Trudeau Liberals expand gun grab, adding 324 new models to ban list

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OTTAWA — Three-hundred and twenty-four unique firearm makes and models of so-called “assault-style” firearms are now prohibited weapons in Canada, effective immediately.

But with an amnesty period that ends 10 days after the latest possible date for the next federal election, there’s little expectation the new measures will ever come into effect.

An order-in-council tabled Thursday encompassing 104 families of firearms, a move made one day before the 35th anniversary of the École Polytechnique massacre.

Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc made the announcement Thursday afternoon, the latest in the Trudeau Liberals’ contentious and often troubled attempts to restrict access to firearms in Canada.

“Our goal is to ensure that no community, no family is devastated by mass shootings in Canada again,” LeBlanc said during the news conference.

“These 324 models of prohibited firearms will be added to the 1,500 models added in 2020, and have technical characteristics that are similar. They were made for battlefields, not for hunting.”

These new models, he said, were determined through what he described as a “robust” consultation with RCMP firearms experts.

An amnesty order is in place until Oct. 30, 2025 for licenced, legal firearms owners to deal with the new measures — 10 days after the mandated day for the next federal election.

Only firearms disposed of through the government’s Assault-style Firearms Compensation Program will be eligible for compensation — firearms deactivated or turned over to police during the amnesty period will not be eligible.

Talks are currently underway with the Ukrainian government to hand over seized firearms to their military for use against Russia, said Defence Minister Bill Blair.

The announcement caused a mixed reaction in Canada’s legal firearms community.

Tracey Wilson of the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights (CCFR) said the Liberals have learned nothing over their eight-year-long attempt to confiscate guns from their legal owners.

“This is typical Liberal Party divide-and-conquer politics, they know they are out of time and Canadians are out of money,” she said. “They know the Tories will repeal it all in less than 10 months. They haven’t used an Order in Council to deal with the daily violence plaguing Canada, no action on repeat violent offenders, no response to the pleas of law enforcement. Nothing.”

Wilson also criticized the government for summarily rolling out their gun bans via orders-in-council instead of legislation.

“The Liberals have normalized the subversion of Canada’s democratic process for their own political maneuvering,” she said.

Policy analyst and thegunblog.ca editor Nicolas Johnson said he doesn’t know of a single gun owner who has any intention — or incentive — to hand over their legally-purchased firearms.

“The Liberals have no idea how to execute their confiscation fantasy, no money to pay for it, and no way to enforce it,” he told the Toronto Sun. “The Liberals are appearing increasingly weak, desperate, and extreme with this latest measure.”

Previous attempts by the Trudeau Liberals to apply blanket bans on firearms proved so unpopular that even Liberal MPs spoke out against them.

In 2022, the Liberals quietly tabled two amendments to their gun control bill C-21 — sweeping changes that would have outlawed legal rifles used daily by hunters and sport shooters.

The Liberals withdrew those amendments after massive blowback from hunters, sports shooters and First Nations, a move described by the opposition Tories as a “humiliating climb-down” for the prime minister.

A list of these newly-banned firearms has not yet been provided as of publication.

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