Canadian PM Justin Trudeau calls for stricter gun legislation
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Following a deadly shooting by a 51-year old gunman who killed 18 people in Nova Scotia over the weekend, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called for stricter gun legislation.
He insisted that with “regards to gun control, we took very serious commitments in the election campaign and have moved forward — and are moving forward on them — to ensure that we’re strengthening gun control in this country”.
What seems to be a random killing spree took the life of a police constable, a corrections officer, a nurse and a teacher. The worst killing spree in Canadian history lasted twelve hours until the man was shot dead by police.
During last year’s electoral campaign, Trudeau has promised to ban assault-style weapons across Canada and vouched to set up a buyback program for all military-grade weapons that had been legally purchased. Legislation – which is already stricter to the neighbouring United States – was about to be introduced when Parliament was suspended over the coronavirus pandemic, according to Government.
Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil described the shootings as one of the most senseless acts of violence in the province’s history. “I never imagined when I went to bed last night that I would wake up to the horrific news that an active shooter was on the loose in Nova Scotia”.
In the aftermath of the shooting, a coalition of anti-gun lobby groups asked Public Safety Minister Bill Blair to ban sales of military-style guns. “While we appreciate the capacity for substantive policy change is difficult at this moment,” the groups wrote to Blair, “we implore you to take one decisive, achievable action right now. . . . As has been well documented, these guns pose an excessive risk to public safety and serve no reasonable purpose.”
On the opposite side, the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights, said it was too soon to debate guns and deplored the fact that this strategy was being used for political game, insisting that “No law in this country could have stopped a madman with this level of determination and resources.”
