Canada's ban on handgun sales goes into effect

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced federal regulations targeted to cap the number of handguns in Canada have come into effect. Trudeau froze the market for handguns on Friday.

Justin Trudeau, Canadian Prime Minister said "Assault weapons are illegal to use, to sell or to buy in Canada now. What the premiers are proposing by objecting to the buyback is to make it simply more difficult for people who currently own those guns that are now illegal to use, to sell or to buy, to actually be compensated for those guns as we move forward with the buyback. That's the kind of politics that Canadians don't want to see around gun violence, around moving forward on these important measures."

A mass shooting in 2020 led the ban on assault-style firearms. Canada's rate of gun violence is lower than that of the United States. States show that in 2020, 277 people were killed by firearms in Canada compared to more than 19,000 in the US.