Liberals to act on gun control
Ban on military-style assault weapons and buy-back program
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/04/2020 (1986 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The federal Liberal party is expected to follow through on a campaign promise to ban certain “military-style” firearms, possibly as soon as today.
For some, the proposal would mark the end of a long wait for stricter gun control legislation.
“The ban on semi-automatic assault weapons is something that Canadians have wanted for 30 years,” said Wendy Cukier, president of the Coalition for Gun Control. “It brings Canada in line with most industrialized countries, who do not allow civilians to have access to military weapons.”

The proposed changes come in the wake of the recent mass shooting centred in Portapique, N.S., during which an armed man killed 22 people using weapons he had illegally stockpiled.
The tragedy appears to have pushed the minority government Liberals to move ahead on a ban on “military-style assault weapons,” establish a buy-back program for all existing weapons fitting the description, and work with provinces to allow municipalities to further restrict or ban handguns.
Dr. Najma Ahmed, a Toronto trauma surgeon and co-chairwoman of Canadian Doctors for Protection from Guns, said her organization has long been calling for a multi-tiered approach to addressing gun violence in Canada.
“The banning of the most lethal weapons is among the elements that would be important in a comprehensive approach,” Ahmed said Thursday.
For some, it is an argument full of holes.
A ban on “military-style” semi-automatic firearms won’t go a long way to addressing the root causes of gun violence in the country, Wolverine Supplies co-owner Matthew Hipwell said Thursday.
The Virden-based company is one of Canada’s largest independent firearms retailers.
“Banning guns isn’t the answer — it goes back to people again,” Hipwell said. “We need to look at mental health, we need to look at the sources of crime, we need to look at social and economic conditions.”
For rural gun owners, Hipwell said, the kinds of firearms the government is looking to ban are used for big-game hunting and varmint control, and have become “a way of life” for many hunters and ranchers.
Moving away from “assault-style” firearms, Ahmed agreed, may require a significant culture shift.
“The majority of hunters would not have any use for the kinds of weapons that are on this list of weapons being banned,” she said, acknowledging many such firearms are used for sport and competition in urban centres.
Some debate has mounted surrounding the term “military-style assault weapon,” which has no legal definition in Canada as of yet, and stems from American firearm terminology.
The lack of clarity poses a problem for retailers such as Hipwell, who are faced with uncertainty about which of their products may be affected, but for gun control advocates such as Ahmed, the issue is beside the point.
“What this means is a weapon that can kill a lot of people or maim a lot of people in a short period of time,” she said.
The issue of naming becomes a concern, however, when it comes to implementing any kind of ban. So far, the Canadian government has opted to mark certain specific weapons — such as the AR-15 and Ruger Mini-14 rifles — as prohibited, but this approach leaves room for manufacturers to make slight modifications to existing models in order to bypass legal restrictions.
A more robust approach, according to Cukier, would be a permissive model, where available firearms come from a pre-approved list, and new models would have to be approved by government before being put to market.
In Ottawa, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would not confirm reports about what types of weapons may be banned, and instead said his government would put forward measures imminently.
“We will have more to say on this when we make an announcement. around what we are doing to strengthen gun control in the coming days,” Trudeau told reporters Thursday, reiterating legislation was almost ready before coronavirus pandemic suspended Parliament.
— with files from Dylan Robertson
julia-simone.rutgers@freepress.mb.ca

Julia-Simone Rutgers is the Manitoba environment reporter for the Free Press and The Narwhal. She joined the Free Press in 2020, after completing a journalism degree at the University of King’s College in Halifax, and took on the environment beat in 2022. Read more about Julia-Simone.
Julia-Simone’s role is part of a partnership with The Narwhal, funded by the Winnipeg Foundation. Every piece of reporting Julia-Simone produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
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History
Updated on Friday, May 1, 2020 9:10 AM CDT: Clarifies references to "assault-style" firearms