Thread by @BillBlair

Today marks 1 year since our government chose to do more than offer only thoughts and prayers in response to gun violence.

On May 1, 2020, we took decisive action to prohibit the sale, use, and importation of 1,500 assault-style firearms designed for military use.

https://twitter.com/BillBlair/status/1256265604253855746

In Canada and around the world, we’ve seen examples of the devastation that gun violence can cause – at École Polytechnique de Montréal in 1989, in Quebec City in 2017, and most recently in Nova Scotia last year.

Of the Five Eyes countries that have prohibited these firearms, none have experienced a single mass shooting this year.

Our plan to remove these dangerous firearms from our communities and keep Canadians safe is working.

But there is more work to do to finish the job once and for all.

In February, we introduced Bill #C21, our plan to complete the prohibition of these assault-style firearms and introduce a suite of new measures to increase public safety.

This includes:

✅Stricter penalties on gun smuggling/trafficking
✅'Red and yellow flag' laws to tackle gender-based
and intimate-partner violence
✅Support for cities that want to ban handguns
✅Anti-gang funding for communities to support
at-risk youth

And in #Budget2021, we made further investments of $312M to help our public safety institutions tackle firearms within + across our borders.

Put together, our strategy to tackle firearms will keep our promise to protect 🇨🇦s + ensure these weapons never re-enter our communities.