Licensed gun owners 'worried' about what Carney Liberal victory means for them

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OTTAWA — Devastated and concerned.

That’s how Canada’s licensed firearm owners are feeling after Monday’s Liberal victory, which dashed hopes of a new government reversing the Justin Trudeau-era gun grab and starting to focus its crime-reduction efforts on criminals rather than law-abiding citizens.

“It’s been a hell of a battle for gun owners for 10 years, we’ve done nothing to deserve this,” said Tracey Wilson with the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights.

Speaking with the Toronto Sun on the fifth anniversary of the former government’s 2020 order-in-council that set in motion an unprecedented gun grab as means to fight crime — despite most experts and police officials agreeing Canada’s gun crime epidemic stems from prohibited weapons smuggled into Canada from the United States.

“Everyone’s still got those guns, they’re all locked up,” Wilson said. “They then banned more, but we’ve still got those too — blood hasn’t run through the streets, everything’s fine.”

With prime minister-elect Mark Carney demonstrating the ability to walk back the controversial policies of his predecessor, Wilson’s hoping he’ll listen to reason and not move forward with disarming millions of law-abiding Canadians.

Firearms policy expert Tim Thurley wasn’t as optimistic.

“The tone of (Carney’s) campaign was discouraging,” he said.

“The Liberal campaign sought to exploit fears of American-style gun laws despite the fact that Canada had an efficient, multi-partisan, made-in-Canada consensus system of controlling firearms that was harmed by the Trudeau government’s changes.”

One bright spot is that the Liberal anti-gun rhetoric didn’t seem to find an audience, he said, leaving a chance Carney may go in a different direction — but don’t count on seeing the end of a government disarming program, he added.

As of last September, $67 million had been spent on the program without confiscating a single gun.

“That money and time would be better spent on law enforcement and addressing the root causes of crime, as police associations across the country have requested,” he said.

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Policy analyst and thegunblog.ca editor Nicolas Johnson said promises during the campaign to escalate gun-control measures are what resonate in the minds of gun owners. 

“Carney was quite up front during the campaign, reiterating plans to expand prohibitions, ‘reinvigorate’ mass confiscations, toughen firearm licensing,” he said, referring to the Liberals’ federal election platform.

“The Liberals are working to eliminate Canada’s gun culture, traditions and heritage and weaken security and defence.”

Johnson said the federal government may run into problems with the provinces thanks to Alberta and Saskatchewan passing laws meant to block confiscation efforts.

“People are worried and angry,” he said.

“Nobody wants a police raid on their home to seize their property — what could go wrong!?”

bpassifiume@postmedia.com
X: @bryanpassifiume