Outdoor Pursuits

When it comes to guns and gun laws in Canada, lawful gun owners—namely hunters and sport shooters—only have to harken back to the good old days of the two-billion dollar boondoggle of a long gun registry to know that the federal Liberal government has absolutely no idea what it is doing when it comes to guns. Thanks to Stephen Harper, that wasteful exercise was put to death.

But then, four years ago, the Liberal government once again got up in the saddle and banned 1,500 types of so-called “assault-style firearms.” The ban made it a crime for lawful firearms owners to buy, sell, transport, import or export, or use thousands upon thousands of formerly legal rifles and shotguns that were used for hunting and sport shooting.

According to the government, the ban was going to make our streets much safer; however, statistics tell a different story and since the Liberals came to power nine years ago, crime, including gun crime, has risen year by year. You see, only lawful gun owners abide by the law, criminals do not, which makes it asinine to think that attacking lawful gun owners will make our streets safer. But in the eyes of a Liberal...

When Trudeau announced the ban, he said that the government would “buy-back” (not sure how you can buy-back something that you never bought in the first place) the banned firearms and their legal owners would receive “fair compensation.” That hasn’t happened yet but what has happened is the Liberal government has wasted $67 million of taxpayer money on a buy-back program that hasn’t bought back a single firearm to date.

One only needs to look at New Zealand—who tried a gun ban and buyback program banning all so-called “assault-style” rifles—to know that stealing guns from lawful gun owners doesn’t make streets safer. According to data from the New Zealand Police, violent firearm offences averaged 932 a year prior to their gun ban but in 2022, three years after their buy-back program went into effect, there were 1,444 gun-related offences. Costs to administer their program ended up being more than double initial estimates and crime has gone up, not down, as promised.

The Liberal government originally gave a two-year amnesty to allow hunters and sport shooters to become compliant with their gun ban. This amnesty expired in April 2022 and has now been extended twice, with the latest extension going until the end of October 2025. Clearly the ban has been a disaster from the beginning and the Liberals have no idea how they are going to buy-back all of the firearms they made illegal. And with no help coming from the RCMP, provincial governments or anybody else for that matter, they now find themselves in a bit of a pickle with no idea how to implement their own confiscation program.

According to the National Police Federation, the union representing the RCMP, “Crime is increasing across Canada, and new public safety threats are emerging. The RCMP and other police services are facing rising demands, yet resources have not kept pace. The National Police Federation is calling on the federal government to invest in a comprehensive public safety plan including investments to adequately address the future of RCMP policing in Canada.”

One would have to assume that the millions of dollars being wasted on the Liberal confiscation program is exactly what the RCMP ordered.

“Costly and current legislation, such as the Order in Council prohibiting various firearms and the proposed “buy-back” program by the federal government targeted at legal firearm owners, does not address these current and emerging themes or urgent threats to public safety. In fact, it diverts extremely important personnel, resources, and funding away from addressing the more immediate and growing threat of criminal use of illegal firearms.”

According to the parliamentary budget officer, Trudeau’s confiscation program could cost taxpayers up to $756 million to buy back the guns, and this doesn’t include administration costs. Ouch!

For the previous Outdoor Pursuits article, click here.