What Happened: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau proposed new legislation that would freeze handgun sales and require owners of "military-style" assault weapons to turn them in to authorities as part of a mandatory buyback program, The Washington Post reported May 30. The legislation also includes limits on the size of magazines and harsher criminal penalties for trafficking weapons.

Why It Matters: The proposed bill is a response to rising gun violence in Canada and two recent mass shootings in the United States in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York. The bill is likely to pass with support from the New Democratic Party, though the opposition Conservative party has criticized Trudeau for targeting law-abiding gun owners while not combating weapons trafficking across the U.S. border. The proposed measures could spark protests in Canada by gun rights groups, most likely around government buildings in Ottawa, and fuel broader debates on gun rights issues in Canada and the United States.

Background: Crime statistics released May 27 showed that violent crime involving firearms has increased in Canada since 2013 and that 60% of firearm-related incidents involve handguns. Hundreds of gun rights activists previously participated in protests on Parliament Hill in Ottawa in 2020 after Trudeau proposed a ban on assault weapons in response to a mass shooting in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia.