Liberal leadership hopeful Marc Garneau floats ban on assault rifles

OTTAWA – Liberal leadership hopeful Marc Garneau says there’s no reason assault rifles, like the one used to slaughter 20 young schoolchildren in Connecticut, should be available in Canada.

The Montreal MP says he’d look at banning semiautomatic weapons, like the military-style, .223-calibre Bushmaster used in last week’s massacre.

Garneau says he’d also go further than the Harper Conservatives in imposing “very severe” penalties on those who use guns in the commission of crimes.

And he’d restrict ownership of guns by people with a history of domestic violence or involvement in gangs.

He would not, however, revive the Liberal-created long-gun registry, which the Conservatives scrapped earlier this year.

Garneau says the registry was well-intentioned but divisive and, now that it’s gone, he wouldn’t bring it back.