Diane Town, President of the Canadian Shooting Sports Association, our Board of Directors and our staff wish you a safe and Merry Christmas, and a happy and prosperous New Year.
The federal government offers you a lump of coal and a plethora of empty promises.
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino defended lowering sentences for crimes committed with guns on December 16, 2021, and re-offered the Liberal Party’s disingenuous platitude to law-abiding firearm owners.
“I want to assure hunters, farmers and target shooters that nothing we are doing is intended to diminish your lawful recreational activities,” Mendicino opined, before discussing how he would screw us over next.[i]
“Now that we have banned assault rifles, we have to take the next steps and implement a buyback program,” Mendicino said.
Bill Blair first promised a Firearm Confiscation Compensation Scheme on May 1, 2020, and repeated it at least a dozen times since.
Now, 19 months and at least $8.8 million later, a new Public Safety minister claims (yet again) that it’s time to “take the next steps and implement” a Firearm Confiscation Compensation Scheme for guns seized from law-abiding firearm owners.
But not a word on how they will remove illegal guns from the hands of career criminals.
Even if we take the Liberals at their word (we don’t) there is no way their long-promised Firearm Confiscation Compensation Scheme will be in place before the amnesty runs out on April 30, 2022.
Given this government’s
- pathological refusal to take illegal guns out of the hands of drug dealers and gangs;
- equally pathological obsession for seizing legally owned firearms from the hands of licensed firearm owners;
- ongoing refusal to deal with violent criminals who repeatedly violate Firearms Prohibition Orders
We doubt this long- and often-promised cash will show up.
At best, Canada’s law-abiding firearms owners will be forced to surrender their legally-owned property with another false promise of compensation “at a later date” to be defined, well, never. Or face criminal charges and possible prison time.
Another election, another empty Liberal promise.
“How many guns does the Minister believe will be handed to the federal government from criminals?” asked Raquel Dancho, Conservative MP and shadow minister for public safety. “How many criminals does he anticipate will hand over their illegally-possessed guns to the federal government?”
After Mendicino sputtered the beginnings of another non-response, Dancho cut him off and answered for him.
“The answer is zero. Criminals will not be handing their guns back to you and they are the ones who are hurting people in our cities. The number is zero, Minister.”[ii]
So, while all of us here at the Canadian Shooting Sports Association wish you and your family a safe and Merry Christmas, all you can expect from this Liberal government is another lump of coal and more Liberal lies.
Sources:
[i] https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/words-are-not-enough-public-safety-minister-defends-assault-rifle-buyback-plan-at-committee
[ii] https://www.blacklocks.ca/feds-seek-more-gun-controls/
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