Trudeau pledges ban on ‘assault-style weapons’ after Canada’s deadliest shooting
As the death toll in the Nova Scotia massacre over the weekend continued to rise — it has grown to at least 23 fatalities — Trudeau promised new bans on “assault-style weapons.”
“I can say that we were on the verge of introducing legislation to ban assault-style weapons across this country,” Trudeau said during Monday’s daily coronavirus briefing.
“It was interrupted when the pandemic caused parliament to be suspended, but we have every intention of moving forward on that measure, and potentially other measures, when parliament returns,” Trudeau added, according to Canada’s CTV.
Police in Nova Scotia have yet to release what kind of weapon gunman Gabriel Wortman used when he embarked on his killing spree across the province’s northern towns Saturday night.
Wortman, a denture maker, dressed like a cop and had “an initial motivation” for his violence Saturday night, police said.
But over the course of his nearly 14 hours of bloodshed, his killings “turned into randomness,” with him knocking on doors in the rural Canadian town of Portapique, where he lived part-time, and pulling over drivers to executive them, according to police.
Trudeau had previously sought stricter gun laws, campaigning during the federal elections last year to ban military-style assault weapons and allow provinces or territories to craft their own handgun bans.
