A Conservative MP has promised that his party will repeal the restrictive firearms laws recently brought in by the Liberals if it forms government.
Bob Zimmer, the member of parliament for Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, and Conservative leader Andrew Scheer, have pledged to repeal C-71 shortly after they take power. Scheer has also rejected implementing a handgun ban.
Zimmer recently wrote to his local newspaper to explain what is wrong with Liberal gun control bill C-71 and why a Conservative government would repeal it.
Pointing out how most gun crimes in Canada are related to gang violence, Zimmer criticizes C-71 for not addressing gang activities. The word “gang” does not even appear in the bill.
Bill C-71 imposes heavy restrictions on the transportation of firearms and creates a registry to track the movements and sales of firearms.
Zimmer also blasted C-71 for essentially reviving the much-maligned long-gun registry through a backdoor requirement that gun stores log all firearm sales, even with non-restricted guns.
“The last time a Liberal government introduced a long-gun registry they said it would cost $2 million and it ended up costing $2 billion. I firmly believe this time will be no different,” he said.
In 1995, when the Liberal government created the long-gun registry, they estimated the total cost to be $2 million.
By 2006, the real cost had been $1 billion. By the time the long-gun registry was scrapped in 2012, the final cost was around $2 billion–one thousand times the projected cost.
Zimmer says the C-71 requirement for gun owners to file authorization to transport (ATT) requests for things as simple as taking a firearm to a gunsmith creates meaningless regulations for gun owners.
“This will only create unnecessary red tape that will punish lawful firearms owners. No criminal has ever applied for an ATT before carrying out a crime,” he said.
Zimmer reiterated his party’s position to not restrict legal gun owners and to focus on fighting the real sources of gun violence in Canada.
“Rest assured, a Conservative government will repeal C-71. Not only that but we will focus on measures that actually reduce crime like giving law enforcement the tools they need to keep Canadians safe, cracking down on illegal firearm smuggling, and getting tough on gangs,” he said.
“We will do all this while also respecting the rights of our country’s law-abiding firearms owners.”
