Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is taking fast motion in opposition to gun management.
Reuters/Blair Gable
Canada moved to make the sale of handguns unlawful underneath a sweeping new invoice launched in Ottawa Monday within the wake of the Uvalde, Texas faculty capturing.
Flanked by authorities officers and advocates, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau introduced a “nationwide freeze” on firearms within the nation as he referenced growing homicides in Canada and alluded to latest mass shootings south of the border.
“It can not be attainable to purchase, promote, switch or import handguns anyplace in Canada. In different phrases, we’re capping the marketplace for handguns,” Trudeau stated.
“Individuals must be free to go to the grocery store, their faculty or their place of worship with out concern.”
The laws is all however assured to be permitted by Canada’s Parliament, and is anticipated to be enacted this fall. The nation has already unveiled plans to ban 1,500 sorts of military-style firearms and implement a compulsory buyback program of high-capacity weapons.
Trudeau has lengthy stated capping gun violence within the nation was a political precedence, however his new laws got here lower than per week after the Robb Elementary Faculty capturing and shortly after a Buffalo grocery store rampage close to Ontario’s border.
“In Canada, gun possession is a privilege, not a proper,” stated Invoice Blair, minister of emergency preparedness.
“This can be a precept that differentiates ourselves from many different international locations on the earth, notably our colleagues and buddies to the south. In Canada, weapons are solely supposed for use for looking and sport functions.”
Below the legislation, US gun smugglers can be hit with stronger legal penalties and authorities would have extra sources to crack down on weapons making their means throughout the border.
These convicted of home violence or legal harassment would additionally lose their gun licenses and a “purple flag” provision would require folks thought-about a hazard by the court docket system to give up their weapons. Rifle magazines must be completely altered to carry a most of 5 rounds underneath the invoice.
“These are actions that docs, consultants and chiefs of police have been calling for for years, and we’re appearing on their recommendation,” Trudeau stated.
The murder price in Canada had surged in recent times with 743 murders recorded in 2020 — essentially the most since 1991, in line with authorities statistics. That very same yr, a mass capturing rampage in Nova Scotia left 22 folks useless.
Tuesday’s tragedy in Texas led President Biden to name on US lawmakers to take motion on gun management reform.
“As a nation, we've to ask when in God’s title are we going to face as much as the gun foyer? When in God’s title will we do what everyone knows in our intestine must be carried out?” Biden stated final week.
With AP wires
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