In the wake of the gun-related school shooting in Parkland, Fla., Toronto is set to become the first Canadian city to pass a handgun ban, according to local media reports. Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced on Tuesday that he would ask the Ontario legislature to consider a change to provincial law that would ban the sale and manufacture of handguns and require owners to get a special permit.
One woman was killed and 10 people were wounded when a lone man with a semi-automatic rifle opened fire inside a high school in Santa Fe, Texas, on Wednesday. The mass shooting is being investigated as an act of domestic terrorism. A former student opened fire in Santa Fe High School, Texas, on Wednesday. The 15-year-old opened fire at Santa Fe High School, Texas, on Wednesday. He killed 10 people before being killed in an exchange of gunfire with local police.
New York, Connecticut, Maine, New Jersey, Rhode Island, California, Hawaii, Illinois, Washington, D.C., Maryland, New Hampshire, and Vermont have already banned the sale of most semiautomatic handguns, according to Data: BAN, a nonprofit organization that monitors gun legislation. Quebec, Canada’s most populous province, could follow suit within the next few years.
But Ontario’s legislation does not yet have enough support to pass, according to local media. Ford said that more changes could be made to current gun laws if necessary. “If you keep doing what you’re doing, there’s going to be more and more incidents,” Ford told reporters.
After the Parkland shooting, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he had “never seen anything like this in my life.” Pressed about the differences between guns and handguns, Ford added: “We have to look at gun violence in a much wider level, and I think that’s what we’re going to have to do. … Certainly, handguns and rifles are guns, they shouldn’t be confused.”
Correction: A previous version of this article misstated the age range for most handguns in Ontario.
Read the full story at CNN.
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