BERNARDO: Licenced gun owners get the paperwork — criminals get the headlines

Tony Bernardo is the Executive Director of the Canadian Shooting Sports Association.On June 3, Public Safety Canada published the collection schedule for their firearms confiscation compensation scheme.One more press release is this Liberal government’s idea of “enhancing public safety.”Meanwhile, in the same week, police forces across Canada issued press releases about very real public safety threats.In Surrey, BC, investigators laid additional extortion-related charges after a shots-fired incident, including charges for a loaded prohibited or restricted firearm.Days later, another shooting at another Surrey residence was believed to be tied to the same extortion gang.In Ottawa, police issued a public warning about a designated Dangerous Offender released on day parole. Police consider him a high risk of reoffending.In Halton, ON, the primary suspect in an organized auto theft investigation has prior auto theft convictions and is already subject to multiple release orders in Quebec for similar allegations.In Vaughan, ON, York Regional Police announced charges in a double homicide investigation and said searches turned up a loaded firearm, materials believed to be used in making explosives, and three unloaded firearms.In Lethbridge, AB, a harassment investigation led to the seizure of 34 firearms and multiple charges for unsafe storage and illegal possession of firearms.These are the real public safety threats Canadians face: violent crime, extortion networks, repeat offenders, organized criminal activity, and police warnings to the public about dangerous offenders the government released into their communities..Despite all that, Ottawa's most visible display of “action” is aimed at licenced, vetted, law-abiding firearms owners.The announced confiscation schedule does not affect the criminal offences in Surrey.It bears no relation to the public threat warning issued in Ottawa.It doesn’t have anything to do with the organized auto theft ring or the repeat offender already on release conditions, and it has no connection to the double homicide investigation in Vaughan.The Liberals’ confiscation schedule only affects the people who already hold licences, already follow Canada’s strict safe storage and transport rules, already submit to continuous eligibility screening, and already operate inside one of the most regulated civilian firearms systems in the world.Since the Liberal government claims its confiscation effort is about public safety, it must answer one simple question.“Why does the confiscation policy land on the compliant while police services keep dealing with illegal firearms, violent offenders, extortion threats, and organized crime?”The problem is Ottawa’s decades-long obsession with guns owned by licenced owners.Public safety is not served by conflating government paperwork with criminal enforcement.A serious public safety approach would keep its focus where the risk is highest..That would mean stronger action against illegal firearms smuggling, repeat violent offenders, extortion networks, and the criminal pipelines that put illegal firearms into the wrong hands.If Ottawa can build a confiscation schedule for licenced gun owners, it can explain what measurable public safety gain that scheme is supposed to deliver, and why the same level of urgency is not being placed on the violent criminal offenders police deal with every day.Canadians deserve a firearms policy aimed at stopping criminals, not a communications strategy aimed at getting headlines.Meanwhile, licenced, vetted, law-abiding firearms owners will keep receiving the paperwork.And criminal violence will continue to escalate while Canadians wait impatiently for a public safety strategy that’s aimed at the actual threat.And while we wait, the Liberal government’s own list exposes the lunacy of their confiscation scheme.Rimfire rifles, .22-calibre plinkers used for target shooting, teaching new shooters, and pest control, account for roughly 18% of all claims.These are not “military-grade” “assault-style firearms.” They’re ordinary rifles used by ordinary people for ordinary purposes.Yet as criminal violence, extortion shootings, illegal gun trafficking, and repeat offender cases continue to escalate, Ottawa focuses its time, energy, and taxpayers’ dollars on confiscating firearms whose greatest threat is to paper targets and pop cans.That’s not evidence-based public safety policy.It is political theatre aimed at the compliant while violent criminals continue to make headlines and destroy lives.Tony Bernardo is the Executive Director of the Canadian Shooting Sports Association.

BERNARDO: Licenced gun owners get the paperwork — criminals get the headlines

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