gun buyback confiscation
(AP Photo/Nick Ut)

By Larry Keane

The Great Northern Gun Grab is about to begin.

The United States’ northern neighbor is bracing for a firearm confiscation. What would seem unthinkable just a couple years ago is now planned to radically shift gun ownership on America’s doorstep in just weeks.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that sweeping new gun control laws would be coming “in months” that would drastically change how firearms are controlled in Canada. The Liberal Party leader made the unilateral announcement that the government would confiscate more than 1,500 makes and models of firearms under an expanded “assault weapon” definition. It’s an estimated 150,000-200,000 firearms.

Justin Trudeau canada
(Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP)

Prime Minister Trudeau fulfilled his ill-advised promise by announcing the introduction of a bill in Canada’s Parliament, labeled C-21, that would usher in crushing gun restrictions. Included in the bill is everything from a provision to allow anyone to petition a police chief to revoke a firearm license and the courts to seize firearm for up to 30 days.

The bill includes a magazine ban for handguns with a capacity greater than 10 rounds and centerfire rifle magazines with a capacity greater than five rounds. It would impose a strict regimen for those who choose not to participate in the confiscation program with onerous and nearly impossible requirements to keep their firearms. A two-year amnesty period for owners of these now-banned firearms will expire in April 2022.

Confiscation

The biggest concern of this gun control push is the outright confiscation of firearms by the government. Prime Minister Trudeau and his allies are labeling it as a government “buyback.” However, this is using Canadian taxpayer funds for the government to buy back something it never owned in the first place.

More shocking is that no government official will put a price tag on what this would cost. Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said the government will have a better picture of the cost when it knows how many owners want to “sell” their firearms and for how much, according to Canadian Broadcasting Channel  (CBC) report.

Minister Blair guessed it would run between $300-400 million dollars, if 150-200,000 gun owners demand $1,300 per firearm. Minister Blair earlier pegged the cost at $600 million. Critics argue the cost would be much higher. Those critics were right about Canada’s previous gun registration scheme being a colossal failure with an enormous price tag. That was pitched at costing only $2 million but ran over $2.7 billion before being scrapped.

canadian canada money dollars
Shutterstock

The same critics are pointing to New Zealand’s confiscation model and saying realistic estimates put the Canadian cost at $1.6-$5 billion in just the first year. That’s just administrative costs, not including the bounty Prime Minister Trudeau would pay for each firearm.

Noncompliance

Canadians who don’t participate in surrendering their firearms to the government will be forced to endure a rigorous set of rules and inspections to keep their firearms – while they can and while they’re alive. Those who don’t hand over their firearms could keep them under strict conditions to not use, import, further acquire, sell or bequeath them. Those individuals would also be required to complete the Canadian Restricted Firearm Safety Course and upgrade their licenses to a “Restricted Possession and Acquisition Licence.”

Of course, this would incur all associated course and license fees, along with registering any firearms with the Firearms Registrar, complying with enhanced storage requirements and periodically providing information on firearm storage to ensure compliance.

But Wait, There’s More

The proposed confiscation law would be so much more than just a gun grab. It would also give municipalities the option of enacting their own local ban on handguns. Some local laws might not go that far. Local laws might only regulate home storage of handguns, requiring them to be stored at shooting clubs and ranges. This would create a patchwork of differing gun control laws and pitfalls for Canadian gun owners. Enforcement would become a nightmare.

Matt DeMille of Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters, told the CBC, “Adopting measures across the province in a patchwork is going to be very difficult for people to understand.” Conservative public safety critic Shannon Stubbs added, “This part of the bill doesn’t address the major problem, which is the illicit use of illegal guns in crime.”

Another provision in the bill would make it illegal to advertise a firearm that depicts violence against a person. Read strictly, that would make it a crime to advertise a gun as a self-defense tool. Instead of taking on the criminals who misuse firearms, Prime Minister Trudeau would lock up advertisers who tell his citizens they don’t have to be willing victims and can use firearms to defend themselves.

No Right, Not Right

This sounds like a dystopian fairy tale, but the reality is this is happening on the doorstep of the United States. Minister Blair made it clear why Prime Minister Trudeau is able to get away with it.

“Gun ownership in Canada, in this country, is a privilege and not a right,” Minister Blair explained to Canada’s Global News. It’s a privilege that’s predicated on the strict adherence to our laws, our regulations, and our restrictions.”

That’s not stopping opponents from saying Prime Minister Trudeau is overstepping. The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police said it won’t support a plan for handgun bans. Vancouver police chief Adam Palmer heads the organization and previously said there are laws against the illegal use of handguns. Further gun control laws won’t solve this problem.

Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister said the handgun ban is “not going to work.” Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe is critical of Prime Minister Trudeau’s gun grabs. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney denounced the moves for targeting law-abiding gun owners and not criminals. Ontario’s Premier Doug Ford said the national government should focus on enforcing laws and putting criminals behind bars, not seizing guns from law-abiding citizens.

In light of President Joe Biden’s gun control wish list, it’s worth nothing the importance of the 27 words of the Second Amendment. It’s also worth watching the cost of dollars and rights an out-of-control gun control agenda can do to a nation’s citizens.

 

Larry Keane is SVP for Government and Public Affairs, Assistant Secretary and General Counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

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54 COMMENTS

  1. Fuck Canada, and when they do illegally grab everyone’s guns up there, it’s time for America to invade them and take control..

  2. One has to wonder what’s up with all the gunm grabs. America, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, what’s going on ?
    If its another invasion from the planet Slug I’ve still got a spray bottle and carton of salt.
    Slimy bastards must pay, I will not surrender.

    • throw europe into that mix and it seems like they are banning a certain group of people from having guns

        • Law-abiding citizens are under constant attack by the Marxist Democrat Party here in this country. Disarm the law-abiding and defund the police? How are these lunatics getting elected? Is the majority of the American people really that freaking stupid?

  3. The focus on the legal possession and use do not address REAL criminal use and intent of firearms.

    Change the system all you like, it won’t affect those that don’t acknowledge it. Why should they follow it when criminals are treated with kid gloves when they are caught?

    • Shows the moral bankruptcy of Liberal government. Are criminals deterred when citizens are punished for their actions?

      • And smaller in population than California. So yea the numbers/ stats will look real good as long as one nut doesn’t screw it up!

    • Trudeau has such a massive cranial rectal inversion it will take a winch and a crowbar to extract.

  6. This is why a written constitution like we have helps to prevent government excess. Otherwise you are depending on the promises of politicians.

    • Ha ha your funny.
      A written Constitution, politicians promises.
      ” Now is the time for all politicians to get aids from some country ” cant remember exactly how that speach went?

    • They will circumvent the 2nd Amendment by taxing ammunition, banning certain size magazines and requiring firearms licenses. They are at war with the law-abiding in this country. We have to get the message out there to the numb-skulls in this country as to why the 2nd Amendment was added to our Constitution and how this Amendment protects all of our rights. Without an armed citizenry, the government can do whatever it likes, the public be damned.

  7. The “gun owners are bad” narrative has been beaten into peoples heads for so long and by so many the world over that even gun owners start thinking they’re bad. To be “good” or at least “less bad” you must comply.

    In the eyes of the grabbers you will never be “good.” You can hand them all in, turn in your neighbors who keep theirs, flagellate yourself in front of City Hall. You’ll never be “good.” So give up that fantasy right away. Even your children will bear the mark of that evil.

    Simply by owning guns you haven’t harmed anyone. You haven’t stolen or damaged property. You haven’t defrauded anyone. You haven’t killed, beaten or unlawfully detained anyone. Yet here they come ready to do all of that and more to you. So who is the bad guy?

    • We are the only group it is not illegal to vilify and discriminate against. If other groups were treated like gun owners there would be an outcry far bigger than #MeToo.

      • It’s because we don’t use the victim card.

        Replace the word “trans” with “gun owner” on current politicians tweet battles and laws, and we’d have all the hearts and minds.

        They might even make laws preventing discrimination…

  9. “Those who don’t hand over their firearms could keep them under strict conditions to not use, import, further acquire, sell or bequeath them.”

    No point at all in keeping them, in that case…or in complying. Or in not complying. If you value your own personal freedoms and individual rights, there are no good options at all. That’s a government “solution” in a nutshell, right there.

  12. Canadians seem to overwhelmingly support him, and this past year has demonstrated that virtually nobody in Canada values rights or liberties, so…choke on it, eh’holes.

    • My understanding is that Canada’s urban/rural divide is similar to America’s, except possibly more extreme because Canada’s population is more geographically concentrated than America’s. Trudeau gets voted into office by the small, densely populated urban areas of Canada, and the rest of the country doesn’t want him or his progressive politics. The larger number of viable political parties in Canada muddies the waters a bit.

      • The large cities are a problem in every country that still has a free populace. People who live in large cities are so far removed from nature and how dangerous this world really is, will vote with their hearts and not with their brains. Utopia does not and will not ever exist in this world. Now if we can convince these numb-skulls of this maybe we can all live in peace.

        • Lol peace. Funny.

          Freedom is the opposite.

          Convince them that violence and chaos are easier than being oppressed.

  13. Does Natural Law, i.e. the right to self defense against tyrants end at a border? Someone (Trudeau) is playing God.

  15. What a bunch of lily livered subjects bowing to the queen of 🐀💩👜👎🏻

  16. Moron69er and the others of his ilk are looking at what’s going on in Canada, with shiteating grins on their faces, backs hunched over, rubbing their hands together while waiting for pedo Joe and kami to pass something similar down here, with harsh penalties and hate crime enhancements for white males and females that refuse to comply.

    • How many tubs of astroglide is he using or is he buying in bulk by the bucket?

      All the Quisling is doing is delaying his own execution.

    • @onestab. “God helps those who help themselves.” -Samuel Smiles It is (and always has been) up to the Canadian gun-owning community to set aside their politically/ideological differences, unite, and start CONSISTENTLY resisting their government’s endless attempts to infringe upon (and ultimately, eliminate) their RTKBA. The same applies to gun owners, whether they be ‘Fudds’ or ‘Tacticool Warriors’ here in the U.S. Molon Labe

  19. Where are the handguns in the pile? Only long-arms. Next they will be piling up gold filled teeth , shoes and eyeglasses. This has happened before. To the perpetrators I say: “Open your eyes you fools”. We are circling the drain. They are destroying our Home, our Republic.

  21. The Canadian gun will give then up just like Australia, New Zealand & the UK, it pains me to see this but no one seems to have the fortitude to get done what needs to get done.

  22. Too bad we can’t save their guns for them because of crappy import laws. All of the western democracies are heading into authoritarian territory and over half of the people seem to gleefully accept it and cheer it on. I was thinking we were heading towards 1984. I am now convinced we are on the way to Brave New World. I would rather have Starship Troopers.

  23. Most of my fellow Canadians read and wholeheartedly trust news that has the nutritional value of CNN and MSNBC, so to me it’s no surprise that most of the population thinks that guns are bad and no one should have one. I am thanking my lucky stars because my only 2 semis (Kel-Tec RDB and M+M M10X) miraculously didn’t make it to Trudeau’s big list of banned guns. Why didn’t they ban Tavors and Type 97’s? Makes no sense unless Trudeau wanted to save himself a reserve of guns to ban when the next mass shooting occurs.

      • Go right ahead and add them to the list “Justin” 🙂 thanks to conservatives eliminating the long gun registry in 2010, both of my “assault rifles” are “non restricted” and thus not registered. I won the gun control game by carefully choosing rifles that didn’t need to be registered. You can’t come and get them, can you?

    • Because the laws are made in haste and ignorance by those whose only gun education is from Hollywood.

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