Despite losing seats in rural Canada, and losing the popular vote, Justin Trudeau is pressing ahead with his plan to ban firearms that look scary.
The repeated calls in the Throne Speech to ban “military-style” and “assault-style” firearms should tell Canadians everything they need to know about Trudeau; he cares more about style than substance.
Trudeau’s new Minister for Public Safety Bill Blair has announced he is compiling a secret list of firearms he intends to unilaterally re-classify from restricted to prohibited.
While Bill Blair and Trudeau have the legal power to ban scary looking firearms, they must seek Parliamentary approval to spend hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on their proposed buy-back plan.
This means Members of Parliament have a vote.
Unfortunately, many Members will be voting on an issue they have little experience with, and worse, most of their information comes from the U.S. where laws are quite different.
This is why I am calling on my fellow Parliamentarians to take some time over the winter recess to complete the Canadian Firearms Safety Course and the Canadian Restricted Firearms Safety Course.
Taking the courses and passing the firearms exams would deepen Members’ understanding of Canadian laws already in place, and the hurdles involved in becoming a law-abiding firearms owner.
A recent survey by the Angus Reid Institute showed that when Canadians were made aware of the firearms rules already in place, support for further onerous and unnecessary restrictions drops significantly.
Canadians, including many Parliamentarians, suffer an understandable knowledge gap.
Understandable because having no interest in using or owning legal firearms means it would be a waste of time to study up on Canada’s firearms laws.
The problem is that knowledge gap becomes a gulf when exposed to a sadly steady stream of U.S. shootings.
By completing the firearms safety course, Parliamentarians would be taking a stand against fear and ignorance and demonstrating for their law-abiding firearms owning constituents a commitment to understanding them.
All it would take is a few better-informed Liberal MPs to stand up to Trudeau and Blair and their plan to ban scary looking firearms.
In a minority Parliament, every vote matters.
This means your voice matters.
Please, take a minute to email your Member of Parliament and encourage her or him to take the Canadian Firearms Safety Course over the Winter Recess.