OTTAWA - The federal Liberal government is extending its amnesty on "assault-style" firearms until October 2023.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced in May 2020 he was banning more than 1,500 models of firearms, including the AR-15.
He also announced owners of these guns would have a two-year amnesty period to come into compliance with the prohibition.
The Liberal government revealed on Wednesday that the order that was set to expire in April would be extended until October 2023.
It says doing so gives officials more time to implement a mandatory buyback program for the firearms.
A central part of keeping Canadians safe from gun violence is stopping it before it starts.
— Marco Mendicino (@marcomendicino) March 16, 2022
Today we announced the $250 million Building Safer Communities Fund, which will tackle the root causes of gun crime and help youth make good choices.
Details: https://t.co/ah2PzRoypT pic.twitter.com/hbdZPOZB8A
A prominent gun-control advocacy group says it hopes this is the "first and last" extension of its kind and wants to see the buyback program, promised by the Liberals during the 2019 federal election, to be introduced as quickly as possible.
"It is important to understand that the May 2020 regulations combined with the mandatory buyback program, while extremely positive, do not represent a complete ban on assault weapons," reads a statement from PolySeSouvient, which includes former students and graduates of École polytechnique, where a gunman shot and killed 14 women in 1989.
"Further legislation is required to ban models that were not covered by the regulations and to prevent manufacturers from introducing new models into the market."
