Gun Control

Members of a gun club in Toronto fear the impacts of a new federal gun bill.

“We’re obviously nervous,” said Graham Brown, president of the Toronto Revolver Club, which has more than 200 members.

“The biggest effect will be that it stops the transfer of handguns between legitimate sporting participants. And that’s a big worry for us.”

OTTAWA –A week after the federal government proposed to freeze handgun sales and bring in tougher measures to curb illegal gun violence, gun vendors say handguns are flying off the shelves.

“It’s insane,” said an employee at a York Region firearms store.

Sales are “going crazy,” said Sylvia Shi, manager of Solely Outdoors in Markham.

“It’s very busy. We sold over a couple of hundred handguns in three days,” she said, adding business has “more than tripled” the usual pace, before politely saying she had no more time to speak.

Gun stores in Canada have seen handguns fly off the shelves, with many selling out altogether after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced gun control legislation freezing all pistol purchases.

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino isn’t ruling out the possibility of a national ban on handguns in Canada, saying the federal government is leaving “all options on the table.”

In an interview on CTV’s Question Period, Mendicino said Ottawa’s newly introduced gun-control bill is a “step in the right direction” to mitigate gun violence across the country but it won’t eliminate the problem all together.

“Bill C-21, while it is a significant stride and the most ambitious in a generation, by itself, will not eradicate gun violence. We have to invest in our police, we have to make sure that we are protecting our borders, we have to introduce smart gun policy and we also have to make sure that we are addressing gun crime at its root cause,” he said.

Does the federal government's new firearms legislation target legal gun owners?

Public Safety Minister @marcomendicino responds. #cdnpoli #ctvqp

More: https://t.co/8Bz1Jke5oa pic.twitter.com/qZDgiDTCSz

— CTV Question Period (@ctvqp) June 5, 2022

The Liberals’ new gun control bill, C-21, doesn’t even need to be passed into law to achieve its desired ends. That’s because Liberal firearms policy is not about reducing crime, but firing up the party’s left-wing base and forcing Conservatives to take a stand against gun control. It’s preformative political theatre at its finest.

We’ve heard a lot about crassly opportunistic politicians exploiting low-info voters. I wonder how many of Canada’s urbanites would be surprised to realize that this time, that means them.

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino spent much of the past week on the road, promoting his government’s new gun control bill to Canadians just as Canadians witnessed another wave of mass shootings south of the border.

But for all the attention being paid to proposed measures that would freeze handgun ownership in this country, ban the sale of long-gun magazines that hold more than five rounds and implement a mandatory buyback of assault-style weapons, there’s growing concern that the Canada-U.S. border is no barrier to gangs smuggling guns into this country.

It’s a bad law made by stupid people who should never have been elected. If you voted Liberal or NDP go fuck yourself.