Ottawa is launching the first phase of the program to buy back the “assault weapons” it banned in 2020. It will buy back some 11,000 firearms currently in store inventories across the country.
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino made the announcement Wednesday morning in Ottawa.
The redemption of weapons that are the property of citizens will be done in a 2nd stage, he said.
He promises a fair price for the weapons, but did not say whether they will be bought back at the price at which stores bought them.
He also did not quantify the cost of this massive takeover, but assures that the necessary money was set aside in the last federal budget.
These weapons, like the AR-15 model, are intended for the battlefield, he repeated during the announcement. They were designed to kill as many people as possible as quickly as possible. “They have no place in our communities,” he insisted.
To carry out this stage of the buyback program, the government has entered into an agreement with the Canadian Sporting Arms and Ammunition Industry Association (CSAAA), “which will represent the interests of companies participating in the Arms Buyback Program fire “. It was the CSAAA that identified the approximately 11,000 weapons, parts and components of weapons that are targeted by this stage of the program.
Recall that on May 1, 2020, the Government of Canada banned approximately 1,500 brands and models of assault-type firearms and has since added some 500 more.
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