OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
6:26 PM – Monday, December 9, 2024
Canadian officials said on Thursday that the country would be banning an additional 324 types of firearms, which the public safety minister claimed “belonged on the battlefield” rather than in the hands of sport shooters or hunters.
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Additionally, Ottawa stated that it is collaborating with the Ukrainian government to determine how the weapons may be supplied to aid in the defense of Russia’s war efforts in Ukraine.
“Trudeau’s government launched its gun ban and mandatory confiscation scheme with no implementation plan in place, with taxpayers facing an increasing and unwelcome price tag for enforcement and compensation that is likely to exceed billions,” according to nraila.org.
The action comes after 1,500 firearm makes and models were banned in May 2020. By November of this year, that number had increased to almost 2,000 as “new variants were identified,” officials told AP News.
Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc announced the most recent ban on Thursday. This comes after gun control extremists expressed worry that the 2020 ban did not include enough assault-style rifles.
“This means these firearms can no longer be used,” LeBlanc stated.
According to Defense Minister Bill Blair, Canada has already begun speaking with Ukrainian officials who showed interest in some of the weapons.
“Every bit of assistance we can offer to the Ukrainians is one step toward their victory,” Blair noted.
Additionally, the federal government claims that it is currently collaborating with police, provinces, and territories on a planned buyback of illegal firearms from private owners. Although mass shootings are not as common in Canada, the recently announced restrictions coincide with the 35th anniversary of the École Polytechnique shooting in Montreal, in which a shooter killed 14 women before taking his own life.
Nevertheless, statistics from certain Canadian sources argue that the nation’s extremely strict gun laws don’t stop enough crime and tragedies for the regulations to be worth it, as there will always be a black market for weapons that criminals have access to, if need be.
“The spike in firearm-related violent crimes in Canada in 2022 [and up] is driven by increases in Ontario, the report notes. According to the data, police in the province reported 4,791 firearm violent crimes in 2022, which is 1,016 more than the previous year. This accounts for 70 percent of the increases in incidents across Canada. Although StatCan says the crimes in Toronto were ‘especially high,’ almost all cities saw firearm-related violent crime increases,” according to CTV News, a Canadian news outlet.
Additionally, the Fraser Institute, a Canadian think-tank that “produce[s] research about government actions… such as taxation, health care, aboriginal issues, education, economic freedom, energy, natural resources and the environment” argues that Canada isn’t as safe as what its officials try to let on.
“The rate of population-adjusted property crimes (e.g., burglary, theft, motor vehicle theft) is also now higher in Canada than in the U.S., with 2491.0 crimes occurring per 100,000 people in Canada in 2022—a 7.0 per cent increase from 2014,” they reported in November this year.
Canadian officials have acknowledged that firearms illegally smuggled into Canada are more often than not utilized by criminal networks operating within the country.
Meanwhile, Pierre Poilievre, the head of the opposition Conservative party, referred to the announcement as a “stunt” by the government of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, trying to punish “licensed & law-abiding hunters and sport shooters.”
The list of newly banned firearms can be found here.
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