IN THIS ARTICLE, we look at new laws in Canada which could see many common-use sporting and hunting rifles being banned.

Going for broke

CANADA isn’t just looking at restricting handguns. It is also looking at banning centrefire semi-automatic longarms which describe large numbers of hunting and sporting rifles.

Scott’s great letter

In a letter to the Comox Valley Record, Courtenay reader, Scott Goodman, went to the heart of the problem facing gun owners worldwide: laws that are about votes, not safety.

In his letter, Scott noted something every gunowner knows:

“These are your friends and neighbours who enjoy a variety of shooting sports with their legally obtained and registered and safely stored and handled firearms.

They obey all of the regulations, even the ones they disagree with. They are not engaging in gun battles on our streets nor are their firearms beings used for such purposes.”

The also noted that the bill, called C-21:

“was never intended to do anything to prevent gun violence and that those who drafted it have a very different purpose in mind.”

He also said something that is a very familiar story for shooters everywhere:

“Having passed the freeze, the government will, within a short period of time, be wringing its collective hands saying that they tried to do something about gun violence and it didn’t work.

So the “only” solution will be confiscating all of the legal handguns from their owners. And, of course, it won’t have any effect”

… here are the facts …

He also cited an important statistic about the criminal use of firamrs – wich is that of the 277 incidents of gun related homicide in Canada in 2020:

“nine were carried out by licensed gun owners, of which there are approximately 2.2 million.”

Look at those numbers.  That means 268 gun homicides involved illegal guns, and the offending rate among licenced gun owners is one in nearly quarter of a million licenced owners.

Why then, do you need new laws about those numbers?

What is this really about?

In fact Scott also noted:

“Having passed the freeze, the government will, within a short period of time, be wringing its collective hands saying that they tried to do something about gun violence and it didn’t work. So the “only” solution will be confiscating all of the legal handguns from their owners. And, of course, it won’t have any effect”

The fight that shooters face is not just in Canada. Nor just in the US, UK or just in any other country.  It’s everywhere.

What can you do?

That’s why shooters everywhere need to pay attention to laws and proposed laws where they are and never, ever ignore calls to tighten gun laws without harding the hard questions.

If you find ther are laws being proposed in your area, contact your local poltiicain.  Tell him or her you are a shooter and object to laws that affect lawful possession and use of firearms.

Do not accept any assurance that the laws “will only affect criminals”, because unless the laws say that, they won’t. They will affect you. Badly.

Good work, Scott. We need more shooters like you. You can see his letter here