Deep Dive: Canadian Federal Government Bans Another 300+ Firearms
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Public Safety Minister Dominic Leblanc announced yet another gun ban, adding another 324 firearms to the already extensive list of banned guns in Canada.
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A history of gun bans
While Canadians have seen various firearms banned all the way back to the 1880s, they were infrequent until the 1990s. While a few high-profile firearms like the FN-FAL or AK-47 were outright banned and others like the AR-15 were given Restricted status (requiring an upgraded firearms license to buy and use legally), Canadians could still buy a lot of other interesting firearms such as the AR180B, Benelli MR1, VZ58, Mini 14, SKS, or SVT-40.
The system of classification was incredibly arbitrary and illogical. Basically, if a firearm looked like a hunting rifle with a wood stock and no pistol grip, it escaped regulator scrutiny. As far as tactical rifles went, if it was an oddball item that didn’t show up in gun magazines regularly, the regulators generally didn’t care—because they allegedly got their tips from the anti-gun lobby, who found the guns they wanted to ban by reading gun magazines.
But in recent years, a high-profile massacre on Canada’s east coast (by a gunman disguised as a Mountie, and armed with smuggled-in firearms) and intense lobbying by anti-gun org PolySeSouvient (established as a response to a university shooting in 1989) has seen the Liberal Party-led federal government ban hundreds of firearms. This started with an Order In Council in May of 2020 (roughly the same thing as an Executive Order in the U.S.). Since then, the Liberal government has introduced a lot more legislation that cracked down on legal firearms owners and banned more firearms (while, curiously, also reducing sentences for some other illegal firearms usage).
In its haste to ban firearms without seemingly any practical knowledge on the subject, federal bureaucrats ran into serious opposition when they introduced legislation that would have banned 12 gauge shotguns, Lee-Enfield surplus rifles (perhaps the most common rifle in Canada for 100 years), and many other common hunting firearms. Some of these measures were walked back by the feds, but the potential of losing their moose cannon or duck blaster woke up a lot of fudds when they found out about the potential laws.
Currently, thanks to the feds, Canadians cannot import or sell/buy handguns unless they need them for work (security guard, police officer). Canadian shooters and firearms retailers are also sitting on hundreds of thousands of firearms that have been banned, but not yet seized by the federal government. This is partly because no Canadian government organization, including the military or police, has anything close to the manpower numbers required to undertake these seizures, and the postal system (who the feds proposed be responsible for voluntary firearms drop-offs) have been on strike for weeks, with no end in sight.
None of these logistical issues have stopped the Canadian feds from announcing more gun bans, as we saw last week.
What’s banned now?
For the past 15 years or so, Canada’s firearms manufacturers have made tactical rifles based on the AR-180B action, as that rifle was not banned in Canada. Last week, the feds banned the AR-180B by name and also banned anything similar made in Canada. This includes rifles like the Black Creek Labs Siberian SRV2 or the True North Arms WK180C.
The feds also banned a lot of semi-autos that had previously flown under the radar due to their less-scary appearance, including the Ruger PC Carbine, Benelli MR1, and Kel-Tec SU-16B.
A lot of the firearms banned were expensive semi-autos that had an MSRP of $2,000 or well above—hardly the weapon of gang-bangers.
Several plinking rimfires like the GSG-15 are on the ban list. This is particularly infuriating when you hear politicians decrying the banned guns as weapons of warfare, with the suggestion that seized firearms might be sent to arm Ukrainian forces. No doubt the arrival of a crate of .22LR rifles in the trenches would be received with a less enthusiastic response than the bureaucrats might hope.
See a list of all the banned firearms here, at the website of the Canadian Coalition for Firearms Rights (sort of like Canada’s NRA).
What’s next?
Despite the usual complaints from pro-firearms organizations and potshots from opposing politicians, even skepticism from law enforcement leadership and unions, the Trudeau-led government constantly signals its intent to introduce more firearms bans and other gun-unfriendly legislation until the end of their current term in office.
At the time of their December 5 ban announcement, the federal government also announced the mandatory confiscation program—they’re calling it a buyback, officially labeled the Assault Style Firearms Compensation Program (ASFCP)—is also currently rolling out for firearms retailers. According to their press release:
The first phase of the ASFCP process has already begun with a few businesses for testing and will be open to all firearms businesses across the country in the next few days. Firearms businesses will be notified on how and when to participate in the program.
It doesn’t stop there. The feds also say they want to create new laws to “to address the rates of gun violence in situations of gender-based and intimate partner violence,” as well as new yellow flag laws in 2025. They also say they will “introduce regulations concerning large-capacity magazines in March 2025.”
In other words: 2025 will be a rough year for Canadian firearms owners, in the run-up to October’s federal election. Under the current legislation, the banned firearms are protected by an amnesty until October 31, 2025, which is after the federal election—presumably a change in government would see the bans reversed.
But while the Conservative party, the official Opposition, has been trash-talking the Liberals at every opportunity, they have been strangely quiet on any plans to help firearms owners after the election. For now, the only positive action promised has been at the provincial government level, with Saskatchewan and Alberta’s leaders proving particularly pugnacious in their battle to secure their citizens’ firearms rights against federal interference.