Ottawa’s gun ban is about political theatre, not public safety

Legal firearms owners aren’t the problem in Canada when it comes to rampant gun crime. I know it, you know it, and now apparently federal Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree knows it. He admitted so earlier this year in a secretly recorded chat with a gun owner asking why Ottawa was forging ahead with its buyback plan for so-called assault-style firearms. Nonetheless, days after the recording came to light, Anandasangaree launched the buyback plan’s next phase—a pilot project for residents to trade in their guns for cash. That follows the first phase, which has so far cost at least $67 million in administration, and $22 million in buybacks from firearms businesses.

According to the government’s own documents, the price tag of the entire program could approach a stunning $2 billion when all is said and done. That’s not surprising when you consider the list of 1,500 banned firearms first unveiled in 2020 has since ballooned to roughly 2,500, and Canada has more than 2.4 million licensed gun owners. Enormous costs aside, the very reason these guns were banned in the first place centres on nothing more than lazy politics—or emotionally rash decision-making at best. The only difference between the banned guns and grandpa’s old walnut-stocked semi-auto is the fact they look scary to the uninitiated, with some resembling actual combat machine guns. Cosmetics do not constitute an assault rifle, however.

If Ottawa were truly intent on cracking down on gun crime, it already has strict laws at its disposal regulating the likes of barrel lengths, clip capacities and fully automatic actions—not to mention who can and cannot own firearms. It would also do more to staunch the flow of illegal firearms into Canada, toughen up sentencing for gun crimes and keep the bad guys in jail rather than afford them easy bail. Instead, the feds are sticking to this misguided attack on law-abiding gun owners, despite the burgeoning costs and the fact provinces and police forces across the land are not behind it. In the words of Minister Anandasangaree, “Don’t ask me to explain the logic to you on this, okay?”