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Hunting rifles are seen on display in a glass case at a gun and rifle store in downtown Vancouver.
OTTAWA — The organization tasked with helping retailers navigate the Trudeau Liberals' mandatory gun "buyback" says the
government has bitten off far more than it can chew and is now discovering the difficulty with the sheer volume of items it may have to expropriate.
Wes Winkel, president of the Canadian Sporting Arms and Ammunition Association (CSAAA), said the government apparently didn't anticipate that its ban on "assault-style" firearms involved a massive number of parts and accessories that could be captured by the buyback's planned expropriation, which will require gun owners and retailers holding inventory of those items to be compensated.
That's because "assault-style" guns are often built by retailers, and owners, using any number of hundreds of different components.
"It's so easy to say 'this is illegal and we'll buy it back,' but they took a category of firearms which is so modular in nature," Winkel said. Different parts can be fastened to different weapons that then fall into the assault-style category, in other words. "It's a bit like the 'Mr. Potato Head' of guns," he said.
"So many of these things are in different facets of being built at the (retailer) level; most were not sold complete. They're sold in component form — some of the components themselves are prohibited, some are not. Some of them only fit (prohibited) categories of firearms, some of them fit other categories," Winkel said.
The amnesty on banned guns is set to expire at the end of October 2025, presuming a buyback regime is in place by then to provide owners and retailers compensation for their seized weapons. But Winkel expects the process is turning out to be much more complicated and much more expensive than the federal government anticipated.
OTTAWA — The organization tasked with helping retailers navigate the Trudeau Liberals' mandatory gun "buyback" says the
government has bitten off far more than it can chew and is now discovering the difficulty with the sheer volume of items it may have to expropriate.
Wes Winkel, president of the Canadian Sporting Arms and Ammunition Association (CSAAA), said the government apparently didn't anticipate that its ban on "assault-style" firearms involved a massive number of parts and accessories that could be captured by the buyback's planned expropriation, which will require gun owners and retailers holding inventory of those items to be compensated.
That's because "assault-style" guns are often built by retailers, and owners, using any number of hundreds of different components.
"It's so easy to say 'this is illegal and we'll buy it back,' but they took a category of firearms which is so modular in nature," Winkel said. Different parts can be fastened to different weapons that then fall into the assault-style category, in other words. "It's a bit like the 'Mr. Potato Head' of guns," he said.
"So many of these things are in different facets of being built at the (retailer) level; most were not sold complete. They're sold in component form — some of the components themselves are prohibited, some are not. Some of them only fit (prohibited) categories of firearms, some of them fit other categories," Winkel said.
The amnesty on banned guns is set to expire at the end of October 2025, presuming a buyback regime is in place by then to provide owners and retailers compensation for their seized weapons. But Winkel expects the process is turning out to be much more complicated and much more expensive than the federal government anticipated.
'The costs have ballooned': Liberal government failed to anticipate difficulty of gun 'buyback,' association says
"The way the regulation was drafted ... it'll cause issues for the buyback down the road," the president of one gun association says.
nationalpost.com
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