The federal government is continuing with its effort to make it harder to legally own firearms in Canada.
When the Liberals returned to power in the fall of 2015, Canada’s gun laws were as good as you’d find anywhere. The Conservative government under Stephen Harper had repealed the long-gun registry, which only served to cost taxpayers large sums of money. The laws in Canada not that long ago allowed people to own guns, but there were some weapons that could not be had legally, likely because there was no tangible benefit for the public in someone owning such guns.
Our laws are much better than what we see in the U.S., where the laws play such a big role in the high death rates due to gun violence.
But ever since the horrible mass shootings in Nova Scotia in the spring of 2020, we’ve been seeing the federal government chip away at the firearms that Canadians can legally own.
The latest measure is an amendment to Bill C-21, which seeks to widen the definition of a “prohibited weapon” to include “a firearm that is a rifle or shotgun, that is capable of discharging centre-fire ammunition in a semi-automatic manner, and that is designed to accept a detachable cartridge magazine with a capacity greater than five cartridges of the type for which the firearm was originally designed.”
That’s a mouthful.
Critics say the measure will target hunters, farmers and Indigenous peoples, and it means far more firearms would become illegal.
The Liberals will tell you that it’s not as serious as the opposition Conservative Party and other critics think. They’ll tell you there aren’t a lot of these firearms currently owned by Canadians. But if that’s the case, then it’s incumbent on them to articulate the facts to support this position, rather than having so many legal gun owners in Canada wondering how they will be subject to this latest crackdown.
When you hear lines like “largest single gun ban in Canadian history” and “ban thousands of Canadian hunting arms”, alarm bells should be going off, regardless of how the Liberals are trying to spin this.
The amendment might sound great to gun critics, urbanites and those who don’t know the first thing about firearms. And there are a lot of those people who are in the Liberal Party or who support the Liberals at this time. This move plays to Trudeau’s base.
It’s going to tick off a lot of people, but those people likely weren’t going to vote for the Liberals in the next election anyways. It won’t cost the Liberals a lot of votes.
As stated before, legislation on guns need to strike a balance. You can’t have American-style laws. We continue to see the aftermath of those laws. But the Liberals are showing the folly of taking the measures too far and trying to take too many guns out of Canadians’ possession.
Most gun owners in this country are responsible people. Some of them have their firearms largely for display. For others, it’s a tool, not a weapon. They have a specific purpose on their farm. They’re used for hunting.
As for those who aren’t, if people really want to get these firearms, they’ll find a way. And with more guns on the banned list, you’re going to have more people looking for a way to find something.
You’d also going to have more Canadians who will be committing a crime because they own something that was perfectly legal months ago and has never been used to hurt another person.
You would not have prevented the tragedy in Nova Scotia with these new restrictions. That person would have found a way to secure what he needed and then would have committed those terrible crimes.
The government needs to rethink this latest amendment and to spend more time talking to people who actually understand that some guns have a place.
Feds continue to overreach on firearms
The federal government is continuing with its effort to make it harder to legally own firearms in Canada.
When the Liberals returned to power in the fall of 2015, Canada’s gun laws were as good as you’d find anywhere. The Conservative government under Stephen Harper had repealed the long-gun registry, which only served to cost taxpayers large sums of money. The laws in Canada not that long ago allowed people to own guns, but there were some weapons that could not be had legally, likely because there was no tangible benefit for the public in someone owning such guns.
Our laws are much better than what we see in the U.S., where the laws play such a big role in the high death rates due to gun violence.
But ever since the horrible mass shootings in Nova Scotia in the spring of 2020, we’ve been seeing the federal government chip away at the firearms that Canadians can legally own.
The latest measure is an amendment to Bill C-21, which seeks to widen the definition of a “prohibited weapon” to include “a firearm that is a rifle or shotgun, that is capable of discharging centre-fire ammunition in a semi-automatic manner, and that is designed to accept a detachable cartridge magazine with a capacity greater than five cartridges of the type for which the firearm was originally designed.”
That’s a mouthful.
Critics say the measure will target hunters, farmers and Indigenous peoples, and it means far more firearms would become illegal.
The Liberals will tell you that it’s not as serious as the opposition Conservative Party and other critics think. They’ll tell you there aren’t a lot of these firearms currently owned by Canadians. But if that’s the case, then it’s incumbent on them to articulate the facts to support this position, rather than having so many legal gun owners in Canada wondering how they will be subject to this latest crackdown.
When you hear lines like “largest single gun ban in Canadian history” and “ban thousands of Canadian hunting arms”, alarm bells should be going off, regardless of how the Liberals are trying to spin this.
The amendment might sound great to gun critics, urbanites and those who don’t know the first thing about firearms. And there are a lot of those people who are in the Liberal Party or who support the Liberals at this time. This move plays to Trudeau’s base.
It’s going to tick off a lot of people, but those people likely weren’t going to vote for the Liberals in the next election anyways. It won’t cost the Liberals a lot of votes.
As stated before, legislation on guns need to strike a balance. You can’t have American-style laws. We continue to see the aftermath of those laws. But the Liberals are showing the folly of taking the measures too far and trying to take too many guns out of Canadians’ possession.
Most gun owners in this country are responsible people. Some of them have their firearms largely for display. For others, it’s a tool, not a weapon. They have a specific purpose on their farm. They’re used for hunting.
As for those who aren’t, if people really want to get these firearms, they’ll find a way. And with more guns on the banned list, you’re going to have more people looking for a way to find something.
You’d also going to have more Canadians who will be committing a crime because they own something that was perfectly legal months ago and has never been used to hurt another person.
You would not have prevented the tragedy in Nova Scotia with these new restrictions. That person would have found a way to secure what he needed and then would have committed those terrible crimes.
The government needs to rethink this latest amendment and to spend more time talking to people who actually understand that some guns have a place.
