Police, Politicians Create New Setbacks For Canadian Gun Control

The Canadian firearms buyback/seizure (what you call it depends on your perspective) has hit more setbacks this week, with more police taking a stand against the gun grab and the province of Saskatchewan coming out with an interesting new tactic to make sure its citizens’ firearms aren’t seized without payment. Maybe.

Guns and Canada @ TFB:

• Federal Ammunition Wins Canadian Government Ammunition Contracts
• Canadian Gov't Will Require License To Buy Mags And Gun Barrels
• Deep Dive: Canadian Federal Government Bans Another 300+ Firearms
• Oh Canada! Canucks Getting Their Gun Licenses In Record Numbers

The backstory

First, in case you don’t remember what’s going on in Canuckistan, here’s a quick recap. The latest mega-bans began in the spring of 2020 with a sweeping ban issued by Order In Council (a move the government doesn’t have to vote on, roughly analogous to executive orders in the U.S.). At first, Canadian gun owners were disappointed to see a wide range of firearms banned by name, not by function; the list included some longtime targets of Canadian gun control enthusiasts, like the AR-15. But the list also included some non-tactical rifles like the Mini-14, and more and more names were added in the months afterwards.

Soon, the list even included some heavy safari rifles and the legislation could even be interpreted to include all 12-gauge shotguns, although the feds said that was not the intention of the confusing wording.

The current plan of the Canadian gun control architects is that owners of the now-banned guns must declare their possession of said guns in the next few weeks, and either deactivate them themselves or hand them in to authorities in the coming months. The feds say this is a buyback, but also say they may not actually pay gun owners anything for turning in their guns. Some gun owners report that the federal system is offering them prices as low as $2 for an H&K HK416 rifle or Norinco Type 81 LMG.

More police are bailing out

Over the last few years, Canadian police have consistently said the federal gun buyback is a bad idea, as it diverts funds away from actual crime fighting and spends the money on seizures from law-abiding citizens. And in the past months, police forces across Canada have taken their resistance a step further by announcing that they will not participate in the program. This deprives the federal program of necessary manpower, but the resistance is no surprise. Because many of the banned firearms were actually owned by Canadian police officers, who wanted personal ARs and other firearms to train with, they are very unhappy about being targeted by the laws.

The two latest police organizations to stand against the Canadian buyback/seizure are the municipal police in the Ontario town of Cornwall, and the municipal police departments of the entire province of New Brunswick. While much of New Brunswick is patrolled by the RCMP, several towns still have their own police services; chiefs of those cities are standing against the federal seizures, telling local media, “There’s no evidence that we’ve seen that any of these guns are ending up in criminals’ hands.”

There is no guarantee that the province’s Mounties, who also serve as municipal police in some towns, will do the same. However, there have been reports of RCMP detachments in other regions telling gun owners that they will not participate in the firearms seizures, which leaves the question: Who does the federal government actually plan to use, if it comes down to house-to-house seizures?

A clever complication

The feds do have one trick up their sleeve, and it has been reported by some firearms owners already. All Canadian firearms owners must have a Possession-Acquisition Licence to legally own firearms, and those licenses (called PALs) must be renewed periodically. It appears that the federal government is hinting that it won’t renew your PAL if it knows you have now-banned firearms, thereby rendering your entire collection illegal until you get your papers in order.

YouTuber/lawyer Ian Runkle explains it in the 20-minute video below, and it’s quite clever, but if you don’t have the time or interest to watch, the province’s plan is basically this: Saskatchewan says its citizens can store their own firearms, acting on behalf of the province, while the compensation program is sorted out. It’s sort of like deputization by the province, which makes the firearms owner then legally allowed to possess guns they wouldn’t otherwise be authorized to own, while they wait for the compensation program details to be shored up. And under Saskatchewan’s laws, the compensation must be fair—no offering $2 for an AR and telling gun owners to like it or lump it.

Is it a perfect solution? No, and Runkle lays out an objection in the video above. The peanut gallery of social media has its own share of naysayers, some who reject all manner of compliance with the federal program, and others who think the province will use this to rip them off in the future.

But what if Saskatchewan didn’t do this, and didn’t do it inside the framework of federal law, as Runkle lays out above? Then owners of now-banned guns would be totally screwed. At least Saskatchewan is trying to add time to the countdown clock, and that’s the only tactic that seems to have worked so far.