Explore The NRA Universe Of Websites

APPEARS IN News

Fallout from Trudeau’s Gun Grab: Crime is Up, Number of Gun Ranges Drops

Monday, June 17, 2024

Fallout from Trudeau’s Gun Grab: Crime is Up, Number of Gun Ranges Drops

In Canada, a ban on over 1,500 firearm makes, models and variants, together with a mandatory government confiscation (“buyback”) requirement, was imposed by Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over four years ago. Contrary to the representations as to the inherent deadliness of these guns and the urgency of ensuring these dangerous weapons were no longer available to ordinary citizens, the government had no plan on how to implement the law (and all indications are that it still doesn’t). The ban and buyback were coupled with an amnesty period, extended to October 2025, to protect owners of formerly lawful firearms from criminal liability for possessing them until the confiscation requirement was operational.

In announcing the ban, the Liberal government was emphatic that it was not intended to prohibit guns used for legitimate activities like hunting or sport shooting, but only those “designed for soldiers to kill other soldiers…guns that belong on a battlefield and not on our streets.” SOR/2020-96, the Order-in-Council (regulation) listing the newly-banned firearms, devices and parts, repeatedly stressed that the prohibited guns are those “primarily designed for military or paramilitary purposes with the capability of injuring, immobilizing or killing humans in large numbers within a short period of time given the basic characteristics they possess, such as tactical or military design and capability of holding a quickly reloadable large-capacity magazine. While some of these newly prohibited firearms were previously used by individuals for hunting or sporting purposes, it is the view of the Government that those firearms are unreasonable and disproportionate for such purposes.” The banned guns are “tactical and/or military-style firearms and are not reasonable for hunting or sport shooting.”

The government assurances, like its misleading terminology, were meaningless. The ban included ordinary semiautomatic rifles and shotguns used by responsible hunters, trappers, farmers, sport shooters and Indigenous Canadians. A report prepared by the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters (OFAH), for instance, examined previously non-restricted firearms prohibited under SOR/ 2020-96. It began by emphasizing a critical difference between “military vs. military-style” firearms. Prior to May 1, 2020, the firearms prohibited under SOR/2020-96 were, in fact, “available to civilians in Canada with the appropriate level of licensing required to own and possess them.” What most Canadians consider to be “military firearms” are fully automatic weapons using large capacity magazines; however, guns with a fully automatic action and “high capacity magazines” were already prohibited prior to Trudeau’s ban and unavailable for civilian activities like hunting and recreational shooting.

An OFAH survey cited in the report analyzed how a few of the previously non-restricted but now banned firearms had been used. Sixty-four guns (54 rifles and 10 shotguns) were identified by respondents as having “a wide variety of legitimate, lawful, highly regulated, and socioeconomically important uses, including but not limited to collection, hunting, protection of property (e.g., livestock), sport shooting, teaching firearms safety and skills, and trapping. Fifty-five (85.9%) of the 64 firearms were identified as being used for hunting prior to prohibition, with 44 (68.8%) identifying hunting as the primary use.” “The percentage of firearms identifying shooting sports (competition, target shooting/plinking, trap and skeet) as a use was even higher at 92.2% (81.3% as a primary use).” Guns like these, it seems, were the fundamentally “military or paramilitary” firearms that the Liberals claim their ban is restricted to.

Undermining the official “safety” rationale, another commentator pointed out that “of the 1,500 types of guns [Trudeau] banned that day through regulation, there was no history of gun crime with them. They were rifles and shotguns used for hunting and for target shooting, but the guns belonging to licensed owners were not the crime guns most people were concerned about.”

The most recent argument that the Trudeau government’s gun ban and confiscation plan was not aimed at true military or paramilitary firearms but was, instead, a wholesale attack on responsible gun owners and their property is a news report on the effect the ban has apparently had on shooting ranges.      

Since May 2020, affected gun owners have been forbidden to use, transport, or transfer the banned firearms except in the very limited circumstances allowed for under federal law. A Canadian gun-rights site, TheGunBlog.ca, states that in the four years following the ban and confiscation law, the number of government-approved shooting ranges in Canada has dropped by 36 percent. Despite the number of ranges remaining relatively stable between 2013 and 2019, the “country had 891 government-approved ranges in March 2024 compared with ‘approximately 1,400’ at the end of 2019, according to the Ottawa-based Royal Canadian Mounted Police.” “Shooting clubs and ranges are at the heart of gun culture and community as hubs to discover the joys of shooting, develop knowledge and skill, and socialize with other gun users,” and the steep decline “is the newest data showing the Liberals, assisted by the RCMP, are partially succeeding in their campaign to suppress gun culture.” The gun-rights site notes that other factors (COVID-19, rising costs, aging members) could be responsible, but adds that nonetheless, the Liberal government “targeted their newest confiscations at the most-active gun users: Recreational and sport shooters firing semi-automatic rifles (May 2020) and handguns (October 2022).”

While lawful gun owners remain permanently prohibited from using their banned guns, criminals, true to form, are uninhibited by legal niceties. A May opinion piece in Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper observes that public safety hasn’t fared at all well since the ban was imposed. “[F]irearm-related homicide actually increased 23 per cent in Canada from 2020 to 2022,” and that “rates of firearm-related violent crimes… reached record levels in 2022. But that makes sense when most of the crimes committed with firearms are committed by those who obtain them illegally. Indeed, according to Statistics Canada, ‘the firearms used in homicides [in 2022] were rarely legal firearms used by their legal owners who were in good standing.’” Summing up the Trudeau policies on “military-style assault rifles” “(a made-up designation; he might as well called them ‘scary looking monster guns’),” the writer concludes that this “is another job well done for this government, if the job was making an announcement and then flailing aimlessly for the next several years.”

Indeed, little about the ban and “buyback” law suggests anything remotely based on evidence, care for appropriate terminology, or concern with addressing actual causes of crime. A prescient May 2020 letter from OFAH to the government identified the potential for “unintended consequences” resulting from the law due to inadequate preparation and a possible lack of transparency as to intent. The “mismatch between the government’s stated intent and the outcomes of the amended regulations have fueled an already burning mistrust of government policy related to firearms. Either the intent doesn’t match the outcome, because of unintended consequences resulting from a lack of robust regulatory consultation and adequate preparation, or the government’s intent has not been truly articulated.”

TRENDING NOW
Supreme Court Upholds ATF Rule on “Firearms,” Unfinished Receivers and Kits

News  

Monday, March 31, 2025

Supreme Court Upholds ATF Rule on “Firearms,” Unfinished Receivers and Kits

On March 26, in a 7-2 decision (with Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissenting), the United States Supreme Court upheld a Biden administration gun control rule on what constitutes a “firearm” under 18 U.S.C. ...

House Judiciary Committee Votes to Advance Concealed Carry Reciprocity Legislation

News  

Tuesday, March 25, 2025

House Judiciary Committee Votes to Advance Concealed Carry Reciprocity Legislation

On Tuesday, March 25, 2025, the House Judiciary Committee held a markup for several bills, including two NRA-backed bills. With this crucial step in the legislative process now complete, these pieces of legislation can now ...

Trump Administration Revives Federal Firearm Rights Restoration Provision

News  

Friday, March 21, 2025

Trump Administration Revives Federal Firearm Rights Restoration Provision

On March 20, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) published an interim final rule entitled, Withdrawing the Attorney General’s Delegation of Authority. That bland title belies the historic nature of the measure, which is aimed at reviving ...

More Polish Citizens are Carrying Firearms for Self-Defense

News  

Monday, March 31, 2025

More Polish Citizens are Carrying Firearms for Self-Defense

Certain parts of the world—sadly, without any specifically recognized right to arms—have been moving closer to accepting the fact that firearms in the hands of law-abiding citizens is not the inherently dangerous concept promoted by ...

Trump DOJ to Investigate Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for Permit Delays

News  

Monday, March 31, 2025

Trump DOJ to Investigate Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for Permit Delays

The United States Supreme Court, in its landmark Bruen decision recognizing a right to carry in public for self-defense, did not foreclose shall-issue licensing as being consistent with the Second Amendment.

President Trump Works to Expedite D.C. Carry Permits

News  

Monday, March 31, 2025

President Trump Works to Expedite D.C. Carry Permits

On March 27, President Donald J. Trump signed a wide-ranging executive order titled, “Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful.”

Colorado: FOID Bill Heads to Governor's Desk, TAKE ACTION NOW!

Saturday, March 29, 2025

Colorado: FOID Bill Heads to Governor's Desk, TAKE ACTION NOW!

On Friday, March 28th, Senate Bill 25-003, the semi-auto ban turned FOID-scheme bill, passed the final vote on the Senate floor, concurring in the House amendments. 

NRA Files Lawsuit Challenging Colorado’s Excise Tax on Firearm and Ammunition Sales

News  

Second Amendment  

Monday, March 31, 2025

NRA Files Lawsuit Challenging Colorado’s Excise Tax on Firearm and Ammunition Sales

Today, the National Rifle Association of America (NRA), together with the Firearms Policy Coalition, Second Amendment Foundation, Colorado State Shooting Association, Magnum Shooting Center, and an NRA member, filed a lawsuit challenging Colorado’s 6.5% excise ...

Just One More Step: Australia’s New Weapon Laws

News  

Monday, March 24, 2025

Just One More Step: Australia’s New Weapon Laws

Australia implemented a firearm ban and mandatory confiscation in 1996 pursuant to the National Firearms Agreement, in which nearly 700,000 privately-owned firearms were turned in to the government and destroyed. 

Maine: Judiciary Committee Votes on Gun Bills This Week

Monday, March 31, 2025

Maine: Judiciary Committee Votes on Gun Bills This Week

On Thursday, April 3rd, the Joint Standing Judiciary Committee will vote on several gun-related bills. NRA members and Second Amendment supporters are urged to contact committee members now and encourage them to oppose all gun control ...

MORE TRENDING +
LESS TRENDING -

More Like This From Around The NRA

NRA ILA

Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the "lobbying" arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.