Canadian gun owners may have firearms confiscated under Trudeau’s ‘mandatory buyback’ plan

LifeSiteNews – by Jack Bingham

OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) – Canada’s Governor General reaffirmed the Liberal Party’s aim of confiscating “assault-style” weapons from citizens, as well as their intentions to work with provinces who wish to ban handguns. 

In her 2021 Speech from the Throne on November 23, Governor General of Canada Mary Simon, the Queen’s representative, restated the Liberal Party’s plan to confiscate so-called “assault-style” weapons from law-abiding citizens through a mandatory buyback program, as well as aiding provincial and territorial governments in their efforts to revoke the ownership of handguns. The speech opened the first session of the 44th Parliament.  

“Gun violence is on the rise in many of our biggest cities, while investing in prevention and supporting the work of law enforcement, we must also continue to strengthen gun control,” Simon stated.  

“The Government will now put forward measures like a mandatory buyback of banned assault-style weapons and move forward with any province or territory that wants to ban handguns.” 

While the homicide rate in Canada did increase by 20 percent between 2013 and 2016, Statistics Canada indicated that “this was driven” by a “substantive increase (+68%)” of gang-related murders and not a surge of law-abiding gun owners taking up arms. 

The Liberal Party’s attack on gun ownership began in May of 2020, when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that over 1,500 models of “assault-style” weapons were to be banned immediately. While the order instantly prohibited citizens from selling, transporting, importing, or using the guns, people who already owned any of the “banned” weapons could choose either to take part in the “buyback” program or to permit their guns to be confiscated without compensation after their deaths. In either instance, the guns cannot ever be used. 

Currently, the deadline for the mandatory “buyback” program, in which an individual surrenders their guns in exchange for “fair compensation,” has an approaching deadline of April 30, 2022.  

Despite gun crimes representing less than one percent of all reported crimes in Canada, and despite so-called “assault-style” weapons being commonly used for hunting and sport shooting, Trudeau has insisted, “These weapons were designed for one purpose and one purpose only: to kill the largest number of people in the shortest amount of time,” and that there “is no use and no place for such weapons in Canada.” 

While still allowing the possession of firearms, Canada already has stricter gun laws than the USA. Only citizens who have passed a firearm training exam, both written and practical, have obtained a Possession and Acquistion License (PAL) from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and agree to subject themselves to continuous background checks, can legally own a firearm.  

Further, the use of a firearm in cases of self-defense is explicitly prohibited.  

The cost of the “buyback” program is said to range from $400 million dollars to $600 million dollars. Critics of the measure say that spending an exorbitant amount of money to confiscate weapons from law abiding “hunters, farmers, [and] ranchers” is nonsensical and aims at further government control, not the safety of the public.  

“Trudeau is specifically targeting safe and responsible men and women among the 2.2 million holders of a federal firearm Possession and Acquisition License (PAL), and 2,400 federally licensed stores and businesses,” wrote the Gun Blog in response to the Liberal government’s sweeping ban. 

“The surprise criminalizations-confiscations are an unprecedented abuse of power and regulatory authority. They violate fundamental principles of ethics, justice, governance and the rule of law. The executive order was made without the knowledge of parliament.” 

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