How many major Canadian cities will follow and impose bans is not immediately clear.
Shortly after Mr. Trudeau spoke, Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart wrote on Twitter that he would propose a measure banning handguns once the federal legislation is approved. And Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante has called for a national gun ban after a 15-year-old girl was killed in the city earlier this month.
But after Toronto Mayor John Tory asked for a long-term municipal gun ban, he withdrew last year and urged the federal government to concentrate on preventing guns from entering the United States.
The conservative provincial governments in Alberta and Ontario have said they oppose the municipal limits on small arms, although it is not known whether they will block them.
The legislation that was introduced on Tuesday did not satisfy people on both sides of the debate. Groups calling for gun control, for example, were disappointed with the repurchase program will not be compulsory, as was the case in New Zealand.
But Bill Blair, the public safety minister and former Toronto police chief, said the program, which is not specifically contained in the legislation, does not allow anyone who does not sell their weapons to the government to pass it on to someone else. do not wear, even after their death, or use it.
“We are not targeting law-abiding citizens who own guns to go hunting or for sport shooting,” he said. Trudeau said. “The measures we are proposing are concrete and practical,”
Erin O’Toole, the leader of the Conservative opposition, has condemned any further restrictions on guns.
“Mr Trudeau is misleading people when he tries to suggest that buying things from hunters and other law-abiding Canadians will somehow solve the problem of shootings and criminal gang activity in the big cities,” O’Toole said. told reporters.