Gun-control group urges MPs to vote against ‘unsalvageable’ Liberal firearms bill

A leading gun-control group is urging MPs to vote against the Liberal government’s new firearms bill, saying it is too weak to salvage.

The bill would implement a program to buy back recently banned guns from owners and allow municipalities to restrict handguns - measures that PolySeSouvient considers ill-conceived and ineffective.

In a letter sent out this week to MPs, the group says the legislation is a Liberal capitulation to the firearms lobby.

The letter is signed by Nathalie Provost, who was shot four times during the 1989 attack by a gunman at Montreal’s Ecole polytechnique.

It was sent to all MPs but Conservative members, given the party’s opposition to the bill over concerns it targets responsible gun owners but not criminals.

“Taking firearms away from lawabiding citizens does nothing to stop dangerous criminals and gangs who obtain their guns illegally,” Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner said recently.

The bill proposes a buyback of many banned firearms the government considers assault-style weapons, but owners would be allowed to keep them under strict conditions, including that they be registered and securely stored.

It would also allow municipalities to ban handguns through bylaws restricting their possession, storage and transportation.

PolySeSouvient has pushed for a mandatory buyback of the recently outlawed firearms to ensure they cannot be misused, as well as a national handgun ban to avoid a patchwork of laws across the country.

The group also wants the government to stem easy access to modifiable magazines that are capped at five or 10 bullets but can be easily modified to hold their full, illegal capacity of many times more.