Liberals add nearly 200 more firearms to prohibited weapon list

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OTTAWA — In the final days of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government, the Liberals banned nearly 200 additional types of firearms and promised details on the mandatory buyback compensation this spring.

Friday, Official Languages and Associate Public Safety Minister Rachel Bendayan announced the Liberals added 179 makes and models of what she called “assault-style” firearms to the list of prohibited guns, effective immediately.

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A list of the newly prohibited weapons was not immediately available, but a senior government official said during a not-for-attribution briefing that they were semi-automatic models with sustained rapid-fire capability and large magazine capacity. The SKS rifle, which many firearms groups and Indigenous communities say is commonly used for hunting, was not included in the list.

Current firearm laws already limit magazine capacity to five for nearly all semi-automatic rifles, whereas pistol magazine capacity is limited to 10.

The change means that owners of any of the newly-prohibited weapons cannot use, sell or lend them, nor can they be bought or imported. The government also said it was extending the amnesty period for owners until March 1, 2026.

That’s because the Liberals still don’t have a set date nor the details for the second phase of the program, including how much compensation they will offer to owners of now-prohibited weapons. Bendayan said more details were expected “later this spring”.

“I myself have been frustrated that we couldn’t move faster on a program,” Bendayan said. “The reality is we want to do it right. There are enormous complexities involved in getting a system set up to to be able to compensate Canadians, but also protect their personal information.”

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The first phase of the forced-buyback program targeting distributors and retailers has been underway for months, with a senior official saying it was more successful than the government anticipated. Bendayan said approximately 7,300 firearms had been submitted and destroyed to date.

The new prohibited guns are in addition to the 324 varieties the Liberals banned in December. The Trudeau government has added approximately 2,500 firearm makes and models to the prohibited weapons list since 2020.

The government also announced an in-depth review of how guns are classified after years of pressure from public safety researchers and gun rights activists. But any changes to the classification would require legislation and would require the support of whichever government that succeeds Trudeau’s.

Bendayan said Canada currently has one of the most complex firearm classification systems in the world.

“This creates challenges for law enforcement,” she said. “It also creates challenges for lawful gun owners, who deserve certainty.”

The day before the announcement, the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights’s Tracey Wilson accused the Liberals of cowardice for making the announcement on one of the final days of Trudeau’s administration.

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“On the last business day of this government, before leadership, in the 11th hour, with geopolitical crises and tariff wars, economic uncertainty, violent crime wave, border and national security issues, prorogation … what do they plan? Another attack on hunters and licensed sport shooters,” Wilson wrote on social media.

More to come…

National Post

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