Today is supposedly the last day that Canadian gun owners can hand in firearms banned by the Liberal government and still receive compensation for their guns. With just 51,000 firearms turned in as of last week, the federal government has collected just a little more than one-third of the total number of firearms it anticipated receiving, and most provinces have refused to aid in the Liberals' gun ban scheme.
That opposition, though, has its limits. Blaine Beaven, the new firearms commissioner in Saskatchewan, says the province is working to provide as much protection to gun owners as it can.
Likely on May 1 you will be able to log into the provincial program and put in your information about your firearms to see if they’re affected. If they are affected, you can choose to get an appraisal, and if you get an appraisal, we will also provide you with a certificate of exemption that exempts you from prosecution for continuing to possess and store those firearms after Oct. 30, when the amnesty ends.
There’s going to be conditions attached to that, which includes that you have to be seeking compensation, which can mean sending a demand letter to the feds saying you owe me this much money, and waiting for them to pay. Whether they pay or not remains to be seen.
I know that we are going to have some cases going to court on this issue, and they are going to likely challenge the legislation. The provincial government is going to stand up for the legislation. What that’s going to do is allow people not to worry about getting a knock on the door with a police officer with a warrant saying we’re coming to get your guns that you haven’t given up.
That’s not going to happen in Saskatchewan, so long as you engage with the provincial process that we’ve set up, which is about making sure you’re properly compensated.
Now I know that people are going to say they don’t want to be properly compensated and want to keep the guns, and I’m one of those people, but unfortunately we have to work within the law.
That’s the best that we can do, which I think is better than any other province in the country.
Canada's Supreme Court has already agreed to hear a challenge to the ban and "buyback" itself, but Beaven's statement suggests that the court system could soon be clogged with gun owners demanding fair compensation for their guns... at least those who are willing to participate in the compensated confiscation scheme.
But Beaven also acknowledges that most affected gun owners seem to be willing to sit this out. While the federal government anticipated collecting 136,000 firearms, Beaven says the low estimate of banned guns in the hands of Canadian citizens is "closer to a million," and says some estimates put the number around two million.
And if you think about what’s been declared so far, 51,000 firearms by 26,000 gun owners. So that’s two per, just about, average of two for those 26,000 there’s millions of firearms owners across this country. So if you put out an average of even one, the number of affected firearms is, is quite a bit higher.
And the number of gun owners cooperating with the "buyback" appears to be quite low.
I wouldn't be surprised if the Liberal government ends up extending the amnesty period and in the hopes of getting their hands on more of the guns they've banned, especially now that that the country's Supreme Court has decided to examine the scheme. The feds can always say they're keeping the amnesty period open until the court reaches a verdict, and I'd argue that's exactly what they should do. I wouldn't be participating in the "buyback" program under any circumstances if I lived in Canada, but no gun owner should be compelled to hand over their firearms while the legality of the compensated confiscation scheme is still in question.
Even if the country's High Court upholds the Liberals' gun confiscation plan, I don't think its going to work out well. Some gun owners will insist on fair compensation and take their cases to court if necessary, but I suspect that many more will simply and quietly refuse to comply with the Liberals' demands.
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