Davin News Server

On 04 Oct 2024, "max headroom" <maximusheadroom@gmx.com> posted some
news:vdou8q$8l0a$6@dont-email.me: 

> Canada Banned Certain Guns, Can't Figure Out How to Collect Them
> 
> CALGARY, Canada-On May 1, 2020, the Canadian government outlawed 1,500
> types of semiautomatic rifles and announced a firearms buyback program
> to take possession of the newly banned guns.
> 
> The action was the federal government's response to a mass shooting in
> Nova Scotia in which 22 people were killed over April 18 and 19, 2020.
> 
> The killer, dressed as a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer and
> driving a car rigged to look like a patrol car, used an AR-style rifle
> smuggled into Canada from the United States.
> 
> Four years later, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party
> struggles to keep control in Parliament, both sides of the debate
> anticipate the possible end of the program even before the first gun
> has been surrendered. 
> 
> One gun control activist has criticized the buyback program as too
> weak. 
> 
> Nathalie Provost is the spokesperson for PolyRemembers, a group formed
> after the Dec. 6, 1989, mass shooting at the Polytechnique engineering
> school in Montreal that killed 14.
> 
> Provost, a survivor of that crime, did not respond to The Epoch Times'
> request for comment.
> 
> In a Sept. 11 statement, she called on the government to eliminate
> exemptions to the ban, accelerate completion of the buyback, and close
> loopholes in the law. 
> 
> "Even the mandatory buyback program ... will lose all of its meaning
> if current [gun] owners ... can simply take the money from the buyback
> to purchase [guns] that remain legal or new models introduced ... by
> manufacturers seeking to increase their sales and profits," Provost
> wrote. 
> 
> Under the program, certain automatic and semiautomatic rifles,
> so-called assault weapons, were banned.
> 
> Rifles such as the AR-15, AK-47, and similar types can no longer be
> bought, sold, imported, or even transported in Canada. The plan calls
> for owners of the now-illegal guns to sell them to the federal
> government. 
> 
> The government established a two-year amnesty period during which
> owners must securely store their prohibited firearms until the
> logistics of the buyback program are worked out.
> 
> In 2022, the amnesty period was extended to October 2025.
> 
> James Bachynsky, president of the Calgary Shooting Center since 2011,
> said the Nova Scotia shooting was simply used as an excuse for the
> Liberal Party to institute a ban it wanted all along.
> 
> Bachynsky said the ban would not have prevented the killings in Nova
> Scotia. 
> 
> He pointed out that the killer had violated several laws before he
> fired his first shot. From smuggling guns into the country to
> impersonating a police officer, the shooter could have been charged
> with a crime without ever putting his finger on a trigger, he said.
> 
> "The government wanted to be seen to be doing something. They
> introduced this [Order in Council], banned all these guns, and then
> the investigation determined that all [the killer's] guns had been
> smuggled in over the U.S. [border] 
>  anyway," Bachynsky told The Epoch Times.
> 
> James Bachynsky, president of the Calgary Shooting Center, talks about
> how a ban on semiautomatic rifles in Canada has impacted his business,
> in Calgary, Alberta, on Aug. 29, 2024. Michael Clemente/The Epoch
> Times 
> 
> Brian Kent agrees. He owns Proline Shooters II in Calgary and has been
> in the firearms business for 42 years. He said restricting legal gun
> ownership is the easiest way for the government to give the impression
> that it is doing something.
> 
> Kent said that he believes that the "government wants to do away with
> all firearms," and people who own guns legally are "low hanging fruit
> and ... easy to pick on."
> 
> During a Sept. 19 meeting, Dominic LeBlanc, minister for public
> safety, democratic institutions, and intergovernmental affairs, denied
> these claims when questioned by Conservative Sen. Yonah Martin.
> 
> "This program in no way targets sports persons, or indigenous persons
> or persons who hunt for sustenance or who practice a sport; this is
> designed to get military weapons off the streets," LeBlanc said.
> 
> But Kent is not convinced.
> 
> He said officials use terms such as "assault weapons," "military
> weapons," and "weapons of war" to alarm and confuse their
> constituents. The difference between the banned guns and legal guns is
> a matter of form rather than function, he said.
> 
> "There's no difference between a [prohibited] AR-15 system and a
> [legal] Remington 742 semiautomatic rifle. There's no difference in
> the function," Kent told The Epoch Times. "The AR-15 looks dangerous
> and military and 'oh my goodness, we're going to all die.' There's no
> actual functioning difference between the two firearms."
> 
> Bachynsky said that as a firearms dealer, he keeps track of changes in
> the gun laws. He said the buyback program is confusing. According to
> Bachynsky, the changes could catch some gun owners unaware.
> 
> The list of prohibited rifles has grown from 1,500 to almost 2,000
> over the past four years. This means that rifles that were legal when
> the list was written in 2020 may no longer be allowed.
> 
> "But if you own any kind of semiautomatic rifle now, or even a hunting
> rifle, you need to check [the restricted firearms list] regularly to
> see whether it's become prohibited," Bachynsky told The Epoch Times.
> 
> The program is divided into two phases. In the first phase, gun stores
> will sell to the government any stock they haven't been able to export
> or sell before the amnesty period ends. In the second phase,
> individual owners will sell their prohibited guns to the government.
> 
> In each case, the price will be determined by a government estimate,
> not the amount the store or owner paid.
> 
> As of Sept. 25, the Public Safety Canada website had no details on how
> or when either phase would begin.
> 
> "More information on the methods affected firearms businesses can use
> to turn in their inventory and how they can participate in the program
> will be provided at a later date," the Public Safety Canada website
> reads. 
> 
> In December 2023, the government enacted Bill C-21, which codified the
> plan's prohibition on the sale or transfer of handguns.
> 
> Current handgun owners can transport their handguns to shoot on
> approved firing ranges. But they cannot sell or give them to anyone.
> When current handgun owners die, their guns must be handed over to the
> government. 
> 
> The Liberal Party has been able to advance its agenda through an
> agreement with the New Democratic Party (NDP). However, on Sept. 4,
> the NDP backed out of the agreement.
> 
> Donald Plett, the Conservative Opposition leader in the Senate,
> criticized the program on social media as a "$67 million boondoggle."
> He is focusing on the spending side of the buyback plan in an effort
> to stop it. 
> 
> "Sixty-seven million is an incredible, shocking amount of money to
> spend on a program that doesn't yet exist, which ultimately targets
> licensed, trained, law-abiding gun owners and not criminals," Plett
> posted on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
> 
> LeBlanc has defended the spending, which he says is financing systems
> that are part of the government's overall crime reduction plan.
> 
> "[The buyback program] was a campaign commitment that we made. We
> recognized that the taxpayers' money needed to be expended
> judiciously, and that's exactly what we're going to do," LeBlanc said.
> 
> Officials in the largely rural provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan
> have voiced opposition to the plan.
> 
> Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced plans to amend the province's
> bill of rights to, among other things, protect the rights of Albertans
> to own and use firearms, in a Sept. 24 post on X.
> 
> She said gun rights are an important part of the history and culture
> of Alberta. 
> 
> "I personally feel that law-abiding firearms owners have been unfairly
> targeted by our federal government for decades," she said.
> 
> Teri Bryant, Alberta's chief firearms officer, said the buyback
> program is federal law and will be implemented unless the federal
> government changes course. But like Smith, Bryant said there are
> things provincial officials can do.
> 
> "We cannot refuse a federal law, but that doesn't mean that we have to
> do anything to actively cooperate with that law either," she told The
> Epoch Times. 
> 
> The Alberta Firearms Act went into effect on March 28, 2023. It
> prohibits the use of provincial resources for confiscation. It also
> limits the types of agreements local law enforcement can enter into
> with federal officials and expands the chief firearms officer's
> responsibilities and authority within the province.
> 
> "So, for example, most of the RCMP officers in the province of Alberta
> are provincially funded. So if the province says ... we don't want
> provincial resources to be used to implement this system, then that is
> a fairly significant obstacle," Bryant said.
> 
> "If they really wanted to do it, they could come up with people, but
> then they would have to comply with our Alberta Firearms Act that
> empowers me to license anybody who's involved in that."
> 
> She said the divide between gun owners and the government has more to
> do with culture than with guns or crime. Along those lines, she said
> she spends much of her time traveling the province to talk with gun
> owners about the law. 
> 
> She also spends time in Ottawa talking with federal officials about
> Albertans' concerns.
> 
> Lawmakers in Ottawa and residents in rural Alberta are wary of one
> another, according to Bryant, and replacing that wariness with trust
> might be a better first step.
> 
> "In this case, you're going to regulate a group of people. You have to
> have credibility with those people, and you have to have their trust.
> That's an essential element," she said.
> 
> Bryant said about 10 percent of the population in Canada owns at least
> one gun. 
> 
> Noe Chartier contributed to this report.
> 
> https://www.theepochtimes.com/article/canada-banned-certain-guns-but-ca
> nt-figure-out-how-to-collect-them-5729228 

It's all about disarming the people so a hostile government can force 
policy without opposition.  Any left-wing government is hostile to the 
people.