There's a sizeable chunk of anti-gunners who want not just another "assault weapon" ban on the books, but a mandatory "buyback" of those guns. They want to force us to sell them our firearms simply because they decided we shouldn't be allowed to have them anymore, as if rights are irrelevant.
Yet, if the Canadians are any indication, trying that in the Land of the Free is a fool's errand.
After all, Canadians favor gun control, by and large. They don't view the right to keep and bear arms as any kind of a right. They're generally fine with gun control, even extensive measures like banning so-called assault weapons.
But despite the law putting some 2,500 models on the prohibited list, with an intention to begin a mandatory buyback ages ago, not only has the buyback – a terrible term since the state never owned any of those guns in the first place – not happened, but there's considerable friction from various places:
The buyback has also been met with friction in western Canada. The province of Alberta has said it won’t participate in the buyback and barred its police forces from taking part. Saskatchewan and Manitoba have also said they won’t participate.
“We’ve made it clear from the beginning,” said Teri Bryant, Alberta’s Chief Firearms Officer, who spoke to CNN from the sidelines of a weekend gun show.
“We weren’t gonna participate in this scheme,” Bryant said. “And they’ve had six years: if they really thought this was so important, they would have set up some kind of a mechanism.”
In a statement to CNN, the Ministry of Public Safety said that in the absence of provincial approval and police cooperation, the federal government will be sending “mobile collection units” (MCUs) to retrieve prohibited firearms from their owners.
“The decision of local police forces to not administer the collection of firearms will not prevent the federal government from collecting them through these MCUs,” said spokesperson Simon Lafortune.
But Bryant said she doesn’t know how those MCUs will operate in Alberta.
“Those mobile collection units would need a seizure agent license from us,” Bryant said. “They haven’t applied for one.”
Guns from south of the border
Elsewhere in the country, some police departments are still debating whether to join the buyback or not, and some have said outright that they will not participate.
Four days after the shooting in Tumbler Ridge, Kingston, Ontario’s police department announced that the mid-sized city would not collect or store prohibited guns for the program, citing an October recommendation from the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police (OACP).
Just days after a mass killing, a local police department said it wasn't taking part? In Canada?
That's telling.
The truth is that while Canadians might be more open to gun control than we are, the truth is that no one wants to actually force the issue on their own neighbors. They have to live with these folks, and if they're taking part in such a disarmament effort, that has the possibility of making things spicy down the road with those folks.
And for what?
Especially since the Tumbler Ridge killer used an "unregistered" shotgun to kill his family, then an unspecified rifle and handgun for the rest of the carnage.
The killer didn't have a gun license anymore and hadn't since 2024, yet he still had guns.
Maybe part of what we're seeing, particularly now, is an understanding that despite all the laws on the books in Canada, laws that many people supported and still support, that maybe deranged lunatics aren't really going to be deterred by gun laws.
Or maybe it's just that the departments in question don't want to be bothered with this, and no one else is really excited by a program that's turned into nothing but a boondoggle.
Honestly, I'm just glad that this isn't happening here.
Not yet, at least.
