The Department of Public Safety spent $164,279.40 on a poll and focus groups to test the messaging of its Assault-Style Firearms Compensation Program ad campaign — only to discover that firearms owners overwhelmingly felt targeted, blamed and ignored.

The Environics Research study, commissioned by Public Safety Canada, tested radio, social media and billboard ads meant to sell Canadians on the federal gun confiscation program. 

Firearms owners “reacted negatively,” saying the ads implied they were responsible for gun crime. Many described the campaign as fear-based, recycled political spin aimed at voters, not at them.

Participants complained the ads ignored illegal guns, smuggling, and gangs — the actual drivers of crime — while scapegoating licenced owners.

The visuals didn’t help: “Canadian mosaic” posters resembled ads for a dating app, and rural landscapes were perceived as stigmatizing farmers and hunters.

Even the language rang hollow.

Go Ad Free

Owners said “Assault-Style Firearms Compensation Program” sounded like bureaucratic spin, while the public was already calling it the “buyback.”

The study involved 11 online focus groups (80 people total, including 35 firearm owners) and a survey of 2,027 Canadians (with 600 gun owners oversampled).

Despite all that, the government dropped plans for a follow-up survey — leaving taxpayers paying six figures for little more than a confirmation that gun owners don’t like being vilified.

The Liberals framed the ad campaign as part of “community safety.” However, the federal government's own research indicates that the message alienates the very people it claims to target. 

Instead of addressing smuggling, gangs or border crime, the government is spending taxpayers’ dollars on marketing that paints hunters, farmers and sport shooters as threats.

Once again, law-abiding Canadians pay the bill—while criminals laugh.

Read the government’s full report here.