WEYBURN - The federal Liberals are infamous to most of Canada (that is, to Canadians outside of Ontario and Quebec) for their over-reaction and over-reach in their policies and programs, and in their taxation.
The carbon taxes levied unfairly on western provinces has been a deep thorn in the side on the Prairies, but now the Trudeau administration is taking aim at those who own firearms, even law-abiding gun owners who like to hunt or do sport shooting.
This all comes out of city-based fears of anyone owning or having a gun, since gun violence has mostly been seen in the bigger urban centres.
There have, of course, been incidents of gun violence in smaller centres, but these are perpetrated by criminals and those of a violent nature, not by law-abiding citizens who properly and responsibly use and store their firearms.
The first step of over-reach is to ban all handguns in Canada, making criminals out of legal gun owners, including those who do target shooting in competitive settings.
This has caused one group, the Canadian Shooting Sports Association (CSSA), to launch a multi-pronged lawsuit against the federal government for its handgun confiscation scheme euphemistically labeled a “handgun freeze.”
Their main beef, among others, is that thousands of legally-acquired handguns can be confiscated without any compensation by federal authorities.
In a direct response to protect law-abiding gun owners in this province, Saskatchewan has moved to introduce legislation that insists on proper compensation for any firearms that are confiscated by federal authorities.
Now, in a latter move that has further enraged lawful hunters and sport shooters, an amendment has been introduced by the Liberals to ban all semi-automatic rifles and shotguns capable of accepting an external magazine.
The definition of “Prohibited Firearm” will be legislatively expanded to include any firearm “capable of discharging a projectile with a muzzle energy exceeding 10,000 Joules”, “a firearm with a bore diameter of 20 mm or greater” as well as all semi-automatic long guns with detachable magazines.
Part of Saskatchewan’s legislation is to ensure people who do confiscate firearms are licensed to do so.
As the minister, Christine Tell, commented, legal firearms owners are not the ones committing crimes and violence with guns, but are in gangs or other criminal organizations.
Punishing legal gun owners has no effect on criminals, because criminals will steal or smuggle in firearms to commit their crimes, as they always have.
Law enforcement efforts needs to continue targeting these elements as they have been doing, as criminals cause crimes and death by use of guns.
