Liberal Leader Mark Carney is making it clear that the controversial gun grab plan first introduced under Justin Trudeau is not going anywhere.
In a press conference on Thursday, Carney promised to reinvigorate the Liberals gun grab program targeting so-called “assault-style” firearms.
The plan, which critics say is more about politics than safety, would see hundreds of thousands of legally purchased guns seized from Canadian gun owners.
Carney insisted that the program will respect the traditions of hunting and sport shooting in Canada, while keeping dangerous weapons off the streets. But gun rights advocates are not buying it.
“The Liberals have been trying to implement their so-called buyback program for the last eight or nine years they've been in power,” Tony Bernardo, president of the Canadian Shooting Sports Association, told Western Standard Publisher Derek Fildebrandt.
“And they've not succeeded in really seizing a single firearm from legal Canadians, because they know it's going to be so damn difficult.”
Bernardo says that the RCMP, Canada Post, and provincial governments have all pushed back on enforcing the program.
With provinces like Alberta and Saskatchewan passing laws to block federal firearms seizures, questions remain about how Carney’s government would carry out such a plan.
“Even if the feds found a way around the Alberta and Saskatchewan firearms protection legislation,” said Bernardo.
“Would they [federal government] essentially take centrally controlled RCMP officers, deploy them, and go door to door across all of Canada?”
The previous Liberal government banned the sale of handguns and reclassified many rifles as prohibited.
But actual collection of these firearms has stalled, leading critics to mock the term “buyback,” arguing it’s not voluntary and the government never owned the guns to begin with.
Opponents fear that under Carney, the Liberals might finally follow through.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) is urging Carney to cancel the federal gun grab after his pledge to continue with the program.
“Carney needs to scrap this plan and stop wasting taxpayers’ money on it,” said Gage Haubrich, Prairie Director of CTF.
“Planning to spend potentially billions of dollars on a program that is not going to make Canadians safer is a waste of money. Carney needs to be cancelling this wasteful plan, not doubling down on it.”
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has promised to repeal Ottawa’s gun bans if elected.
Government estimates in 2019 suggested the buyback would cost taxpayers $200 million, but the Parliamentary Budget Officer later said simply buying back the prohibited firearms could total $756 million.
Recent documents show the gun grab might reach nearly $2 billion.
Critics point out that the ban, which covers more than 2,000 types of guns, has coincided with rising violent gun crime every year since its announcement in 2020.
The National Police Federation warns the buyback diverts crucial resources from tackling illegal firearms.
“Buyback programs are largely ineffective at reducing gun violence, in large part because the people who participate in such programs are not likely to use those guns to commit violence,” said University of Toronto professor Jooyoung Lee.
“Experts say that this gun ban and buyback won’t do anything to make Canadians safer,” said Haubrich.
“Carney needs to listen to the experts and commit to cancelling this scheme before it costs taxpayers any more money.”
But with 2.4 million licensed gun owners in Canada, many warn the political and logistical fallout could be severe.