Canada has instituted an executive ban on military-style weapons.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Friday an immediate ban on military-style weapons after a Canadian citizen who killed 22 people in Nova Scotia last week was found to possess two semi-automatic rifles.
“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 said. “Effective immediately, it is no longer permitted to buy, sell, transport, import, or use military-grade assault weapons in this country.”
Trudeau is a longtime advocate of gun control and said there would be a two year “amnesty period” to allow gun sellers the opportunity to reach compliance with the new measures, which will ban the sale of more than 1,500 different types of firearms.
“As long as Canadians are losing their loved ones to gun violence, not enough has changed,” Trudeau said last September. “We know you do not need a military-grade assault weapon, one designed to kill the largest amount of people in the shortest amount of time, to take down a deer.”
Canadian conservatives pushed back against the order, which can be pushed through Canada’s Cabinet without the need for new legislation.
“Justin Trudeau is using the current pandemic and the immediate emotion of the horrific attack in Nova Scotia to push the Liberals’ ideological agenda to make major firearms policy changes,” said Andrew Scheer, leader of the Conservative Party. “Taking firearms away from law-abiding citizens does nothing to stop dangerous criminals who obtain their guns illegally.”
The move comes one day after Michigan anti-lockdown protesters armed with semi-automatic rifles stormed the state’s Capitol.
