Canadian PM Justin Trudeau has announced that his government will be banning assault-style weapons in response to last week’s Nova Scotia rampage that killed 22.
The disturbing April 18-19 attack saw a 51-year-old denturist go on a wild killing spree, in which he shot people with two semi-automatic rifles and pistols and torched homes – to be later killed in a confrontation with police. Canadian police said it wasn’t immediately clear why the suspect, identified as Gabriel Wortman, went on his 13-hour rampage, while reports have tied his violent breakdown to a property dispute and alcohol abuse during the lockdown.
Notably, the guns found in Wortman’s possession were not obtained legally. This didn’t stop the influx of calls for tighter gun controls in Canada, culminating in Trudeau’s Friday announcement.
“These weapons were designed for one purpose and one purpose only: to kill the largest number of people in the shortest amount of time,” the prime minister said in his announcement, in which he concluded that “there is no use and no place for such weapons in Canada.”
Trudeau’s ban will cover 1,500 different models of firearms.
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