Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has introduced a bill that would freeze the import, purchase or sale of personal firearms in Canada starting in the fall.
“We are limiting the number of firearms in this country,” Trudeau said Monday. “It will be illegal to buy, sell, transfer or import handguns anywhere in Canada”he is stressed.
Canada has banned 1,500 types of military-style firearms after a shooting in April 2020, the worst in the country’s history, in which 23 people died, in Nova Scotia (east).
23 people died in shootings in Canada. Shooter disguised himself as a policeman and ended up dying
The authorities intend to launch, at the end of the year, a program under which citizens will be obliged to resell this type of weapon to the government.
At a news conference in Ottawa, Trudeau, surrounded by dozens of family members of shooting victims, said owners will only be able to keep assault weapons if they become unusable.
The Canadian Prime Minister, who has already extended control over the criminal registry of people who wanted to acquire a weapon, launched this proposed law, in the sequence of the shooting in Uvalde, in the United States, where a shooter killed 19 children and two teachers, In the past week.
Canadian Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino described the legislation as the most significant step the country has taken in a generation.
“Countries that do a good job of controlling guns do a good job of controlling gun violence,” Mendicino said in an interview with the Associated Press news agency.
Mendicano said he believed that about a million pistols are in circulation in Canadamost of which were illegally imported from the United States.
The government also said the proposed law would allow people involved in acts of domestic violence or criminal harassment, including stalking, to have gun licenses withdrawn.
The diploma will also allow the courts to demand the surrender of firearms to the police by people considered dangerous.
Canadian authorities have argued that the move will protect the safety of women at risk of domestic violence.
The government said it would require large-arm magazines to be permanently altered so they can never hold more than five rounds and will ban the sale and transfer of large-capacity magazines.
The new measures go to a vote in the Canadian Parliament, where the Liberals, in power, and the New Democrats, from the left opposition, have enough votes to achieve a majority.
The Gun Control Coalition, founded after the murder of 14 women at a Montreal university in 1989, applauded the bill.
“The proposed elimination of private ownership of firearms is a great step forward and shows that the government has heard the voices of victims,” the organization’s president, Wendy Cukier, said in a statement.
Source: Observadora
