Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that his country is banning the sales of assault weapons after a mass shooting in Nova Scotia that left 22 people dead.
Trudeau represents Canada’s Liberal party and was endorsed in his re-election bid by former President Barack Obama.
The Canadian leader began his announcement on Friday by listing off the locations of previous mass shootings in the country, saying that they “stain our conscience,” adding, “with each passing year, more families are ripped apart by tragedy … more teenagers are growing up in a world where gun violence is normalized. It needs to stop.”
After a French translation, Trudeau said, “Today, we are closing the market for military-grade assault weapons in Canada. We are banning 1,500 models and variants of these firearms by way of regulations.”
He continued, “These weapons were designed for one purpose and one purpose only: to kill the largest number of people in the shortest amount of time. There is no use and no place for such weapons in Canada.”
Trudeau acknowledged that “the vast majority of gun owners use them safely, responsibly and with accordance with the law … but you don’t need an AR-15 to bring down a deer.”
The Canadian Prime minister explained the ban, saying, “It is no longer permitted to buy, sell, transport, import or use military-grade assault weapons in this country.”
He added, “To protect law-abiding gun-owners from criminal liability until they can take steps to comply with this new law, there will be a two-year amnesty period and we will legislate fair compensation.”
See Trudeau’s announcement below:
Recalling the history of mass-shootings in Canada from École Polytechnique to Nova Scotia, PM Justin Trudeau announces that federal govt is closing market for military-grade assault weapons, banning 1,500 models. "There is no use and no place for such weapons in Canada," he says. pic.twitter.com/K9hrgi6VH3
— CPAC (@CPAC_TV) May 1, 2020
Canada is the second major nation in the past two years to have announced a ban on assault weapons. New Zealand announced a ban in March of 2019 after a mass shooting in Christchurch.
In announcing the ban, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in September of 2019, “That attack exposed weaknesses in legislation which we have the power to fix. We would not be a responsible government if we didn’t address them.”