Montreal wants assault weapons banned before buy back program starts

Mayor Valerie Plante is urging the federal government to implement wider gun control measures.

The call comes nearly two weeks before Montreal marks 35 years since the Ecole Polytechnique Massacre which killed 14 women and injured many more.

Plante says the city wants a total ban on all assault weapons before the launch of Canada’s firearms buy back program this fall.

“I just think it makes sense to have a complete list before we move forward and knowing how the gun industry adapts,” Plante said.

The mayor and advocates say Canada’s Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc previously promised a wider ban by Dec. 6.

On that day in 1989, Nathalie Provost survived the massacre that killed 14 of her classmates.

She says tighter gun laws are long overdue.

“The sooner, the better. It’s really, really, really important. There may be, in any time, an election,” Provost said.

The federal government has banned nearly 2,000 assault-style firearms and their variants.

The goal is to begin recovering them from retailers in the coming weeks.

By spring 2025, owners can either sell their guns to the government or store them, not to be used or transported, and, by the end of October 2025, owners can be held criminally liable unless their guns can’t be used.

Also in attendance for the city’s call to action were representatives of the victims’ families and members of the group Not Here, a student movement for gun control.

“Since hundreds of models are not banned, the people would just simply turn around and buy what is effectively the same gun but just if a different make,” said the group’s spokesperson Gabriel Comby.

CTV asked Canada’s Ministry of Public Security if it would consider a complete ban on assault style firearms.

A spokesperson said the ministry is focused on the launch of the buy back program this fall.