[ad_1]
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Friday the immediate ban on more than 1,500 assault weapons, less than two weeks after the worst massacre in the country’s history, in which 22 people died, reports France Presse, quoted by Agerpres.
“These weapons were designed for one purpose only: to kill as many people as possible as quickly as possible. They are useless and have no place in Canada,” he said at a daily news conference.
The government passed a decree prohibiting the use, sale, import, and transport of these military-style assault weapons.
“Across the country, many people use legal and responsible firearms, whether they work or hunt. But you don’t need an AR-15 to shoot a deer,” said Trudeau.
The owners of these “law-abiding” weapons will have a two-year amnesty period to comply with the new regulations, he added.
Although less common than in the United States, armed attacks are less rare in Canada and even tend to “occur more frequently than before,” the prime minister said.
“Events like the recent tragedy in Nova Scotia, the attack on the Islamic Cultural Center in Quebec in 2017 and the massacre at the Montreal Polytechnic in 1989 should never have happened,” said Trudeau.
Justin Trudeau made this ban a campaign promise, which brought him to power in 2015. He reiterated it during the legislative elections last October.
Nearly four in five Canadians support the ban, according to a poll conducted Friday by the Angus Reid Institute, which consulted 1,581 people Tuesday through Thursday.
An attacker disguised as a police officer and driving a patrol sowed death for more than 13 hours on April 18 and 19 in rural Nova Scotia (southeast), set fire to houses and killed 22 people in cold blood. and was finally shot dead by the police. He used various weapons, including at least one described by the police as a now prohibited assault weapon.
