Canada introduces Bill to freeze handgun sales

Toronto, May 31

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government introduced a legislation on Monday that would put a freeze on importing, buying or selling handguns.

Arms control

Under the new regulation, it will be illegal to buy, sell, transfer or import handguns anywhere in Canada. — Justin Trudeau, Canadian Prime Minister

Texas school shooting fallout

• Canada already has plans to ban 1,500 types of military-style firearms and offer a mandatory buyback programme that will begin at the end of the year
• Trudeau has long had plans to enact tougher gun laws but the introduction of the new measure comes after mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, NY, this month

“We are capping the number of handguns in this country,” Trudeau said.

The regulations to halt the growth of personally owned handguns is expected to be enacted this fall.

“It will be illegal to buy, sell, transfer or import handguns anywhere in Canada,” the Prime Minister said.

Canada already has plans to ban 1,500 types of military-style firearms and offer a mandatory buyback programme that will begin at the end of the year. It already expanded background checks.

Trudeau has long had plans to enact tougher gun laws but the introduction of the new measure comes after mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, NY, this month.

Minister of Emergency Preparedness Bill Blair said Canada was very different from the United States.

“In Canada, gun ownership is a privilege not a right,” Blair said. “This is a principal that differentiates us from many other countries in the world, notably our colleagues and friends to the south. In Canada, guns are only intended to be used for hunting and sport purposes.” Canada has had far fewer mass shootings than the US in part because of a lack of easy access to guns, though the US population also is far larger than Canada's. Blair noted guns were often smuggled illegally from the US, which he noted has one of the largest small arms arsenals in the world. — AP

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