Canada Bans Handgun Sales in Bid to 'Reduce Gun Violence' in the Country

As of Friday, it will be illegal to buy, sell, or transfer handguns in the country of Canada.

According to the announcement by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, “people cannot buy, sell, or transfer handguns within Canada, nor can they bring newly acquired handguns into the country.”

“With handgun violence increasing across Canada, it is our duty to take urgent action to remove these deadly weapons from our communities,” Trudeau said in the statement.

There are approximately 1.1 million handguns already in Canada, meaning Mr. Trudeau’s desire to “remove these deadly weapons from our communities” means the Mounties are going to be very busy grabbing guns. Or, the prime minister was just speaking metaphorically.

The Canadian government said it’s seen a drastic rise in the number of guns in the country over the last decade, with 70% more handguns in Canada than there were in 2010. The gun freeze was implemented as another gun-control bill was working its way through the Canadian parliament — what the government says will be the strongest gun-control measure in more than 40 years.

The bill, introduced in May, proposes revoking firearms licenses for people involved in domestic violence or criminal harassment cases, providing law enforcement with more tools to investigate firearms crimes, and additional measures to prevent gun smuggling and trafficking. Canada has already expanded background checks.

The correlation is obvious. People want guns because they don’t feel safe. Duh. It is not a political statement to own a gun in Canada. To some, it’s a question of life and death.

While Canada has sounded the alarm on gun violence, its rate of gun violence is still relatively low compared to its southern neighbor. There are far more mass shootings in the United States: more than 500 and counting in 2022 alone, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

In 2020, 277 people were killed by a firearm in Canada, at a rate of .73 per 100,000 people, according to Canada’s national statistics office. That same year in the United States, more than 19,000 people were killed at the hands of gun violence at a rate of 5.9 per 100,000 people, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

The population density of the United States is 94 people per square mile while Canada’s is 11 people per square mile. It’s obviously not as simple as population density leading to more murders but to claim it means nothing is to posit the notion that Canadians are somehow less violent than Americans — not very likely.

At any rate, Trudeau is being silly if he thinks halting new gun sales will materially affect the murder rate.