Canadian PM Eyes Ban on ‘Assault-Style Weapons’ After Mass Shooting

Canadian PM Justin Trudeau promised a ban on “assault-style weapons,” following the hours-long shooting spree that lasted Saturday night through Sunday morning and left at least 18 dead in Nova Scotia.

Buzzfeed reported that the attacker, Gabriel Wortman, was allegedly “looking for a former significant other” when the killing spree began. He used “a replica police vehicle and what looked like a Royal Canadian Mounted Police uniform to pull over random drivers and execute them on the spot.”

The Press Democrat reported that authorities have yet to confirm that “assault-style weapons” were used in the attack, but Trudeau indicated he already intended to secure the ban. His efforts to do so had simply been delayed by the coronavirus outbreak.

Trudeau said, “I can say that we were on the verge of introducing legislation to ban assault-style weapons across this country. It was interrupted when the pandemic caused Parliament to be suspended, but we have every intention of moving forward on that measure, and potentially other measures, when Parliament returns.”

On April 20, 2020, Breitbart News reported that University of Sydney’s GunPolicy.org describes Canadian gun control as “restrictive.”

Those controls include in-depth background checks featuring third-party interviews, checks into criminal and mental backgrounds, and spousal interviews. The controls also include licensing requirements for gun owners, with semiautomatic firearms and handguns allowed to be owned under license only. Storage regulations for guns and ammunition are also set forth, among other things. And the right to keep and bear arms “is not guaranteed by law” in Canada.

Canadian authorities have yet to say how Wortman acquired his firearm(s).

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.