A director in the executive of a Kamloops firearms club said he is devastated by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s announcement that all assault-style weapons will be outlawed immediately.
The ban, covering 1,500 types of what the federal Liberal government calls “military-style” weapons, comes less than two weeks after the deadliest mass slaying in Canada’s history, in which a gunman in rural Nova Scotia armed with illegal weapons killed 22 people before he was shot to death by police.
“I feel like my sport has been taken away from me,” Geoff House, a director with the Kamloops Target Sports Association, told KTW.
“As a law-abiding citizen who’s maintained a clean record and always followed the rules, what did I do to have my passion outlawed?”
For the next two years, Trudeau’s cabinet order doesn’t forbid people from owning any of the assault-style weapons, but it does bar them from being used and halts the trade in them. After two years, the guns must be turned over to the government in a buyback program currently estimated at $250 million.
“Today, we are closing the market for military-grade assault weapons in Canada,” Trudeau said on Friday, citing mass shootings, including last month’s mass murder in Nova Scotia and the 1989 Ecole Polytechnique slaying in Quebec.
That explanation doesn’t fly for House, who noted the Nova Scotia gunman had previously been barred from possessing guns.
“The firearms he used were obtained illegally through the U.S.,” House said.
“What they’re doing to change the rules today would not have changed what that individual did. He was prohibited from owning those weapons. They were illegal. If this individual had used a baseball bat or a hockey stick, would we be banning those items now? Or would it just be a national tragedy, which it is? We’re the low-hanging fruit. As someone who follows all the rules, I’m very disappointed in this.”
Stricter controls on firearms were promised in the Liberals’ election campaign platform last fall and Trudeau promised action last week following the Nova Scotia slayings.
Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said guns that have no use in sport shooting have been a growing part of the Canadian firearms market. The former chief of police in Toronto said he has heard concerns about the militarization of police and said that is a direct response to the militarization of society.
House said there is little evidence to suggest licensed, legal high-powered firearms are used often by criminals. He said guns used in crime are often illegal or stolen.
House believes he has spent about $50,000 on his firearms hobby since becoming involved with the KTSA in 2008. He competes in multi-gun events and is one of about a dozen people who meet locally each Wednesday to practise with weapons that are now outlawed.
Mark Anderson, owner of Powderkeg Shooters Supply Inc. in North Kamloops, said he expects to see the impact of Friday’s announcement on his bottom line.
“I’m like everyone,” he said. “I’m impacted as a person and impacted as a business. There will be a lot of firearms that I won’t be able to sell.”
KTSA president Brent Weaver said he thinks the ban is a misstep.
“It’s not going to solve the problem,” he told KTW.
“I’m not sure what will, but banning a firearm is not going to solve the problem because there’s still all kinds of firearms out there.”
House said an increased focus on the illegal gun trade — both domestically and between Canada and the U.S. — would have been a better path forward if the goal is to prevent mass shootings and gun violence.
“The multi-gun sport had been growing in the last five or six years,” he said. “This is very disappointing.”
— with files from Canadian Press
