Canada has proposed a bill that would ban the sale of handguns, less than a week after the Texas school shooting.
Per BBC News, the legislation introduced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday would freeze private ownership of all handguns. While it would not ban the ownership of handguns, it would make it illegal to buy them.
"The day this legislation goes into effect it will no longer be possible to buy, sell, transfer or import handguns in Canada," Trudeau told reporters.
The Prime Minister's proposal comes days after the deadly shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, where an 18-year-old gunman named Salvador Ramos killed 19 children and two teachers.
According to Sky News, if the bill is passed, the "national freeze" on handgun ownership is expected to take effect in the fall.
Despite Canada already having strict gun ownership laws, restrictions are expected to toughen after the recent mass shootings in the neighboring country sparked concerns about gun violence.
Watch Justin Trudeau's conference below:"Other than using firearms for sport shooting and hunting, there is no reason anyone in Canada should need guns in their everyday lives," Trudeau said. "As we see gun violence continue to rise, it is our duty to keep taking action."
Ramos used an AR-15 rifle in the deadly attack, a firearm that was banned from being used or sold in Canada two years ago, along with about 1,500 other models of assault weapons.
Public safety minister Marco Mendicino was present with Trudeau and said a mandatory program to purchase back and reimburse owners of such weapons would be established soon.
The new law, Bill C-21, details that anyone involved in acts of domestic violence or criminal harassment such as stalking will have their firearm licenses withdrawn.
It also states that stricter penalties would be enforced for gun smugglers and traffickers, and law enforcement would be able to investigate devices like wiretapping to prevent gun crime.
According to a 2021 analysis by the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, one in 200,000 people is killed by guns in Canada, compared with four in 100,000 in the US.
The number of registered handguns in Canada increased by 71% to 1.1 million between 2010 and 2020, according to the Prime Minister's news release published on May 30.