Tony Bernardo is the Executive Director of the Canadian Shooting Sports Association.In the last two weeks of October 2025, criminal violence with illegal guns has reached a fever pitch, which exposes (yet again) the stark hypocrisy of federal Liberal firearms policy.While Mark Carney’s Liberal government pours hundreds of millions into a useless Firearms Confiscation Compensation Scheme that only targets licenced owners — hunters, sport shooters, and rural residents — violent crime involving smuggled illegal guns surges unchecked.Three targeted shootings between October 24 and 29 are linked to gang conflicts over illicit drugs in Fort St. John, BC.Evan Kenneth Love, 22, was arrested while wearing body armour and packing a loaded illegal handgun.A search of Love’s home uncovered more illegal guns, a 3D-printed handgun, and drug trafficking paraphernalia..Four more shootings in 24 hours took place in Surrey, BC, where the worst shooting took place at mid-day along King George Boulevard.Not to be outdone, London, Ontario, criminals wanted their moment of recognition too. On October 20, 2025, a triple shooting injured three men near Adelaide and Piccadilly streets.These crimes (and dozens more in the last month alone) paint a clear picture that Mark Carney’s Liberal government avoids like the plague.The real threat to public safety comes from illegal guns smuggled across our southern border, the illegal guns used by drug dealers and gangs in their turf wars, not from government-licenced and RCMP-vetted Canadians.Mark Carney’s Liberal government remains completely disconnected from this reality, mirroring the worst of Trudeau’s government before it, because it destroys public trust.It also wastes millions, and potentially billions, of taxpayer dollars at a time when families across Canada fear for their safety and struggle to put food on the table.Mark Carney is as committed to ignoring violent criminals and the carnage they wreak on our streets as he is to confiscating firearms from Canada’s most vetted Canadians..The amnesty deadline for the government's assault on legal gun owners was extended for the third time — to October 30, 2026 — buying the federal government time for a nationwide rollout after a disastrous pilot in Nova Scotia.The Cape Breton “pilot program” was a colossal failure. The pilot program’s goal was to confiscate 200 guns, but uncorroborated reports say “less than 30” were surrendered by licenced gun owners.This isn't effective public safety policy. It's virtue signalling at its worst.“We figure that the Canadian government will probably get between 15% and 20% compliance on turning in the prohibited guns, and the rest are probably going to hold on to them,” said Wes Winkel, president of the Canadian Sporting Arms and Ammunition Association.As Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre noted on October 17, crime committed with illegal guns has skyrocketed 130% under the Liberals, yet their $750 million confiscation scheme chases lawful owners instead of gun smugglers, drug dealers, and criminal gangs.Toronto Police Union President Clayton Campbell hammered this point home in a recent interview: 90% of crime guns originate in the US, not from licenced Canadians.Recent arrests and illegal gun seizures, such as 35 illegal guns seized on October 15 and 72 illegal guns seized on October 16, prove just how useless the Liberal government’s approach is at stopping violent crime with illegal guns.Canada's firearms file is a generations-long tale of misplaced priorities..Vilify millions of licenced firearms owners who've complied with every law and regulation for decades, while criminals wield illegal guns and wreak their carnage on us with impunity.October's headlines alone scream for the political class — for once — to pay attention to the carnage they permit to blossom on our streets with their insane attacks on law-abiding Canadians.We’re generations overdue for an about-face from the federal government.Scrap the virtue-signalling political theatre and stop confiscating guns from licenced owners.Fund effective border interdiction, stiffen criminal penalties for gun smugglers, and empower police to target gangs with illegal handguns, not grandmas with heirloom shotguns.Until then, Canadians aren't safer — they're just angrier, more divided, and woefully undefended from criminal violence with illegal guns.Only the willfully blind can refuse to see that the evidence of this surrounds us.Tony Bernardo is the Executive Director of the Canadian Shooting Sports Association.
