National Post (National Edition)
Misled by PM on the gun file
New legislation won't keep anyone safer
The federal Liberals were in a celebratory mood on Tuesday. They were toasting themselves for making Canadians safe from guns.
The new legislation, the prime minister tweeted, is “part of a broader strategy to increase public safety.” Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was tweeting, too, saying the Liberals had “introduced legislation that will fulfill our commitment to take the most dangerous guns off our streets and out of our communities,” noting that it would particularly benefit women and girls. Public Safety Minister Bill Blair tweeted that the new legislation would “protect our communities.”
There's more, but you get the idea. It's all very impressive sounding, isn't it? And they're clearly all hammering the same message: this legislation will make you and your family safer. The problem, of course, is that it's nonsense. All of it. The government is misleading the Canadian people.
And most Canadians won't know enough about guns to realize it.
The proposed legislation lays out a series of steps to “make Canadians safe” and whatnot, but most of it is pretty mundane. The Liberals will further criminalize things that are already illegal, including gun smuggling and modifying ammunition magazines to hold more than the legally permitted five or 10 rounds (for rifles and handguns, respectively). No doubt the newfound extra-illegalness of these already illegal things will prove hugely helpful!
The Liberals say they'll also create so-called red flag options so family members can have police step in to take the firearms of someone who might be an imminent threat to public safety, which is such an awesome idea it's already part of the law, and has been since the 1990s. There is a 1-800 number that you can call today, literally right now, to “report a spousal or public safety concern.” This might be news to the Liberals, but it's not actually new.
There's also some stuff about giving “young people the opportunities and resources they need to avoid criminal behaviour by providing funding to municipalities and Indigenous communities to support youth programs,” which sounds great, but also isn't new.
When you set aside all this duplication of existing rules and regulations, and the Liberals' relentless self-puffery, what you're left with is … basically nothing. The Liberals claim that the legislation will improve public safety. But they aren't actually taking a single gun from anyone. Details on the buyback of so-called assault rifles isn't going to come for months, but the Liberals have already been clear that the buyback program won't be mandatory.
There are tens of thousands (probably more) of these rifles that are owned by Canadians, and while the Liberals say they'll further restrict when and where they can be used, they aren't confiscating them. If you own an AR15 today, the Liberals are going to let you keep it. You'll face new restrictions on transport and usage, but you can keep your AR-15, as can the tens of thousands of other Canadians who own them.
That's what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has decided. Trudeau, who said these rifles are “designed for one purpose: to kill the largest number of people in the shortest amount of time,” is leaving tens of thousands of them in the hands of Canadians.
The Liberal handgun proposal is similarly nonsensical (I described it in a previous column as “breathtakingly stupid,” and that's still an apt description). The Liberals, having studied the issue of handguns in Canada for years, have concluded that they aren't going to pursue a national ban, but that they'll let municipal governments draft their own rules regarding storage and transportation, and will use federal criminal law to give those municipal regulations teeth.
This seems like all kinds of trouble constitutionally, and runs immediately into a problem: municipalities are creatures of the provinces, and some provinces have already been clear: they'll block any efforts the federal government makes in this direction. There is nothing the feds can do about this — Blair admitted as much in a CBC interview on Tuesday.
So let's review. The Liberals are going to ban assault rifles, because they're dangerous killing machines. But the tens of thousands of Canadians who own the dangerous killing machines can keep them. And the handguns that have no place in our society can stay, unless a city bans them … which they can’t necessarily do. Gosh, what champions of public safety these Liberals are!
Here's the thing, folks. It's an act. All of it. The federal government has the power to confiscate these firearms. It could make them illegal, outright, and use the Criminal Code to simply criminalize any continued possession of them.
Handguns are still registered; the government could send a letter to every registered owner in the country giving them 30 days to surrender their guns to local police or face arrest and imprisonment. I'm not advising this, nor am I intending to overlook the practical and political challenges it would pose. But the point stands: making these guns illegal is well within the federal government's power. The Liberals could do it, and try like hell to enforce it, if they chose.
But they're not choosing. They're letting you keep your AR
15 and probably your Glock 9mm.
It all seems very confusing until you realize that the Liberals don't actually believe these firearms, whether so-called assault rifles or handguns, are a public safety threat.
They've spent years studying the issue. They know the facts: gun crimes in Canada are overwhelmingly linked to organized crime, gangs and the drug trade, and rely mostly on weapons smuggled in from the United States. They know what the stats make clear: that licensed Canadian firearms owners are incredibly safe and that lawfully owned weapons are not major threats to the citizenry.
All the stuff they're saying about public safety? It's showbiz. It matters as much as Trudeau's pledge to balance the budget in his first term or make sure 2015 was our last election using firstpast-the-post. It plays well in focus groups, no doubt, and I'm sure the slogans feel amazing rolling off the Liberals' tongues.
But they don't, you know, actually believe what they're saying. They just know it's good politics to say it. And if you don't believe me, if you think I'm being cynical or unfair, compare the rhetoric to the proposals. If you have a better answer for why I, and millions of other licensed gun owners, can keep our killing machines with Trudeau's blessing, I'd like to hear it.
In a weird way, the multi-year effort by Trudeau and his Liberals to find some way to be seen as tough on guns is actually an enormous compliment to Canadian gun owners and the current system. The Liberals have obviously concluded that talking tough on guns is good politics, especially in the big cities, and a useful wedge against the Conservatives.
They've got plenty of polling to back this up. But try as they might, they can't quite force themselves to believe that two plus two equals five — that Canada's licensed gun owners are a threat to public safety.
They aren't. The evidence is clear. That's why the Liberals keep settling for hassling gun owners and nibbling around the edges while, in the final analysis, they let Canadians keep their guns. It's a backhanded compliment, to be sure, but it's real all the same: Trudeau isn't worried about the AR-15 or Cx4 in your gun cabinet. That's why he's leaving them there.
THEY AREN'T ACTUALLY TAKING A SINGLE GUN FROM ANYONE.