Wide range of rifles outlawed

OTTAWA—The federal government has outlawed a wide range of rifles with the aim of making Canada safer, saying the guns were designed for the battlefield, not hunting or sport shooting.

The ban issued Friday covers some 1,500 models and variants of what the government considers assault-style firearms, meaning they cannot be legally used, sold or imported.

The list includes the popular AR-15 rifle and the Ruger Mini-14 used to kill 14 women at Montreal’s Ecole Polytechnique in 1989.

“Today we are closing the market for military-grade assault weapons in Canada,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a news conference.

“Every single Canadian wants to see less gun violence and safer communities.”

There is a two-year amnesty period while the government creates a program that will allow current owners to receive compensation for turning in the designated firearms or keep them through a grandfathering process yet to be worked out.

Under the amnesty, the newly prohibited firearms can only be transferred or transported within Canada for specific purposes. Owners must keep the guns securely stored until there is more information on the buyback program. Trudeau cited numerous mass shootings, from École Polytechnique to the killings in Nova Scotia last month, as the reasons for the move. Some guns have legitimate uses, including recreational shooting, he said, “but you don’t need an AR-15 to bring down a deer.”