Despite much promotion, the Liberals trial run of the so-called 'gun buyback' program in Cape Breton only managed to secure 25 weapons as it doled out $26,535 to 16 individuals.

Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree defended the effort, calling it “successful” and insisting the pilot program wasn't about “quantitative” results. “When we roll out the program in its full form in the upcoming weeks, we do anticipate much greater uptake,” he said.

Despite the modest acquisition of firearms in Nova Scotia, the Liberals are going ahead with giving the Quebec government $12.4 million in funding to carry out its own gun grab.

On Friday's episode of The Ezra Levant Show, Daniel Fritter, publisher of Calibre Magazine, joined Ezra to discuss the federal government's decision to continue the confiscation program, even in the face of failure.

For Public Safety Canada, the federal department tasked with carrying out the gun grab, “the buyback program has been the single largest source of new hires,” Daniel explained. These hires are tasked with overseeing the program and “obviously want to remain employed, so it's in their interest to keep pushing things forward.”

The Calibre Magazine publisher said it seemed “weird” that Prime Minister Mark Carney was willing to scrap a signature Liberal policy like the carbon tax but was unwilling to back down from the similarly unpopular gun grab.

With over 150 employees added to Public Safety, Ezra noted how, so far, this amounts to six employees per gun bought back through the pilot program and wondered if this was part of the government's tactic — not to make Canada's streets safer, but to “to provide unlimited employment for anti-gun activists.”

“The government loves announcements,” said Daniel, adding “guns are a very popular whipping boy, especially these days,” with U.S. issues being an increasing part of Canada's political discussions. 

“It's frustrating as a gun owner and as somebody who's been in this industry for 15 years now,” Daniel said, noting the conversation surrounding gun violence in the U.S. once focused on how Canada's existing system helped prevent the same sorts of occurrences. 

“That seems to have been abandoned, and it's broken the trust, I think, between gun owners and the government, and some ways the public,” he said.

Since the Liberals have pursued the gun ban, the government has spent “hundreds of millions of dollars” and “no one is safer for it,” the Calibre publisher said.

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