Canada Has Proven the Ineffectiveness of Oppressive National-Level Gun Control Laws.

A high profile mass shooting happened in a heavily gun controlled state so, predictably, the civilian disarmament industrial complex has once again jumped onto the argument that we need far more federal-level gun rights restrictions. One of the countries they love to use as an exemplar for gun control Nirvana they seek is Canada.

For the last decade under Justin Trudeau, Canada ratcheted up their gun control laws. This went against what he had promised back in 2010, when he said he would never confiscate guns but that lie really isn’t surprising. We see that with purple and red state Democrats on this side of the border who engage in a sort of gun control taqiyya. They promise not to ban guns like the AR-15 during their campaigns, then support bans after the election (see: Conor Lamb, Jason Kander, and many others).

Under Trudeau, Canada did all of the following, which would make America’s gun control industry swoon if it happned here:

  • Passed new legislation which extended background checks from five years to a lifetime
  • Implemented a point-of-sale registration by business
  • Required authorization to transport restricted and prohibited firearms to locations other than the range (e.g. gunsmiths, gun shows, etc.) through strengthened transportation requirements
  • Prohibited 1,500 models of “assault-style” weapons, the public was offered a grace period to turn them in
  • National freeze on the sale of new handguns
  • Banned another 400 guns by make and model just recently

So, with all of this new gun control, homicides must have surely fallen through the floor, right? After all, that’s the whole point of passing more gun control laws isn’t it?

Nope.

According to Statistics Canada, a government website linked below, homicides steadily rose almost every single year Trudeau was in office, finally falling slightly in 2023 and 2024 (while falling even more in the US in that time frame).

Canada Canadian homicide rates
Statistics Canada

As of 2024, Canada has around 250 more homicides per year than it did in 2014, before Trudeau became Prime Minister. The per capita rate has risen from 1.48 per 100,000, to 1.9 per 100,000.

Canada has also had frequent mass shootings under Trudeau, more than before he took office. From 2005 thorough 2014, Canada had six shootings that resulted in four or more people killed. From 2015 through the end of 2024, the Trudeau era, there were 15 such shootings. That, of course, doesn’t include attacks by other methods, like a car attack that killed 10 in Toronto.

In summary, Canadians have gained absolutely nothing in exchange for turning in common types of firearms they had previously been allowed to own for generations. They gave up their liberty and gained no safety in return.

The obvious lesson for Americans: never make the same mistake as our gullible neighbors to the north.