Tue 31 May 2022:
Within a week of the devastating school massacre in Texas, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced (on May 30) a proposed handgun ownership freeze. This legislation effectively prohibits the importation and sale of firearms.
On May 24, a school shooting occurred in Texas, United States.
The parliament will have to approve Trudeau’s bill. The ruling Liberals presently possess a majority of seats.
“We’re introducing legislation to implement a national freeze on handgun ownership,” Trudeau told a news conference, joined by dozens of families and friends of victims of gun violence.
“What this means is that it will no longer be possible to buy, sell, transfer or import handguns anywhere in Canada,” he said. “In other words, we’re capping the market for handguns.”
In April 2020, Canadian government banned 1500 types of firearms. The step came after the country’s worst mass shooting. Twenty three people were dead in the tragedy.
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino estimated there are about one million handguns in this country — up significantly from a decade ago.
Trudeau commented, “People should be free to go to the supermarket, their school or their place of worship without fear. People should be free to go to the park or to a birthday party without worrying about what might happen from a stray bullet.
“Gun violence is a complex problem,” he said. “But at the end of the day, the math is really quite simple: the fewer the guns in our communities, the safer everyone will be.”
Last Thursday, the federal statistics office estimated that violent crimes using firearms account for less than 3% of all violent crimes in Canada.
However, since 2009, the per capita rate of weapons pointed at someone has nearly tripled, while the rate of guns fired with the intent to kill or wound has increased by fivefold.
Handguns were used in nearly two-thirds of gun crimes in metropolitan areas.
Gun smuggling from the United States is frequently cited by Canadian police. They claim that this is Canada’s main supply of illegal handguns.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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