Canada Banned Certain Guns, but Can’t Figure Out How to Collect Them

On May 1, 2020, the Canadian government outlawed 1,500 types of semiautomatic rifles, effectively banned handguns by attrition, and announced a firearms buyback program to take possession of the newly-banned guns.

The action was the federal government’s response to a mass shooting in Nova Scotia in which 22 people were killed over April 18-19, 2020.

The killer, dressed as a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer and driving a car rigged to look like a patrol car, used an AR-style rifle smuggled into Canada from the United States.

Four years later, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party struggles to keep control in Parliament, both sides of the debate anticipate the possible end of the program even before the first gun has been surrendered.