MARTIN
TORONTO, (Reuters):
CANADA'S RULING Liberals, under pressure to clamp down on gun violence in big cities, will move to ban all handguns if they win the January 23, 2006 election, Prime Minister Paul Martin said yesterday.
Canada already has extremely restrictive firearms legislation, but under the Liberal proposal only police and some security officers would be allowed to carry handguns.
So far this year some 50 young men - most of them black - have been shot dead in Toronto. Some government officials blame the problem in part on smuggling of handguns from neighbouring United States.
"I've come to the conclusion that significant change is needed. I've come to the conclusion that we should ban handguns," Martin told a rally in one of the most violent areas of Toronto. Handguns kill people. That's why they exist. They are taking too many Canadian lives."
Canada's murder rate is about one third of that in the United States, but there is rising fear about gun crime in Toronto, traditionally a stronghold for the Liberals.
Martin - saying many handguns used in violent crimes had been stolen from collectors - made clear collectors would be given a certain amount of time to sell, get rid of or disarm their guns.
An amnesty programme would also be set up to pay people who handed in their illegal handguns.
