Trudeau proposes freezing sale and transfers of handguns
Canada's PM introduces a new proposal to further restrict guns in circulation.
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This new legislation will require than long gun magazines would "never" be able to hold more than five rounds
Canada has introduced a proposal in order to stop the sale and transfer of handguns in the country, according to an announcement by PM Justin Trudeau on Monday.
This proposal does not constitute a complete ban, but will largely restrict the number of handguns in circulation, the CBC reports.
“I’ve seen all too well the tragic cost that gun violence has in our communities across the country,” Trudeau said. “Today, we’re proposing some of the strongest measures in Canadian history to keep guns out of our communities and build a safer future for everyone.”
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"Other than using firearms for sport shooting and hunting, there is no reason anyone in Canada should need guns in their everyday lives," he added.
The Canadian Prime Minister's office said that this freeze will prevent people from importing handguns into the country, or from buying, selling, and transferring such firearms, as handguns were "the most serious weapon present in the majority of firearm-related violent crimes" between 2009 and 2020, making up 59% of those crimes.
Trudeau's 2019 campaign focused on ending gun violence. In 2020, the Canadian government banned more than 1,500 types of military-style assault weapons shortly after the deadliest gun rampage in Canada's modern history, on April 18 and 19, in which 23 people were killed.
According to the CBC, the new law would include limits on the size of magazines, harsher penalties for arms trafficking, a "red flag" gun control law that would allow law enforcement to seize guns from people considered a danger to themselves or others, and the stripping of gun licenses from people involved in domestic violence.
Texas mass shooting on May 25
An 18-year-old gunman shot dead 14 children and a teacher at a Texas elementary school on Tuesday, the state's governor confirmed.
The assailant "shot and killed, horrifically and incomprehensibly, 14 students and killed a teacher," Texas Governor Greg Abbott told a news conference.
Abbott said the shooter had a handgun and possibly a rifle.
He also mentioned that the shooting suspect, a local teenager, was also "deceased", adding that "it is believed that responding officers killed him."
Just days earlier, on May 15, a neo-Nazi carried out another mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, in which 13 were killed, 11 of whom were black.
