Ready to move to Canada yet? I know I have serious fantasies about living in a nation where medical care is free and guns are strictly limited. But today, I’m really feeling a bit jealous about our northern neighbors, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau introduced legislation that would essentially “freeze” handgun sales, The Guardian reports.
America has the second-highest gun-related death count in the world, with around 45,000 per year in 2020, according to Pew Research. In Canada, according to CTV News, there were 743 murders in the country in 2020; 277 of those cases involved a firearm.
“It will no longer be possible to buy, sell, transfer, or import handguns anywhere in Canada. In other words, we’re capping the market for handguns,” Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa Monday.
If the bill passes, it would suspend buying, importing, and selling handguns in the country, while also imposing a “red flag” law, according to the Post, that allows judges the right to take guns away from people who may be a danger to themselves or others. The bill additionally comes with more stringent penalties for trafficking and smuggling handguns and rifle magazines will be permanently altered to limit the number of rounds they can hold to five or under.
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In 2020, the Canadian government banned 1,500 various kinds of military-style assault weapons, after a gunman killed 22 people in the county’s deadliest mass shooting, the Post reports. Canada also plans to launch a mandatory buyback program at the end of the year.
“Unfortunately, the reality is in our country [gun violence] is getting worse and has been getting worse over the past years… We need only look south of the border to know that if we do not take action, firmly and rapidly, it gets worse and worse and more difficult to counter,” Trudeau said, referring to recent mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, that left dozens dead.
Canada’s Liberal Party, much like our own Democratic party, sees wide support for restrictions on guns, whereas Canada’s Conservatives support easing laws around the issue of gun control. Sound familiar? Trudeau’s new bill is likely to pass with the New Democratic Party.
One Conservative public safety critic indicted the newly proposed crackdown on guns, alleging that the bill “fails to focus on the root cause of gun violence in our cities: illegal guns smuggled into Canada by criminal gangs,” Raquel Dancho tweeted. “The PM has had 7 years to fix this serious issue yet he continues to chase headlines and bury his head in the sand.”
Trudeau said that he understood that most Canadians were responsible gun owners, but added that “other than using firearms for sport shooting and hunting, there is no reason anyone in Canada should need guns in their everyday lives.”
A former U.S. ambassador to Canada under the Obama administration tweeted about the new law, saying that “Canada can teach us a lot.”
But just as in the U.S., Canada has its gun advocates that don’t seem to believe that there’s ever a need to ban or even limit the number of guns people can own.
According to the Guardian, Pierre Poilievre, a candidate for leader of the Conservative party, argues there should be a distinction between responsible gun owners and criminals.
Trudeau said:
“We need less gun violence. We cannot let the gun debate become so polarized that nothing gets done. We cannot let that happen in our country. This is about freedom. People should be free to go to the supermarket, their school, or their place of worship without fear.”