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Mass shootings in Canada have helped prompt changes to firearm laws over the decades

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 11 Feb, 2026 09:13 AM

Mass shootings in Canada — including an April 2020 rampage in Nova Scotia — have helped spur changes to gun laws in recent decades.

Since May 2020, Ottawa has outlawed about 2,500 types of firearms, including the AR-15, on the basis they belong only on the battlefield.

Prohibited firearms and devices must be disposed of — or deactivated — by the end of an amnesty period on Oct. 30.

In 1989, a gunman murdered 14 women at Montreal’s École Polytechnique.

In the early 1990s, federal legislation toughened penalties for gun-related crimes and ushered in new measures on acquiring and storing firearms.

The Liberal government of Jean Chrétien created a universal gun registration system in the 1990s, though it was later ended by Stephen Harper's Conservatives.

Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

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