Nova Scotia, Canada: One year after mass shootings, assault-style weapons have been banned for months

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But as the sounds of Millbrook First Nation’s Mi’kmaq song of honor filled the church on Sunday, family and friends of the 22 victims of Canada’s worst mass murder are painfully aware that some things will not return. to be the same.

“A year ago, 22 Canadians died senseless and three more were injured when a gunman was assaulted in small towns in Nova Scotia,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement ahead of the church ceremony to commemorate the tragedy.

“Even a year later I know there is no consolation for the anguish of tearing up an adored father or a beautiful son. I know there are no words to lose a dear agent and teacher. For mourning, respect nurses and correctional officers, ”he said. in a separately recorded message.

“So all I can say is this: you are not alone. All Canadians are with you and hurt you today and forever.”

A horrible rage

For more than 12 hours, beginning April 18 and ending April 19, Gabriel Wortman committed a murder in rural Nova Scotia and killed 22 people, some of whom he knew, others were unknown. .

9 of the 22 victims of the Nova Scotia disaster died in the fires caused by the army, according to investigators
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said 13 were shot dead and nine more died in house fires caused by the army.
Wortman, 51, was shot dead by police after an hour-long hunt during which, according to police, he pretended to be one of them, including an RCMP uniform and driving what looked like a police cruise.

Police say the gunman did not have a firearms license and that his weapons were obtained illegally, probably from the United States.

Rapid legislative action

Less than two weeks after the massacre, the Trudeau government banned more than 1,500 models and variants of assault-style weapons, making their use, sale or import illegal.
Trudeau's ban on assault weapons is not enough

“These weapons were designed for one purpose and one purpose, to kill as many people in the shortest time possible,” Trudeau said at the time.

In 2019, Trudeau’s Liberal Party promised to tighten arms control, but the Nova Scotia tragedy hardened that resolution.

The Trudeau government introduced more gun control legislation earlier this year, promising to strengthen regulation of weapons and their owners.
Canada will not implement a national handgun ban, but will leave it in the hands of individual communities

For decades, polls have shown that most Canadians support tighter gun control, but the Trudeau government’s effort to pass more legislation has been met with some skepticism by both advocates and detractors of gun control. weapons.

Canadian opposition leader Erin O’Toole, leader of the Conservative Party, says Trudeau’s new and proposed arms ban proposals and repurchase systems will punish law-abiding gun owners, while doing so. little to solve the growing problem of gun violence in Canadian cities.

And some gun control advocates and mayors in big cities say they are disappointed that the Trudeau government has not proposed a national handgun ban.

Federal-provincial investigation will examine the tragedy

How and why this massacre took place in one of the safest and most unlikely places in Canada will now be the subject of an investigation in the province of Nova Scotia, but no final report is expected for more than a year.

Canadian police did not issue a timely public alert about the Nova Scotia Navy

The RCMP acknowledges that there are many questions about how the gunman got so many firearms and their motivation, as well as what the RCMP knew about his ability to impersonate an officer in uniform and police cars.

“We understand that people have questions and we want to know as much as possible about the incidents. The charges related to the investigation are before the courts and we are fully involved in the Commission for Mass Victims, which is underway. We hope that the Mass Commission Accidents will provide full information on what happened to the families of the victims and the public, “Lee Bergerman, commander of the Nova Scotia RCMP, said in a statement released this weekend.

His pregnant wife died in a mass shooting. His dying wish was for health workers to have PPE

As friends and family place flowers in front of the altar on Church Sunday, a bouquet for each victim, they await further legal reforms that can assure them that no community will ever have to endure this kind of armed violence again.

“We’ve all suffered so much this year,” said Jenny Kierstead, the victim’s sister Lisa McCully, adding that the actions of an armed man have “shattered” many lives.

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