

The SFA will allow the province more autonomy regarding certain scenarios and situations surrounding investigating and handling firearms-related crimes and disputes.

Robert Freberg, the chief provincial firearms officer, is happy to begin work on developing the Saskatchewan Firearms Office. One of the big aspects of their work will be determining the fair value of weapons that, under recent federal firearm crackdowns, will no longer be legal to own. 

"[In situations] that the individual is saying 'Well, look, I paid $5,000 for this firearm, and I'm only being offered $1,000 in compensation, so I don't feel that that's adequate',", explained Freberg. "The province feels that it has jurisdiction on your property, and so we would be reviewing those cases."

 

They would take into account the condition of the weapon, the accessories that go with it, and other criteria to reach a fair value.

Another major component of the SFA will be developing a new management service that will oversee the ownership, licensing, storage, transportation, and carrying of firearms. This new service would be in charge of educating and monitoring responsible gun ownership in Saskatchewan. 

Outside of establishing the ground rules, they must also work alongside law enforcement in forensics and other investigative measures. That will become more of an active effort as they finish designing and furbishing a new ballistics lab. 

"We're to be locating that for an interim in the Saskatoon Police forensics facility, but will eventually be building our own lab at our own facility," said Freberg. 

This new lab will allow them to inspect weapons and even the brass found at crime scenes. 

The SFA also helps to define firearms as restricted, prohibited, or replicas. 

"It also has some provisions in there for provincial offences, to give police other sets of tools to use with enforcement around the firearms legislation," expanded Freberg.

As it is right now, police have very few options outside of federal law when dealing with firearms-related offences. For example, if someone has an expired license for their firearms, the only thing they can do at the moment is to charge them, which could result in their firearms being seized. The new provincial offences would be used at officers' discretion when dealing with individuals but could have less extreme measures for the individual. 

"We would look at things like education, perhaps ordering the firearm be relocated to a different premise where it could be stored safely until the person just gets their license back into compliance," offered Freberg. "That sort of thing to be able to deal with it more with education and administratively versus having people go into court and face criminal charges." 

So far, the province has yet to receive a rebuttal or response from the federal government on the SFA.

The folks implementing all of these changes have already been active in Swift Current. They managed to secure a booth at the Swift Current Hobby, Craft, and Gun Show, where they spent their time helping to educate people on the changes that were coming, as well as inspecting some of the hardware that was available at the show. 

"We were there as well last year, doing a meet and greet and answering questions and giving people some idea to what the Saskatchewan Firearms Act is all about," said Freberg. "How it affects them, and what it entails."

The provincial budget for 2023 has allocated $8.9 million to develop these facilities and initiatives. 

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