The Montreal City Council is urging Canada’s federal government to enact a nationwide ban on handgun ownership.

CTVNews reports that the council was going to take up a gun control measure designed “to strengthen background checks for gun licences,” but is passing on that bill for now in order to push an all-out ban on handguns and “assault weapons.”

Montreal city councilman Alex Norris said, “Right now, it is legal to possess handguns and assault rifles that can do enormous harm to members of the public and we’ve seen far too many instances in which innocent people have been killed.”

In addition to calling for a ban on handguns and “assault rifles,” CTVNews says the Montreal City Council is also asking Canada’s federal government “to increase restrictions on the legal sale of weapons, such as hunting rifles and shotguns.”

The council’s desire to see handguns banned for the entire country comes after “an illegal gun was used to kill two people and injure another 13 during a mass shooting in Toronto’s Greektown neighborhood back in July.”

The Toronto Greektown shooting occurred on July 22, and on July 27, Breitbart News reported the Toronto City Council called for a nationwide ban on handgun and ammunition sales.

Prior to the Toronto City Council vote, the National Post quoted Toronto Mayor John Tory saying, “Why does anyone in this city need to have a gun at all? I know answering questions like this won’t fully eliminate tragedies like this, but even if we can prevent one of these incidents, then in my view it is a discussion worth having and having very soon.”

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.