Article by Brandon Morse in RedState
Gun Control Fail: Canadian Gun Owners Not Turning in Their Recently Banned Guns
Despite the Canadian government’s banning of certain firearms, Canadians just aren’t giving up their boomsticks, disappointing experts and officials who were certain that they would be receiving guns by the truckload.
According to iPolitics, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau instituted a ban that took place on May 1 of 2020, and estimated that the ban would apply to around 100,000 firearms in the country.
As of today, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have received a grand total of 160 guns for decommissioning out of that aforementioned massive number as reported by iPolitics:
“The Canadian Firearms Program (CFP) can confirm that, as of Dec. 9, 2021, 18 firearms (formerly classified as restricted) affected by the May 1, 2020, Order in Council (OIC) have been deactivated,” added Sgt. Caroline Duval, the spokesperson who forwarded the Mounties’ response.
“In addition, there have been 142 OIC-affected firearms recorded as surrendered to a public agency for destruction since May 1, 2020.”
Before we begin attributing this to Canadians suddenly developing a sense of wisdom about personal protection and the importance of firearm ownership to one’s freedoms, it’s very possible that many are awaiting a promised buyback program that was supposed to follow the ban some time ago.
The Canadian government has stated that those who turn their guns in before the program is put in place will not be retroactively compensated.
“If an individual or business were to relinquish a newly prohibited firearm or device before the implementation of the buyback program, they won’t be eligible for compensation once the program is announced,” the RCPM said in a statement to iPolitics. “Government officials are currently in the process of refining requirements and developing program design and implementation options for a buyback program.”
The question now is whether or not they’ll even get there. According to The Reload, this gun ban has already become bloated with spending on consultancy fees and enforcement planning. This may be a long wait for a train that isn’t coming anyway, but even as this ban has a two-year amnesty period for a law passed early last year, the lack of Canadians getting cold feet and turning in their guns anyway isn’t a promising sign for the Trudeau administration.
This also puts them in a very interesting position as pointed out by The Reload.
“If a significant number do not turn in their guns over the next four months, the government will have to decide whether to take criminal action against Canadian gun owners for keeping guns they legally purchased.”
In short, the Canadian government may have bitten off more than they could chew in terms of gun control, which is pretty par for the course when it comes to gun control advocates. Here in America, gun control is a losing issue and despite it never working out for them, Democrats continue to do all the bans, buyback programs, and restrictions people like Trudeau attempt to do.
The issue continues to be a thorn in the side of authoritarians everywhere.
We can only hope that our neighbors to the north are slowly figuring out that the fewer guns they have the more power bureaucrats who know little to nothing about how to actually run a country get.
