Help Ian Runkle Protect Canadian Gun Owners' Rights

Gundie Award winner Ian Runkle needs help, and so do a lot of other Canadian firearms owners. In the aftermath of the recent Canadian federal election, with firearms confiscations looming on the horizon, Runkle is launching a last-ditch legal challenge against the feds, to help Canadian shooters keep their ARs and other semi-auto rifles—and he’s fundraising for that effort.

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Impending seizures

Canadian owners of semi-auto rifles have seen their guns in the government’s crosshairs ever since May 1, 2020. On that day, then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a ban on a wide range of firearms, including popular rifles such as the Ruger Mini 14 and AR-pattern rifles. Since then, many more bans have been proposed, with some going ahead under government approval and others walked back after intense scrutiny from some Canadian politicians. While some individuals and some businesses have reportedly turned in some firearms to the federal government, most gun owners have been waiting for an amnesty to expire before they hand their guns in to the government.

Many gun owners had hoped a Conservative win in April’s federal election would result in the gun confiscations being walked back, but with the Liberals winning, it seems likely they will go ahead with their confiscations once the current amnesties expire over the next year or so—although, at this point, the federal government does not appear to have decided on an exact procedure for carrying out the confiscations.

Runkle’s gambit

Canadian shooters and their representative organizations have mounted legal challenges against the federal government’s plan ever since 2020, making no real headway in fighting the confiscation. Runkle is now ready to take up the fight. Here’s how he describes his plan:

I am a lawyer fighting for procedural fairness for Canadian firearms owners. So far, it's been an uphill battle, but I'm taking the matter to the Supreme Court of Canada, asking them for a ruling on whether the "nullification" that the government issued to thousands of Canadian gun owners was in fact a "revocation". Nullification is a term that is not in the law anywhere, and appears to have been created to avoid the obligation to Canadian gun owners to provide reasons and an opportunity to challenge their decisions. 

Crucially, the government is arguing in this case that these decisions cannot be challenged, but in Federal court they argued (and the court accepted) that these challenges were available and that this was the appropriate method.

Basically, he’s saying the feds are making up the laws as they go along, and that the Supreme Court needs to rule on whether that’s allowed.

To that end, Runkle is fundraising for his court battle. Although he is a lawyer and doing much of the work himself, there are still costs involved with the fight, mostly relating to the costs of filing documents, and he is trying to bring in contributions to help. You can see more details of his plan here on GiveSendGo, and if you’re looking to help out Canadian shooters, maybe you can kick in with a few shekels. It looks like, despite massive cost overruns already, the federal government is going to be unopposed in its gun grab in the coming months, when the amnesties start to expire.