Feds doubtful gun grab goes according to plan: report
A report from the Privy Council Office reveals the Liberal gun grab “faces a risk of non-compliance” as bureaucrats work to acquire a “a deeper understanding” of law-abiding firearms owners' motivations.
The Liberals' efforts to remove firearms from law-abiding Canadians is severely behind schedule, over-budget and now, according to a new internal report, Ottawa is skeptical of the plan it envisioned coming to fruition.
Five years and hundreds of millions of dollars after former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau first set his sights on Canadian gun owners, just less than 13,000 firearms have been gathered by the government.
An internal report from the Privy Council Office obtained by the National Post reveals even those within the government believe it is “unlikely to be the most trusted messenger with individuals who own assault-style firearms.”
This means the “program faces a risk of non-compliance” as it cites “psychological, physical and logistical barriers.”
The report suggests bureaucrats need “a deeper understanding” of law-abiding owners' motivations to “help” the government address “financial, cultural, recreational,” or “safety-driven” concerns.
As the Post explains:
The buy-back program is voluntary, as anybody in possession of one of the banned firearms could simply opt to keep it in storage indefinitely. As such, the report notes that the whole program hinges on convincing gun owners to have “positive perceptions about the program and why it makes sense from the perspective of public safety.”
Over the next fiscal year, Prime Minister Mark Carney's government has allotted nearly $460 million to the program, an eye-catching amount when compared to other expenditures, like the over $350 million Canada committed to increasing border security.
Gun crime data, however, reveals a Canada's law-abiding firearms owners are not responsible for gun crime.
“The firearms used in homicides were rarely legal firearms used by their legal owners who were in good standing,” read an assessment from Statistics Canada in 2022.
“Among homicides where information was available, the accused had a licence in only 13 per cent (16 out of 119 homicides) involving handguns and 12 per cent (seven out of 59) involving rifles or shotguns,” the report found.
COMMENTS
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Bernhard Jatzeck commented 2025-06-27 22:57:09 -0400Bruce: you’re optimistic if you think that a government cube farm resident will get off his or her backside to see what’s going on and making up their mind from that. It’s easier to make decisions about such matters without being contaminated with actual facts. -
Bruce Atchison commented 2025-06-27 20:43:47 -0400Bureaucrats need to meet us and accompany gun enthusiasts to the range. Maybe they’d see how careful gun owners are and how safety conscious as well. The image cubical dwellers have now of gun owners is a bunch of trigger-happy lunatics shooting up the place. Though I don’t have a gun yet, I’d take the PAL course and keep the weapon in a safe place.
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Peter Wrenshall commented 2025-06-27 16:42:39 -0400This Captain Ahab initiative, to “convince gun owners to have positive perceptions about the [gun buyback] program and why it makes sense from the perspective of public safety” will be a monumental failure because it in fact has no conceivable relationship to public safety. The Liberal regime sometimes has an exaggerated notion of its ability to manipulate public opinion simply because of the sheer preposterousness of many of its proposals.
