‘A step in the right direction’: Montreal gun-control advocates applaud federal firearm legislation

For the first time in decades, gun-control advocate Heidi Rathjen is rejoicing after new firearm-control legislation was introduced Monday by the federal government.

Rathjen was just 21 years old when a shooter walked into her class at École Polytechnique and killed 14 women.

READ MORE: Remembering the women killed in the École Polytechnique massacre

Thankfully, she survived, but in the three decades since, she’s made it her mission to fight for better gun laws in Canada.

“This is the first time in decades – since the 1995 bill – that we can actually applaud whole heartedly a gun control bill,” said Rathjen, who is also the coordinator of PolyRemembers, a group formed by the survivors of the 1989 massacre.

“It’s bold, it’s substantial, it’s historical, and it’s going to take Canada in the right direction.”

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The Liberal government tabled a bill on May 30 that includes a national freeze on importing, buying, selling or transferring handguns.

READ MORE: Ottawa is moving to freeze handgun sales nationwide. Here’s what that means

Though the bill doesn’t ban handguns outright, it seeks to cap the number already in Canada.

If passed, it would also allow for the removal of gun licenses from people who commit domestic violence or criminal harassment.

1:54 New Canadian gun laws put freeze on handguns, leaving gun store owners frustrated

Tuesday, Montreal mayor Valerie Plante, who has been calling for a federal ban on handguns for years, said the bill is a step in the right direction.

“We need to make sure that guns don’t circulate freely between people, that it’s not easy to be sold and that there will be penalties involved if you do own a gun,” she said.

“Definitely a good, good move.”

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Quebec Liberal leader Dominique Anglade echoed those sentiments and added more prevention needs to be done.

READ MORE: Quebec pushes Ottawa to act on handguns after Montreal teen murdered

“There’s not a day that goes by without hearing about gun violence in different areas of Quebec, including Montreal and Laval, but other areas of Quebec as well,” she said. “So a step in the right direction, but we can do certainly more than that.”

Rathjen says she and other survivors would like to see legislation that includes a lasting ban on assault weapons.

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