Mosque victims urge ban on assault rifles
Wounded worshippers and family members of those killed in the Quebec City mosque shooting are calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to outlaw assault weapons.
In a Monday letter to Trudeau, more than 75 people express dismay the Liberal government’s firearms bill does not ban assault rifles like the one carried by mosque shooter Alexandre Bissonnette.
Bissonnette, 28, pleaded guilty in March to six charges of first-degree murder and six of attempted murder.
Bissonnette began his January 2017 rampage with a .223-calibre semi-automatic assault-style rifle, which is legal, along with two illegal 30-cartridge magazines.
When the rifle jammed on the first shot, he turned to a handgun and five 10-bullet magazines. The letter asks how much worse the carnage could have been had Bissonnette’s rifle been working.
“What kind of society allows a single individual to have so much destructive, lethal power at their disposal?” the letter says.
Witnesses and survivors of the attack hope the pain of reliving details through recent media reports will be made worthwhile by a government effort “to make sure such mass shootings never happen again, first and foremost by removing legal access to assault weapons and their deadly accessories.”
The bill introduced in March has been criticized by other gun-control advocates as too weak, while some firearms owners have called the legislation an attempt to revive the long-gun registry.
The bill would expand background checks on gun buyers. Instead of just the five years preceding a licence application, personal history questions would cover a person’s entire lifetime.
Under the legislation, retailers would be required to keep records of firearms inventory and sales, a measure intended to assist in investigating gun trafficking. The bill would also require purchasers to present a firearms licence, while the seller would have to ensure its validity.
The letter suggests the absence of explicit new curbs on assault weapons could be a result of government bowing to firearms advocates. “Please correct our serious misgivings regarding partisan matters that seem to be blocking consecutive governments from seriously addressing the gun issue. Yet this is a question of life and death.”
Last November, some of the letter’s signatories expressed concern to the government about far-right militias in Canada, including several in Quebec, that consider themselves foes of Muslims and other minorities.
The letter says Mark Holland, parliamentary secretary to Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, tried to reassure them by touting the government’s anti-radicalization efforts.
“We had to respectfully interrupt Mr. Holland and explain that despite our obvious and enthusiastic support for the fight against radicalization, the most urgent priority should be to limit the destructive power in the hands of these militias as well as other ordinary civilians.”
Scott Bardsley, a spokesman for Goodale, recently said the government looks forward to feedback on its legislation during Commons public safety committee hearings and is “open to constructive proposals.”
Goodale is to appear before the committee Tuesday.