Canada Expands Gun Ban, Will Send Some Weapons to Ukraine

Canada said Thursday it is outlawing another 324 firearm varieties—guns the public safety minister said belong on the battlefield, not in the hands of hunters or sport shooters. The move follows the May 2020 ban of 1,500 makes and models of firearms, a number that grew to more than 2,000 by November of this year as new variants were identified. "These firearms can no longer be legally used, sold, or imported in Canada," Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said, per the CBC.

• The government released a list of what it called "prohibited assault-style firearms." It noted that more than "19,000 non-restricted makes and models, equating to over 127,000 variations of firearms, remain available for hunting and sport shooting in Canada."
• The latest restriction follows expressions of concern from gun-control advocates that many assault-style firearms were not included in the 2020 ban.

• The Liberal government says it is working with provinces, territories, and police on a planned buyback of prohibited weapons from individual owners. Defense Minister Bill Blair said Canada approached Ukrainian authorities, who expressed interest in some of the guns, the AP reports. He said his department is working "to get these weapons out of Canada and into the hands of the Ukrainians," per the CBC.
• Opposition Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre called the announcement a "stunt" by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government that attacks "licensed & law-abiding hunters and sport shooters."
• The 2020 ban was introduced by Trudeau days after a gunman in Nova Scotia shot 13 people, including a Mountie, to death. The man killed another nine people by setting their homes on fire.
• The new measures were announced on the eve of the 35th anniversary of another mass shooting. On Dec. 9, 1989, a misogynist gunman murdered 14 women at Montreal's École Polytechnique before killing himself.

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