Liberals to introduce new gun-control legislation

Liberal government is poised to introduce legislation as early as next week aimed at strengthening gun control.

The long-promised bill would flesh out last spring’s ban of many firearms, propose stricter storage provisions and target gun smuggling.

The government outlawed a variety of firearms by cabinet order in May, saying they were built for the battlefield, not hunting or sport-shooting.

The ban covers some 1,500 models and variants of what the government considers assault-style weapons, meaning they can no longer be legally used, sold or imported.

The bill is expected to propose a program to buy back these firearms at fair market value, but allow owners to keep them with strict conditions.

Such a move would alarm gun-control advocates who have been imploring the Liberals for months to make the buyback mandatory to ensure firearms that remain with owners cannot be misused or stolen.

“The families of victims of mass shootings that have been fighting for years for a total ban on semi-automatic, militarystyle guns would be devastated and angry if the Liberals were to renege on their election promise to buy back all newly prohibited assault weapons,” said the group PolySeSouvient.

“We will not support half measures that compromise public safety and that can be easily reversed by a future Conservative government.”

The Liberal government has long signalled its intention to empower municipalities to manage the storage and use of handguns within their individual jurisdictions, given that they have different needs and concerns.