Canada bans assault weapons after the worst killing in its history

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Less than two weeks after one of the worst killings in Canada, Justin Trudeau's Liberal government has fulfilled one of its electoral promises by banning the sale and use of 1,500 models of assault weapons military type.

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Less than two weeks after the Portapique tragedy in eastern Canada, the Prime Minister of Canada announced a ban on the use, sale, import and transport of military-type weapons. At least one of the weapons used by the perpetrator of the Nova Scotia massacre to kill 15 people in a matter of hours was an assault weapon. A total of 22 people were killed.

"  These weapons are designed as a single purpose: to kill as many people as quickly as possible. They have no use and they have no place in Canada,  "said Justin Trudeau Friday at a press conference.

►Also read: Mobile still unclear for the worst killing in Canadian history

Buyback program ?

In two years, it will be impossible to train with these weapons equipped with a magazine with large capacity and allowing a repetitive shooting, explains our correspondent in Quebec, Pascale Guéricolas . These Ruger Mini-14s like those used in the drama of the École Polytechnique in Montreal in 1989 where fourteen young women had been killed. The group of victims of this massacre and their families have been calling for a ban on such weapons for more than three decades. While welcoming the government's initiative, these activists would like Canada to go further, by forcing the owners to sell their weapons to the state.

A position defended by Boufelja Benabdallah. He who supports the families of the victims of the attack on the grand mosque in Quebec in 2017 where Vz 58 rifles had killed six people, fears further killings if the prohibited weapons remain with individuals. “  We are not, we as an individual, as a human being, immune to these psychological shocks that lead us to make gestures with something in our hands. So if we don't have the thing in our hands, we won't do it,  ”he believes.

It remains to be seen whether the ruling Liberal Party will force citizens to hand over their assault weapons while it is in a minority position in Parliament.

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