Biden Should Look to Canada to See the Mess of Confiscating Guns

2nd Amendment – R2KBA Columns This Week
Biden Should Look to Canada to See the Mess of Confiscating Guns
(Photo: NSSF)

By Larry Keane

Canada’s gun confiscation plan is getting a chilly reception from America’s northern neighbors. Even the guy Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau put in charge of confiscating more than 2 million firearms from his fellow Canadians is at a loss to explain how it will be done.

President-elect Joe Biden might want to take notes. Canada’s gun confiscation horse hasn’t even left the barn and it’s tripping all over itself. No one knows how much it will cost and no one knows who will confiscate guns from law-abiding Canadians. Canadians are not their normally pleasant selves over these developments.

The foresight of James Madison to ensure this God-given right was included in the Bill of Rights can’t be overstated. Neither can one overstate the folly of Biden thinking he can confiscate 20 million firearms from law-abiding Americans whose right to keep and bear those firearms is Constitutionally protected.

Canadian gun confiscation is starting out as an abysmal failure and only promises to get worse. Thinking it would be any easier, cheaper or politically-expedient to do this in the United States is absurd. Suggesting it as a national policy is an insult to the Constitution both President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will swear (again) to protect when sworn in next month.

Not the Mounties

Minister Blair said it would be too expensive and inefficient for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to run the effort to round-up the more than 1,500 models of firearms covered by Prime Minister Trudeau’s executive action announced without comment, debate or a vote by the Canadian Parliament. Conservative Minister of Parliament (MP) Glen Motz asked Minister Blair how this confiscation would occur and what the associated costs would be. Minister Blair scoffed at the police performing the unpopular task but sidestepped giving a price tag.

MP Motz is still chiding him for an answer. “$2 billion? $5 billion? How much will the firearm confiscation plan cost?” Motz wrote in a tweet. “@BillBlair won’t say, probably cause he has no idea!”

The real reason Minister Blair won’t be asking for Canada’s Mounties to take the task is because they’re balking that it will actually do anything to reduce crime.

SEE ALSO: Ex-Cop Gets Four Years for Falsifying 4473s, Sending Guns to Mexico

The national police union representing the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the National Police Federation, doesn’t support confiscation. Instead, they urge the Canadian Parliament to adopt “… a combination of better legislation, better funding, and evidence-based solutions that we believe are necessary…” The police union noted that the uptick in criminal misuse of firearms in Canada is connected to gang activity and the guns being used illegally by those criminals are already banned in Canada.

Brian Sauvé, president of the National Police Federation, said they would rather enforce laws that are evidence-based, that addresses the root causes of the criminal activity instead of targeting law-abiding gun owners.

Not Just the Mounties

It’s not just the RCMP that’s disinterested in taking on the Herculean task of rounding up guns from their fellow citizens. Prime Minister Trudeau’s Liberal Party, which holds power, failed to secure a private-sector contractor to design the confiscation scheme – or “buyback” as the Liberal Party labels it. Canada’s procurement office issued two separate requests for proposals (RFPs) to run the confiscation without a nibble from an interested bidder. The Canadian government even tried name-shaming potential bidders, accounting firms Pricewaterhouse Coopers LLP and Ernst & Young LLP didn’t’ bite.

The contract offer, which closed out in early November, was reportedly worth $78 million.

Gun control advocates are shouting that delays in implementing the confiscation are risking the whole gun control plan. Heidi Rathjen, coordinator of the group PolySeSouvient, wants the ban implemented now, but wants to expand it. Her group now wants to limit firearm magazines to five rounds, grant police easier access to commercial firearm sales data, spend money to boost government monitoring of gun license applicants and licensed owners and end the manufacture and importation of handguns into Canada.

PolySeSouvient is also calling for the gun ban list to be evergreen.” That means the list isn’t static but grows without intentional addition. One news outlet compared it to when smartphones automatically update overnight without the users’ action. The list would be the same way, except this would be law-abiding gun owners waking up as unwitting felons because the law changed overnight without public notice, debate or input.

A court challenge to the Canadian gun confiscation plan is pending with a decision expected in January on whether the scheme can go forward or if it should be temporarily suspended while wider court actions proceed.

This is all too chilling to Canadian gun owners. It’s also a cautionary tale for American gun owners to not take their Second Amendment for granted. The magnitude of firearm ownership in America dwarfs that of Canada. The costs and bureaucracy would dwarf the billions Canada is expected to pay.

The actions President-elect Biden proposed aren’t really any different than what Canada is witnessing now. Here, though, it is unconstitutional.

Larry Keane is Senior Vice President of Government and Public Affairs and General Counsel for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the firearms industry trade association.

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  • Gwen Montgomery 1 Madd Monk December 29, 2020, 8:25 am

    For the looser leaders THe United States Of America will no stand for Hitler style gun control

  • Austinboston December 6, 2020, 3:54 pm

    Creepy Joe is not president elect.

  • missourisam December 5, 2020, 10:29 pm

    Biden will never look to Canada to see the mess gun confiscations has caused. That would not fit with Soros and the communist agenda of disarming the citizens of the USA. Besides Biden is not smart enough to find his posterior with both hands.

  • rj5208 December 5, 2020, 3:49 am

    “This is all too chilling to Canadian gun owners. It’s also a cautionary tale for American gun owners to not take their Second Amendment for granted. The magnitude of firearm ownership in America dwarfs that of Canada. The costs and bureaucracy would dwarf the billions Canada is expected to pay.”

    Politicians don’t care about the cost of anything…..

    They believe they have the right to tax the masses for anything they deem necessary to control the population.

    What we are really talking about here is the insidious subjugation of the people.
    Autocrats don’t want to have to deal with citizens, they want ‘Subjects’ under their control.

  • oldfuzz695 December 4, 2020, 7:56 pm

    “Shall not be infringed”? How about a fee (tax) to have a CCW? Absolutely unconstitutioal.
    I may or may not have a firerm. I may or may not have firearms that are registered to anyone. I may or may not be carrying a concealed weapon. This is nobody’s business, especially the oppressive, sometimes corrupt Federal Government, to which I may have to defend myself and others.

    • missourisam December 5, 2020, 10:51 pm

      Talk about opening a can of copperheads, Before the government can legally take owner’s guns they would need to change the Constitution, and I don’t see enough politicians willing to commit political suicide to attempt that and there would not ne enough states ratify it. Trying to accomplish the confiscation by executive order would be a good way to find themselves decorating an oak limb, or a street light standard. Any peace officer that would try to enforce such an order would be committing treason, as the oath they swore to was to uphold and protect the Constitution against all enemies, foreign or domestic. Breaking that trust and oath, in my mind is treason, not to mention an attack on the Constitution itself. I love my country. It is the government that is trying to destroy it that I hate.

  • Stan d. Upnow December 4, 2020, 7:01 pm

    Are the Canucks as spineless & stupid as the Aussies, that they would line-up to meekly hand-over their firearms, esp. without fair compensation?

    Try that in America and there would be a bloodbath, with the perpetrators on the losing end.

  • Jeffrey Wilkins December 4, 2020, 12:50 pm

    OUTSTANDING ARTICLE!!!!!

  • Russ December 4, 2020, 12:43 pm

    More proof of the stupidity of liberal canuckleheads. Socialist imbeciles, just like Americas democrats.

    • rj5208 December 5, 2020, 3:42 am

      Russ,

      You hit the nail on the head..

      The people who subscribe to a system of government who’s goal is to subjugate
      the masses are nothing more then lemmings. To use your very succinct descriptors,
      imbecilic socialist democrats, aka “Canuckleheads”

      RJ

  • rj5208 December 4, 2020, 12:43 pm

    I will not comply.
    The Constitution, as written or Amended according to it’s tenets, is the law of the land.

    For anyone who believes the constitution only permits ‘muskets’, I suggest they only be permitted to use a
    quill and a ink bottle.

  • Norm Fishler December 4, 2020, 12:12 pm

    He should (look to Canada) but sadly he will not. There is an agenda to fulfill and he’s on a mission to get it done. I, for one, refuse to admit that he will take the reigns of our Nation on 20 January 2021. Evidence continues to mount of a voter fraud operation on a scale yet unseen and I believe he will be sent back to his basement.

    • missourisam December 5, 2020, 10:55 pm

      Basement hell, him and all the idiots controlling him need to be executed.

  • Sunny Day December 4, 2020, 11:45 am

    Most of this is erroneous hype. Biden was the guy who instigated the background check. Before that, any criminal on the street could get anything he wanted. Biden also favors keeping firearms out of the hands of the insane……. imagine that, insane people not having firearms. That is not intrusive to you is it ?

    • James Meagher December 4, 2020, 2:24 pm

      Superficial labeling. “Insane: by who’s medically based diagnosis?
      What is the criteria? Can Constitutional Protected Rights. be permanently removed save for life imprisonment?

      • Trump virus December 5, 2020, 2:41 am

        Insanity .check… if someone supported the Plague-Man in2016 I can give a pass on that. After seeing what a lying, no good loser the deal maker turned out too be if one still supported the worst human on earth what does that say about them..insane!

        • DELCO December 5, 2020, 2:54 pm

          Trump virus, you HATE TRUMP MORE THEN YOU LOVE YOUR COUNTRY. I am a results guy. USMCA replacing NAFTA, trump did that HUGE, having NK stop it’s mayhem, trump did that, 400 miles of border wall, having Mexico pay for 25K troops to stand guard and prevent those CARAVANS of illegals , bringing illegal immigration to drop to ALL TIME LOW. Getting our troops home, after the Dems cried about how trump would get us into more wars, piece in the Middle East between countries that have been fighting for generations. Taking out ISIS, calling out sanctuary cities that literally are the down fall of the country. You obviously don’t care about the facts. 3 years of a Fake Russia hoax, fake impeachment, say what you want but Trump got things done Period. I’m not blind I see how he can get, but I’m not asking him to dinner , we want a guy who put America FIRST. On the border alone Trump did it well. Manufacturing jobs over 500K brought home, after Biden /Obama said that would not happen. If you voted for Biden then you probably are not successful, probably never ran a business, because you would have looked at RESULTS, and not followed the liberal Sheep .

    • El Zorro December 4, 2020, 2:37 pm

      Well, we know you won’t be able to get your hands on a gun…

    • Shanz December 4, 2020, 4:19 pm

      Plz give proof of where guns can be or where they were obtained without a background check. I am so sick of this back round check lie. Talk to any FFL guy or anybody who knows anything remotely to do with firearms, you simply have to do a back round check to buy a gun. I have been buying guns for ten over ten years now and every time I went through DROS process and NICS back round check. It’s pretty dumb. Save the old model 94 I got from my dad and a few old WW2 rifles from my buddy, every FFL gun requires a back round check. Go spin your lib tard propaganda somewhere else.

    • Stan d. Upnow December 4, 2020, 7:24 pm

      Ah, yet another ignorant proudly & arrogantly displaying his ignorance!

      First, it wasn’t Biden who was responsible for firearm background checks, it was the Brady Act.
      Second, “any criminal on the street could get anything he wanted” then, as Now; still true. If you think criminals are submissive to firearm laws, then you’re simply a moron.
      Third, “keeping firearms out of the hands of the insane” isn’t just an idea any rational person, Biden excluded, favors… it also is the law.

      So, Sunny, the next time you want to mouth-off about something you know nothing about, you might want to stop and get informed so as not to appear stupid.

    • Cea December 4, 2020, 8:06 pm

      So the good news, as you are telling all of us is, that criminals no longer can get guns since SLO-Joe made it so?
      You are mostly nuts!
      Sorry ‘bout that. You are absolutely nuts. And blind, and ignorant, and…

    • rj5208 December 5, 2020, 4:35 am

      Subject Sunny,

      Not surprisingly you are wrong. Biden did not sponsor the Brady Act back in 1994. You know the same legislation that you say “instigated” (sic) background checks.

      In fact the GCA or Gun Control Act of 1968 is the legislation that prohibited the sale of guns to the mentally ill. Crediting Biden for this legislation, 52 years ago, is just another example of your slapstick subscription of political BS. …………….Educate yourself….
      https://time.com/5169210/us-gun-control-laws-history-timeline/

      As for any criminal getting their hands on ‘anything they wanted’.
      All laws do is restrict ‘Law Abiding Citizen’s’… Criminals, by their very description, do not obey laws.
      Even Biden recognizes that criminals will always be able to get their hands on guns. (see his quoted words below)

      Here is a quote from ole’ bribe takin Joe,
      ” Biden said at the time.

      “During my 12 and a half years as a member of this body, I have never believed that additional gun control or federal registration of guns would reduce crime. I am convinced that a criminal who wants a firearm can get one through illegal, nontraceable, unregistered sources, with or without gun control,” he continued.”
      https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/biden-voted-nra-when-senate-nation-were-very-different-n997311

      Look at the statistics before and after the Brady Bill.

      Firearm Violence, 1993-2011 – Bureau of Justice Statistics
      [Search domain http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/fv9311.pdf%5D http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/fv9311.pdf
      A handgun was used in about 83% of all firearm homicides in 1994, compared to 73% in 2011. Other types of firearms, such as shotguns and rifles, accounted for the remainder of firearm homicides. For nonfatal firearm violence, about 9 in 10 were committed with a handgun, and this remained stable from 1994 to 2011.

      Sunny, ‘Come On Man’ get your facts straight.

    • DELCO December 5, 2020, 3:14 pm

      Sunny day you are a Giant mess. For 47 years Biden has mooched off of the tax payers. Biden was the one responsible for the credit card companies to be able to jack up your rates when a payment was missed. Biden is worth between $10-$20 million, tell us sunny day where did that come from? What company did Biden run on the side? Who did Biden employ? NO ONE . Another career politician who became wealthy while collecting a pay check signed by all of us. Look who Biden has selected for his chief of staff, a lobbyist for Facebook, and Twitter. Look who he has for his cabinet, 40 of them have all worked for either Apple, Facebook, or twitter. What happen to lunch box joe? What a fraud. They systematically changed the way we vote as a country for this election, the media is forever not trustworthy, and the very people Biden has picked to run our country are the same people who protected Biden from any challenge at all on social media. Big tech blocked real stories and suspended the accounts of anyone on the right who called out Biden for his decades of garbage policies.

    • missourisam December 5, 2020, 10:58 pm

      And then Biden was in the vanguard of the idiots that made it almost impossible to keep the insane from being able to freely run the streets.

    • allen w December 11, 2020, 6:38 am

      if guns are outlawed then only outlaws will have guns. let me explain, the law abiding folks that surrender their guns will be at the will of the criminals who do not. If for one minute you think a law will make a criminal, a drug dealer or a serial killer to give up their guns, you must be on some very strange drugs. Oh they will keep them and you and the rest of the law abiding population will be in mortal danger. In the UK, criminals all have guns and are free to rob and kill at at will. The population just lays back and can not do anything about it. Americans I hope, have more grit than the canadians and the british.

  • ray December 4, 2020, 11:27 am

    I don’t know about other people but I’m a veteran never been arrested and when they try it here in America I will become a combatant against the government!

  • James Smith December 4, 2020, 9:45 am

    Don’t forget racist slavers that need to be erased from our proud history….

    • El Zorro December 4, 2020, 2:40 pm

      Did you come up with that on your own, or did you have help from your woke gender non-binary life partner?

    • Kane Ron December 4, 2020, 9:22 pm

      You mean like that pimp called “Detroit Red”? Well, he got a college named after him and a statue in NYC.

  • James Smith December 4, 2020, 9:36 am

    ” The real reason Minister Blair won’t be asking for Canada’s Mounties to take the task is because they’re balking that it will actually do anything to reduce crime…. ” Sounds like the RCMP has more common sense that Trudeau & Blair put together…. Duh ….

  • Bob December 4, 2020, 8:45 am

    Don’t forget that a lot of the firearms that were newly listed as prohibited were never registered in the first place so there is no record of who owns them. These guns will never be confiscated by the socialist liberal party because they will never be found!

  • Altoids December 4, 2020, 8:08 am

    Unconstitutional means nothing to the Marxicrat Party.
    The constitution nothing more than a dusty old piece of paper scribbled on by a bunch of dead white guys.

    • Willie-O December 4, 2020, 11:27 am

      Which is exactly why the idiots on the L (think “the squad”) want to tear it up, throw it away and create their own version – a manifesto.

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