The federal government announced new gun control measures Thursday, adding several hundred models and variants to its list of banned weapons.
“These firearms can no longer be legally used, sold or imported in Canada,” Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc told reporters.
The announcement comes one day before the 35th anniversary of the massacre at École Polytechnique de Montréal. Radio-Canada first reported the news earlier Thursday.
The new measures, which are effective immediately, list more than 300 makes and models of assault-style firearms as prohibited weapons.
There will be an amnesty period until Oct. 30 of next year for current owners to comply with the ban. The new models will be part of the government’s planned buy-back program — the program still has not collected a single gun.
Edit: According to Minister of Public Safety Dominic LeBlanc, the list of newly banned guns is currently unavailable and its exact date of release is undefined.
The RCMP stated that the list of banned guns would be available “very shortly”. Exactly where the list of banned guns would be available to read was not disclosed.
Edit 2: List of banned guns is at this link
Even prior to the May 2020 OIC that reclassified AR pattern & other firearms to prohibited status, Canada had a pre-existing, highly restrictive system of firearm regulation. This system remains in force.
Citizens who want to purchase a firearm need to undergo mandatory education, and a rigorous, lengthy, and costly application process that obligates the applicant to list comprehensive personal details, including previous romantic partners, and multiple character references. Every applicant undergoes an RCMP background check, and restricted firearm licensees undergo daily checks. No license for firearm ownership is given in Canada without direct RCMP oversight. The RCMP can deny a license to anyone they see fit. Citizens can report problem firearm owners, and those owners can expect a rapid visit from the RCMP.
Restricted firearms are only allowed at an approved range, or trigger locked, in a locked case, and away from ammunition. Any other condition of storage and use is a crime.
You should know that, in Canada, it is absolutely impossible to buy or own a firearm on a whim.
For the record, I think this is overall a good thing, and was a system brought about as a result of Polytechnique in 1989.
None of that is relevant to what I said.
The notion that there are Canadians who own a gun simply because they think it’s cool, is ignorant to the facts of what it takes to actually get a license to acquire and possess a firearm in this country.
Um, not at all. Plenty of people can fill out a form and wait 2 weeks to get a gun because they think it’s cool. You don’t have to prove what you’re going to do with it at all, you could have just seen a cool youtube video and signed up for the PAL course.
I know some of these people, they live in my neighborhood, they own multiple attachments, scopes, night vision, etc. and have never taken the damn things anywhere but the range to show off to their buddies.
I take it they haven’t harmed anyone? Are you concerned that they will?
Yes, I am. Gun violence exists in Canada, even outside the gang situation, and there’s zero good reason for these people to own a gun.
If you have good reason to believe these people will harm someone with their guns, please report it to the RCMP, instead of wishing that their guns were a different colour.
Follow this link and use the contact information to file a report. Please do this immediately if you think someone is in danger of being harmed. https://rcmp.ca/en/firearms/contact-canadian-firearms-program