Taking further action to strengthen gun control

March 7, 2025

 

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Taking further action to strengthen gun control. March 7, 2025

The Honourable Rachel Bendayan, Minister of Official Languages and Associate Minister of Public Safety

As a mother, as a lawyer, as an elected official and now, as minister, I have been working alongside the Canadians standing with me here and many, many more for several years now, working to make our communities safer for our kids, working to make the women we know and love feel safer, working to stem the gun violence we see in our cities.

In 2020, our federal government banned what is now over 2,000 models of assault-style firearms. Just recently, in December 2024, we went further, banning some of the additional assault-style weapons that remained in the Canadian market.

Today, we are prohibiting 179 additional models of assault-style firearms, marking an important step toward a complete and total prohibition of assault-style firearms in Canada.

These semi-automatic firearms, which were designed for the battlefield, have absolutely no place in our communities. As of today, these firearms can no longer be legally used, sold, or imported in Canada, and can only be transferred or transported under limited circumstances.

I am happy to say that the buy-back program has been underway since early December, and that it is so far extremely successful. As it stands, the first phase of the program covers assault-style firearms that were prohibited in 2020 and that are in the hands of our stores and retailers. As of today, nearly 7,500 firearms have been submitted by businesses across the country for collection and destruction.

Taken together, the measures I am announcing on behalf of the federal government today represent a significant and meaningful step to strengthen gun control in Canada.

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