“It’s causing an immense amount of frustration with law abiding firearms owners in the province of Alberta,” Schweitzer said in an interview with Lakeland This Week responding to recent steps by the federal government to ban another 1,500 makes and models of firearms in Canada in early May.
“We’ve heard loud and clear from people here that they are very frustrated with what the federal government is doing,” he said last Wednesday, citing “a complete lack of clarity when it comes to the buy-back program that they’re promising legislation for later. This is a minority government in the middle of a pandemic; there’s a complete lack of certainty as to what the future holds for firearms owners in the province of Alberta.”
News that 12-gauge and 10-gauge shotguns could potentially be viewed as illegal based on the government’s own rules regarding bore restrictions to 20 mm further incensed gun owners particularly hunters. Removing the choke on these guns increases the bore diameter which then potentially flags them as illegal.
Public Safety Minister Bill Blair has since clarified these shotguns will still be permitted, even with the choke removed. However, the uncertainty around what is legal and what isn’t has the hunting community and gun stores looking for clarity on the issue.
On May 5, Canadian Shooting Sports and the Canadian Sporting Arms and Ammunition Association demanded the immediate withdrawal of the Liberal’s Order in Council describing it as flawed. The two groups believe there are gaps in the regulations that leave it open to interpretation resulting in a potential legal minefield for gun owners and retailers alike.
Potential legal minefield
Darryl Lotoski, owner of Warehouse Sports in St. Paul, says there is every reason for concern.
“Twelve-gauge is the number one shotgun for good hunting, duck hunting – that’s what everybody uses,” Lotoski said. “I have no direction right now from the government. I have no idea what I can sell what I can’t sell. There’s been no list, even the firearms officers don’t know when you call into them.”
Lotoski said many of his customers are frustrated by what they see as an attack on responsible gun owners.
“The guns don’t kill people, people kill people. Mental health is front and foremost. If you take guns away, what’s next? Knives? Pencils? Axes? Cars?”
Dave Doonanco, president of the St. Paul Fish and Game Association, believes the latest steps taken on federal gun control has less to do with public safety and more to do with scoring political points.
“Taking these firearms out of the hands of the most vetted citizens in the country will have a minimal effect on the criminals who operate within our border. I don’t imagine there will be long lineups of non-licensed firearms owners coming to turn in these banned firearms, but it will most certainly turn many now law-abiding citizens into criminals.”
He maintains spending hundreds of millions of dollars on the “disarmament of innocent civilians” could be better invested elsewhere.
“Enhancing border security, enforcing the now existing laws on illegal importation of firearms and putting more money into helping Canadians suffering with mental health issues would be a start.”
Alberta chief firearms officer
Schweitzer said his government is considering appointing its own chief firearms officer, which is currently done by Ottawa, in an attempt to bring an Alberta perspective to the issue.
“They would still have to report though similar channels but it would be making sure they have a context here in reporting from Alberta that they really understood the dynamic of our province and the history that we have of responsible firearm use in Alberta,” he said.
“What we are looking to do here is to make sure that the enforcement here in Alberta truly understands the context of our province. The last thing that we would want to see is a policy designed for downtown Toronto try to be enforced in rural Alberta. Those types of policy initiatives simply do not have a local context and they fall down.”
Schweitzer said a provincial advisory panel will be established to bring together people on the issue of gun control including retailers, outfitters, recreational hunters and others in order for the provincial government to fully understand the impacts.
“You never know how these things are going to unfold in Ottawa, it’s a minority government, so if we put together a compelling argument hopefully we can seek amendments to this program.”
Conservative MP Shannon Stubbs said the confusion around the Liberal’s latest Order in Council has further muddied the waters in terms of just who is and who isn’t a legal gun owner.
“People are exactly right to say there are unanswered questions and still concerns which firearms will be completely prohibited or banned and what kind of restrictions there are. There actually isn’t any clarity on this”
Stubbs said the Liberals must reverse course on the Order in Council approach to enacting regulations and restrictions allowable through Bill C-71, the Liberal gun control bill approved in May 2019.
“We’ve challenged them to stop that, to bring this to full debate to parliament, actually go through the committee process to provide rigorous analysis - bring experts to the table, get public input, hear from firearm-owning Canadians."
