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In response to the recent spate of serious killings, the Justin Trudeau government has now banned rapid firearms. Other reforms to arms legislation will follow.
AR-15 rapid fire rifles at a gun shop in Utah, United States. Models like this are prohibited in Canada.
Ottawa’s liberal government approved a nationwide ban on 1,500 models of so-called “assault weapons” on Friday. This means semi-automatic firearms with a cartridge magazine that allows you to fire as many shots as possible in succession. The government estimates that there are approximately 100,000 of those weapons in Canada.
Among the banned models are the AR-15 assault rifle, which has been used repeatedly to kill spree in recent years; For example, at a polytechnic in Montreal in 1989 or at events in Las Vegas in 2017 and at the elementary school in Sandy Hook in 2012.
Planned buyback program
The owners of such models are not allowed to sell, import or transport them since Friday. Justice Minister David Lametti said that during a transition period until April 2022, rapid firearms could be returned to the manufacturer or exported. The government also plans to launch a buyback program. It remains to be determined how high “fair compensation” will be. Observers believe the cost of this could be $ 100 million.
“These weapons were built with one goal in mind: to kill as many people as quickly as possible,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at a press conference on Friday. “You have no place in Canada.” Hunters also didn’t need this type of weapon. Since this is a regulation, the government did not need the cooperation of parliament.
Liberals kept their electoral promise since last fall, but the exact date may be explained by the recent uproar in the Atlantic province of Nova Scotia. On April 20, a perpetrator was enraged in the small town of Portapique and killed 22 people in an area of more than 100 kilometers for 14 hours. The man, who had temporarily disguised himself as a police officer, was eventually converted into a service station by the police and killed. It was the deadliest firearm attack in Canadian history to date; The crime investigation is still ongoing. It is not yet known which murder weapon was used; However, it is known that the author did not have a gun license.
Criticism of the opposition.
Conservative opposition leader Andrew Scheer criticized both the government’s decision and the moment chosen. “Justin Trudeau is using the current pandemic and the first shock of the horrible Nova Scotia act to drive the liberals’ ideological agenda.” The new regulation would not have prevented the act of Portapique. Conservatives discovered that attention should focus on illegally traded firearms and the criminal organizations that smuggled them in. When asked by a journalist, Trudeau said that any illegal weapon had ever been legal. The fewer legal rapid-fire weapons there are, the safer Canada will be.
“Enough is enough,” said Public Security Minister Bill Blair. Canada has tightened its gun laws several times in the past, and the current ban is a landmark. The number of magazines on assault rifles is already limited to a capacity of five rounds. A recent Angus Reid Institute survey shows that nearly four in five Canadians are in favor of a total ban on rapid firearms for civilians.
Imports from the United States
With the decision, the Canadian government is taking steps that lawmakers in the United States have been reluctant to take so far. The numerous firearm attacks, which regularly set new death records, have so far only led to a notable tightening of regulations. One of the biggest “breakthroughs” so far is that Florida’s state parliament tightened the so-called “Red Flag” law after the 2018 Parkland rampage, according to which police took away a suspect’s weapons for a few months after a judicial decision. May Attempts to impose longer-range bans on rifles like the AR-15 have been regularly closed, also due to the strong influence of the weapons lobby under the National Rifle Association.
Ottawa is also concerned at the extent to which US fully automatic firearms. USA They will continue to arrive in Canada. There are still some ambiguities, Trudeau admitted, the new regulation is only a first step. The prime minister also announced that small arms would be more strictly regulated. In the transition period of the next two years, the legislature should also be active and adopt new arms laws. However, that should take some time, as the Canadian Parliament is currently meeting practically due to the Corona crisis.
