The federal government’s May 30 tabling of legislation that stops handguns from being purchased, sold, imported and traded in Canada is a very welcome move.

As someone who — thanks to his mother’s birth in Scotland and her emigration to Canada — enjoys both British and Canadian citizenship, never have I felt more of a “resident alien” living in the United States than when it comes to the issue of guns and the so-called right to bear arms which gets invoked after every atrocity, such as the Aug. 31 shootings that left seven dead in Odessa, Texas.

Over the Labour Day weekend, there sure were a lot of U.S. politicians conveying their “thoughts and prayers” for the victims and their families of the latest mass shooting, but no visible action on doing anything about the American gun epidemic.

It turns out that banning assault weapons doesn’t have to be so difficult after all. All it takes is courage, resolve, leadership — and a touch of common sense.

TRENTON, N.J. – No motive "can justify these ongoing, seemingly relentless acts of gun violence plaguing our cities," Bishop David M. O'Connell of Trenton said after a mass shooting took place in the early morning hours of June 17 during a city arts festival.

WASHINGTON – In the parish hall of Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Washington, elders handed markers to younger members of the parish as they filled in posters with the Gospel-based message from the Book of Isaiah that they wanted others to see at the March for Our Lives event the next day: "And the children will lead us."

The massacre of 17 innocents at a Parkland, Fla., high school is not fading out of the news as quickly as other similar tragedies that have plagued the United States.

WASHINGTON – Determination and resolve, mixed with frustration and anger, are guiding a new round of resolute activism to reshape federal gun laws.

On Valentine’s Day, there was yet another U.S. massacre when a shooter killed 17 Florida high school students and wounded a score more.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – About 100 students from Parkland arrived in Tallahassee the evening of Feb. 20, highly motivated to press their state lawmakers in person to reform gun laws after the deadly shooting rampage at their high school.

WASHINGTON – Students at St. Viator Parish School in Las Vegas began school Oct. 2 – hours after the mass shooting in that city – by praying the rosary together in the school gym.

WASHINGTON – On the campaign trail, Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump recently referenced the increasing violence in Chicago, which reached an infamous milestone this summer: the most violent August the city has seen in 20 years.

WASHINGTON – In the first 181 days of 2016, there have been 163 mass shootings in the United States, data gathered by the Washington-based nonprofit Gun Violence Archive show.

WASHINGTON – Two U.S. church leaders called for a ban on the sale of military-style assault weapons, saying they have no place in the hands of civilians.

In a blistering critique of what he describes as congressional kowtowing to the gun lobby, the Roman Catholic bishop of Dallas is praising President Obama’s new actions on gun control and ripping the “cowboy mentality” that allows open-carry laws like one that just went into effect in Texas.