Recurring Canadaguns Politics and Debate Thread

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[u/Dill_Pickle_Tears]

Anyone with real parliamentary/legislative knowledge have any guesses as to how the government could respond to the OICs being repealed?

I know most say they’d ram through bans via a bill, but I’d imagine that this could take much longer depending on the stipulations from the SCC

[u/FunkyFrunkle → u/Dill_Pickle_Tears]

Nobody here would have that kind of knowledge, except for maybe [u/Calibremag](u/Calibremag), who has put in an extraordinary amount of work on behalf of this community and has a more detailed knowledge of how the government works beyond that of the layman, due to his years of working in the industry and regularly interfaces with them.

However, I do like to maintain a degree of optimism. In my opinion, they could have passed legislation long before now, but haven’t. The liberals were only ever a handful of seats away from a majority before they got it, and it wouldn’t have been much trouble to scrape together a handful of votes to pass gun control legislation. It didn’t really move the needle a considerable amount for us I think.

My own speculation is based on what I’ve seen, not so much on what they say. I’m going to list out a few things I’ve noticed, and you can judge for yourself if where I’m going makes sense.

These are in no particular order.

Firstly, Although Carney mentioned that they would “reinvigorate” the buyback, he has pretty much sidestepped it ever since, even outright skimming past it when asked about what they plan to do about violent crime. Instead talking about border security and bail reform. When asked about the SKS, he again passed the buck onto the RCMP and remained non-committal about it. To me, this looks like he’s trying to establish distance between himself and the program. He hasn’t shown much enthusiasm for this program unlike Trudeau, who mentioned it as a core strategy every chance he got.

Does this mean he’s gearing up to abandon it? I would give it a soft no. This seems more like he’s preparing for this program to fall to pieces, but you never know.

Second, the program itself still faces massive provincial opposition as well as opposition from a litany of police forces. It’s only a handful of jurisdictions scattered across the country that have collection points up and running. Logistics and financials are still huge issues, and legislation wouldn’t do anything to fix this. All legislation would do is cement the headache.

Third, the government largely has no idea who has what when it comes to non-restricted guns which goes a considerable distance in making this unenforceable in any practical way. In addition, our justice and corrections systems are not equipped or designed to handle a massive, potential influx of cases which is why I think some of the provinces got involved with the SCC case. Their Attorney Generals are likely very aware of the ramifications this policy could have on their provincial courts and likely don’t want it to happen.

Fourth, every time MP Provost appeared on camera to speak for the program since she became MP, she seems barely composed. I would go as far to say she looks stressed out. Frantic. Her body language proves this with the self-soothing gestures.

I would have to imagine that an MP who is not only a Secretary of State, but the most prominent figure of Canadian gun control would almost certainly be involved or at the very least have more intimate knowledge of the minutiae of this policy behind all the closed doors. From what I’ve seen, she does not come across as having all the confidence in the world that this program is going to cross the finish line and this was apparent enough when she was practically pleading with gun owners to rat out their friends and family.

Five. The whole thing is headed to the Supreme Court which despite the cynicism of the doomers here, this whole thing stands a very real chance of falling apart for the government. Carney mentioned that they were going to “wait” and see what the court decision is so they can “see what we can do within the confines of the law”, or something to that effect.

Six, Public Safety was one of the hardest hit ministries with cuts. A bunch of people got laid off, and the biggest driver for recent hiring within public safety is the gun ban. Do with this information as you will.

Finally, the seventh point. Our current economic climate is not conducive to spending untold fortunes of taxpayer money on a gun ban. At some point someone is going to have to recognize this and I think they already have. As mentioned in point 5, they laid off a bunch of people within public safety.

So all in all, I think the government would likely back away from this for a bit, but I would expect them to try again in a more subtle approach once things have cooled off. The problem with this program is not enough time was spent actually researching the feasibility of banning this many guns. Instead they went all in on the glamour and glitz of announcing bans while doing the heavy lifting on the fly.

[u/son_of_ghandicap → u/FunkyFrunkle]

Damn you for giving me hope, Brother. Damn you! lol

[u/FunkyFrunkle → u/son_of_ghandicap]

Hope isn’t a bad thing, it’s managing expectations that’s hard. Things aren’t always going to turn out 100% right for us, and things aren’t always going to turn out 100% right for them either.

What keeps me going is the sheer difficulty and opposition this program faces. It’s been in the oven for six years, seven by the time the SCC renders its decision.

This isn’t a program that’s going well, this isn’t a program that has a positive consensus around the country.