For the third time in five years, the Liberals have extended the firearm amnesty — this time until October 30, 2026.

The delay means the threat to turn law-abiding Canadians into criminals has been pushed back again, but with the gun grab serving as a central policy in the party's platform, will Prime Minister Mark Carney's government actually follow through on its promise?

National Firearms Association president Rick Igercich joined The Gunn Show last week, where he told host Sheila Gunn Reid the Liberals are still testing the waters as they attempt to convince gun owners to turn over their firearms.

“I think they realize that this is nothing but a major billion-dollar boondoggle and they don't know how to get out of it,” he said. “At the end of the day, it's one of their positions they use for votes and to take heat off them about other stuff that's going on.”

But Canadians are “waking up” to the issue, the NFA president added.

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“People are saying we're not going to comply unless we absolutely have to, that's why they keep extending this,” Igercich stated. “I believe there's going to be a lot of non-compliance out there, and I think that's going to be a real problem for (the Liberals).”

Igercich is skeptical of rumours of the Liberals cancelling the program, however. “It stirred some interest among firearms owners when there were rumours of them cancelling the buyback, but you've got to read a little deeper into that, because it's more than that,” he explained.

“What's going on is they're throwing these little pieces of bait out there to find out what's out there,” Igercich said. “Their mission right now is a fact-finding mission. They don't know what's out there, so they're putting these little things like Cape Breton out there to figure out how many of these guns are out there.”

Referring to the legislative pillars banning firearms, the NFA president noted, the Liberals “didn't say anything about cancelling the OIC or Bill C-21.”