OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the federal government is banning a range of assault-style guns, with an order that takes effect immediately.
The cabinet order he describes doesn't forbid owning any of 1,500 'military-style' weapons and their variants but it does ban the trade in them.
Trudeau says the order has a two-year amnesty period for current owners, and there will be a compensation program that will require a bill passed in Parliament.
In an announcement this morning, he cites numerous mass shootings, from Ecole Polytechnique in 1989 to the killings in Nova Scotia last week, as the reasons for the move.
Stricter controls on firearms were a promise in the Liberals' election campaign platform last fall.
Public Safety Minister Bill Blair says guns that have no use in sport shooting have been a growing part of the Canadian market.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 1, 2020.
The Canadian Press