Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hasn’t wasted the crisis presented by last month’s spree shooting in Nova Scotia in which a man dressed as a police officer murdered 22 people over 12 hours. As the Guardian reports, Prime Minister Zoolander had this to say earlier today about his shiny new “assault weapons” ban . . .
“These weapons were designed for one purpose and one purpose only: to kill the largest number of people in the shortest amount of time. There is no use and no place for such weapons in Canada,” said the prime minister. “Effective immediately, it is no longer permitted to buy, sell, transport, import or use military-grade assault weapons in this country.”
This is what happens in a country without a Second Amendment. Note that no vote has taken place to enact the ban that covers 1500 different models and variants. As even the assiduously anti-gun Guardian notes . . .
The new ban would probably not have stopped [Nova Scotia killer Gabriel] Wortman from obtaining his weapons: he did not have a license to possess or purchase firearms, and police have said they believe the guns were obtained illegally in Canada and the United States.
Not that a detail like that really matters when you have a population to disarm.
From the CBC . . .
“As of today, the market for assault weapons in Canada is closed,” Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said. “Enough is enough. Banning these firearms will save Canadian lives.”
Trudeau said there will be a two-year amnesty period to allow people who already own these firearms to comply with the ban. Trudeau promised to pass legislation in the coming months to provide “fair compensation” to people who own these firearms.
The Liberal Party promised some sort of buyback program in the last election, something that could cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.
Canada has a long gun registry (though it was mostly an expensive failure), so finding at least some of the newly outlawed firearms will be easier for the Canucks than it was for the Kiwis.